In the past two days, I watched the movie "Great Expectations" based on Dickens' novel of the same name. I checked the Internet and found that nine of the famous novels have been adapted into movies, and there are even Indian and Australian ones. There are also a few TV shows. I found six films here, one of which is still in English and cannot be watched. So it took two days to read Dickens's original work again, and then read the remaining five books in turn.
After watching various versions of the film, in addition to the feelings I wrote before, in this 2012 version, I paid more attention to a topic that people often talk about these days: gratitude.
In the film, Pip acquires an unexpected fortune, thus escaping his hated blacksmithing profession and moving to London. Entering high society changed his whole life. He never knew who had donated the property, thinking it was from Miss Havisham, whom he had served. Miss Havisham also hinted and confirmed his opinion inside and out. But in fact, it was the prisoner McVitz he had rescued who gave Pip the property. In Pip's view, he entered Miss Havisham's manor since he was a child, accompanied Miss Havisham and helped her relieve her loneliness, and it was only natural to get the reward. In Pip's view, good deeds are reserved for the rich, while the poor are not entitled to do good deeds. After Pip became rich overnight, he was very secretive about his previous experiences and was ashamed to talk about it. He was also full of contempt for his brother-in-law Joe, who came to visit him in London. Even after knowing that it was the property that McVitz gave him, he was still eager to get rid of him as soon as possible. It wasn't until he understood the cause and effect of the whole thing, saw the despicable behavior of Miss Havisham, felt the deep love of McVeez for him, and realized that when he was desperate, it was Joe who paid the debt for him. The conscience at the bottom of my heart realized that what he should be most grateful for is precisely the people at the bottom that he once looked down on the most.
Miss Havisham was a typical figure in British high society at that time. She never believed in love between people, only advocating the "law of the jungle". Even without that failed relationship, her life is nothing but a lady wandering in Vanity Fair, or a player in a game, or a plaything in a game. It was never goodness that accompanied her, only money and rank. Apparently calculating Pip, but waiting for Pip to thank him.
McVeez was originally a poor man who kept himself safe, and was made a villain by society. In order to survive, he has done a lot of bad things. Although he has suffered through vicissitudes and humiliation, he knows that "the grace of dripping water should be repaid by a spring." Young Pip just gave him a file and a piece of pie, but he took it to heart and gave him everything in his life in return. Although the purpose of this kind of gratitude is to make Pip a superior man, although we have doubts about the consequences of this kind of "gratitude", it was regarded as the ultimate goal of life in the society at that time. McVitz just did it silently, not expecting anything in return from Pip.
Of course, repayment of gratitude is the moral law of society. But this kind of gratitude is not a law or an obligation, but should be an act from the heart. There are all kinds of people in the society, some people know how to be grateful and know how to be kind, and use their actions to make the world full of love. There are also some people who feel that the whole society exists for themselves, and never feel where the "en" comes from. Therefore, gratitude is only a kind of self-consciousness in one's own soul, and it can never be forced. But nowadays, gratitude has become an obligation, a standard to measure people's moral status, so people try to prove their moral level to the society. What's more, to ask people to be grateful. The act of gratitude has also become more and more stylized, more and more full of commercial bargaining, more vulgar, and more hypocritical. If so, the world is in trouble.
The 2012 edition of "Great Expectations" is quite satisfactory. The director did not arbitrarily create this masterpiece, nor did it make any major omissions. Just tell the story slowly, and let the audience judge whether it tells the essence of the story. The film has added plots that were deleted from other versions, such as Pip and Beatty's hidden or apparent romance, Pip's hired servants, and so on. I don't think this is necessary.
My rating: 6.0.
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