watching "The Mist" in the rain in November , I was pondering for a long time.
I always think that good works will cause people to think, because it reflects reality everywhere and contains humanity everywhere. The monster in "The Mist" is just a metaphor. Once the state apparatus loses control, will it become the monster "Leviathan" that devours the people? So the disaster is actually very close to us, so the question becomes very real: if faced with such a catastrophe, how would you choose?
In fact, it is very painful to consider this question. No matter which role I place myself in, the internal torture and the persecution of the truth will make me restless. The corners of reality are often unbearable, and the argument that "human nature is good" sometimes seems too weak. You can say that this is my intellectual wild conjecture in peacetime, but the development of human civilization is actually a history of blood and tears. How many people know the unknown price during this period?
No matter from which point of view, this is a different kind of work.
First of all, this is the third work of the combination of "Stephen King + Frank Darabont", but it is different from the tone of singing the praises of humanity in "Shawshank's Redemption" and "The Green Mile," while "The Mist" is explicit The admiration of the dark side of human nature makes people afraid to look directly at it.
From the perspective of the category of horror and disaster-type movies that express personal heroism, "The Mist" is the opposite. The weird atmosphere that permeates from beginning to end makes us naturally believe in and rely on the male protagonist, but with He fell into despair step by step until he collapsed. Without the thrilling pleasure of the revenge climax of "Witch Carrie" and "Silent Hill", although blood for blood and tooth for tooth runs counter to modern civilization, it at least satisfies our inner instinct. There is no typical ending in "The Shining" in which the wicked finally die and the good finally escapes.
There is no exit in "The Mist", and there is no way to escape.
I think the director is not deliberately countering the mainstream. Although every surprise is contrary to the common perception of most people, there is no trace of axe. "The Mist" is actually exploring a possibility, because this possibility is based on the deep human nature, so it appears indisputable to the truth and it makes us as human beings unable to let go.
The story takes place in an ordinary town. What is unusual is the mysterious station of the military on an island not far from the town. Like the fog that shrouded it at the beginning of the film, there is an unpredictable crisis lurking.
After the typhoon, David took his son to the supermarket to purchase. The supermarket was crowded with residents of the town who also came to purchase. Also here is his neighbor, a black lawyer. It can be seen that this lawyer is not going well in the town, which can be seen from his rather hostile eyes, but David’s series of well-intentioned actions seem to ease their tense relationship, and he even opened up for David. Thanks for driving him.
So there is this conversation between your son and David:
"Are you and Mr. Norton friends now?"
"It might be a bit exaggerated to say friends"
"I think you don't hate each other anymore."
"It should be . , This is a good beginning. "
Unfortunately, this is just a well-intentioned conjecture by David and us. The sign of this improvement became the final harmony between them. Facing the ensuing disaster, all friendship seemed so fragile.
Calm was slashed by the scream, and an old man with blood on his face ran from a distance. In his panicked and terrifying description, the alarm sounded, the fog hit, and the world instantly became two distinct pieces. In this small space, the unknown fear shrouded everyone's heart. What is hidden in the fog? At this time, a lady who believed in God said with a playful expression: It's the god of death.
Since then, people's isolation and helplessness have basically been established. According to the laws of gathering things by kind and dividing people into groups, the different directions of people in the face of disasters have gradually made the division of gangs clear. The leaders of each gang have all appeared on the scene (for the sake of understanding, I divided them into three categories. , And try to use the most representative words to summarize, for reference only):
theism, atheism and deism.
The theists are clearly led by that lady. It can be seen that there is only religion in her world, so she has nowhere to escape in the face of disaster, but can only escape into the "Bible". For this reason, she abandoned humanity, so in the eyes of most viewers, although she must call God, she is more like the devil. I believe it was difficult for her to overcome the fear in her heart at first, but after facing the bug, her eyes changed. In "Joan of Arc", Joan finally realized that what you see is not the truth, what you see is only what you want to see. Although this was an accidental event, it seemed to her to be a test of God, and it was already destined. This lady finally established herself as a servant of God psychologically. She led those extremely helpless people into the most primitive spiritual forbidden zone.
The leader of the atheism is a black lawyer. He has a strong desire to lead the crowd, which can be seen from the very beginning that he kept admonishing everyone present. But his professional habits may also contribute to his overly rational side, so when David and a few others were attacked by monsters, he still didn't believe it was true. Even after the store manager personally inspected the scene and came to an official conclusion, the lawyer still insisted on his position. At this time, it was not just professional rational thinking that controlled him. The discrimination he suffered as a black, the humiliation he received when he first came, and the non-existent all turned into anger that occupies in his heart, making him self-sufficient. At this moment, proving that his position is correct has become above all else, and he has no time to consider the others.
The so-called deismists mean that they do not deny the existence of supernatural things, but they also do not believe in God. They have awe of the unknown in their hearts, and they also want to save themselves and help others through their own efforts. Among this group of people, David is the only one who can act as the leader of this faction. He is brave, righteous, compassionate, foresight and deep understanding of human nature. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that Ollie, a clerk in the supermarket, has followed him from beginning to end. Although there are differences in appearance, they are actually the same kind of people. They actively organized defense and self-rescue, repeatedly kept the black lawyers before they went out, and took the risk to get medicine in order to save the wounded. Even though the casualties were so heavy that they doubted their own decision, he still pursued it with everyone's encouragement. The burden of last hope.
A group of black lawyers eventually lost their lives because of their choice. As a result, the game between the three factions turned into two parties, and as the insects invaded and the medicine plan failed, more and more people turned to the devil's side. The air began to permeate the smell of judgment in the last days as she described, and her followers gradually entered a certain paranoid state of faith.
It must be mentioned that among all the people in the supermarket, three people are independent of the gangs. They are soldiers stationed on the mysterious island. Under repeated questioning by David and the others, one of them told the truth: when the military was experimenting on the island, it accidentally created a parallel world (that is, the concept of parallel universe, parallel to the human world). A big hole in a world), so along with the thick fog, the creatures over there burst out of the nest. Regret and guilt, fear and pain, the embarrassment they are facing at this moment may be stronger than everyone's combined, so that two of them can't bear it and hang themselves. But in any case, the disaster has already occurred, and the result is irreversible.
However, public anger was finally magnified to the point of uncontrollable under the exaggeration of religious fanaticism.
This is a horror film. In order to increase people's fear, the shuddering insects in the nightmare became larger and later came to reality. So people saw all kinds of ugly monsters, and saw all kinds of tragic ways to die.
However, I want to say that this is just the most superficial horror that makes the scalp numb. The real horror stems from and belongs to human nature.
A theistic believer reported the secrets he had discovered about the military to Mrs. Devil, and the lady finally ignited the fragile nerve fuse connecting people's anger shamelessly and fearlessly. In the end, she opened Pandora's box with her own hands, allowing people to step into the original spiritual forbidden zone that mankind has tried to wrap up with civilization for thousands of years in a frenzy. Once opened, nothing can be undone. At that moment, people became animals again, and the one who dominated them was irrational and just crazy.
The poor soldier was stabbed twice by an oncoming man. Then, under the guidance of the witch, the crowd who was frantically embraced carried out the last place where the weak and small lives could be sheltered.
At that moment, I thought of a certain ancient ritual, using life to sacrifice to the gods and treating my compatriots as nothing! When the soldier cried and said "please", after he was suddenly torn away by the huge monster leaving the accusatory bloody handprint, "Monster, will stay away from us tonight..." as the witch prophesied. The words of this kind appeared on the face of the most devout believer, warning of a ghostly smile. This smile made me shudder.
Many people think this is an insinuation of politics and religion by the author and director. Indeed, similar situations in human history have always lurked in the shadows like a ghost, jumping out from time to time to mock human civilization.
Burned to death the followers of Bruno who were regarded as religious heretics, the German people who participated in the massacre of Jews after being bewitched by Hitler, and a little closer, the Red Guards who were crazy during the Cultural Revolution. People who have lost their rational control and are controlled by some extreme thinking are not so much blinded as they have returned to that bloodthirsty era. Politics and religion are only the cultural cloak of human beings, and their production is probably based on the greatest prediction of the evil side of human nature. So I think what Stephen King wants to cause people to think about is not politics and religion, but a human nature that is far deeper than them.
After this storm, the unexpected ending is obviously unacceptable. What exactly is the director going to do? The woman who first walked into the mist finally survived. Are her expressive eyes pity or sarcasm?
The fog cleared, but there was no exit.
I remembered a report from Southern Weekend during the Wenchuan earthquake. In Beichuan County, which lost contact with the outside world after the earthquake, the surviving people were organized by various units to gather together, and the school was responsible for self-rescue according to the class as a unit. The person in charge of one of the classes was the sports committee member. He stood up in a critical moment and did his best to deal with all aspects of the class, including finding food, building temporary shelters, calming the emotions of classmates, and arranging rescue personnel. But as time went by, resources became less and less, and without any contact with the outside world, he also began to become extremely anxious. One day because of a disagreement with another class leader over food distribution, the two fought. Seeing this situation, the teacher said to the classmates who were going to stop him: "Don't worry, let them fight, they need this now." The two people got up and renegotiated to solve the problem after they got up and finally reached an agreement. Unanimous.
This is a small detail, but it impressed me.
Recently, there is also news that Dong Yufei, a grassroots cadre who played an important role in Beichuan's earthquake relief, committed suicide after escaping the most dangerous moment in post-disaster reconstruction.
There is no necessary connection between these two events, but because of a disaster, they let us know.
Any disaster can happen to any one of us. In the face of such a catastrophe, human beings are small and pitiful. The desire to survive will give birth to our courage, and the state of fear will also kill my hope. So at this time, what we need is a hero to come forward and lead everyone closer to the hope of survival with limited abilities. They have such qualities, and their hearts will continue to gush out amazing energy. However, heroes are just a title, they are also human beings, and being human is not perfect. Therefore, the children need to fight to vent, so Dong Yufei will give up his life because he can't bear it. Therefore, David will completely collapse at the last moment and scream up to the sky.
We can't estimate how much they bear in their hearts. The final misery also made us unbearable. However, these are not denied. At any moment, we all need heroes.
I often put myself in such disasters. I often ask myself if I have the ability to stand up and be the hero we all need in that situation.
I dare not say that I have such an ability to lead everyone to face the unknown fear.
But I will be Ollie, a small employee, and I will do my best to help David, even if he is swallowed by the monster after leaving the shop, I will not hesitate.
2008-10-31
My blog: http://www.mtime.com/my/mxl117/blog/1517865/
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