Unless we have something to do, we must have encountered such a person, they are as always about what they believe, and will never waver, just like Sister Aloysius, just relying on their intuition, and some clues that can't be said to be conclusive evidence. He insisted that Father Flynn had committed child molestation, and vowed to get rid of it quickly. During her moral trial, one person served as the plaintiff, lawyer, jury, judge, and executioner. Relying on her belief in justice, she did not hesitate to lie to send Father Flynn away. However, as an ordinary person, she is not a character like the incarnation of justice like a knight or superman. Unlike James, she was a widow who became a nun after losing her husband. She is extremely harsh, and the children are afraid of her. She doesn't even allow students to write with original ball pens, because this has caused people to stop paying attention to calligraphy. She was as strict and cruel as the incarnation of the fundamentalism. She lived a self-disciplined life like a Puritan. The dinner table was as quiet as a morgue. The students saw her like the Jews saw the Nazis.
Let's talk about Father Flynn, he is an anti-traditional and enlightened priest. He likes to engage in activities that are close to the people, to bring secular warmth to the people of the parish, and to give toys to students. He even suggested replacing carols with pop songs in Christmas gatherings to declare that religious beliefs are not hostile to popular culture. Of course, he also used the original ball pen to write. It is not difficult to imagine that he could not write the beautiful calligraphy that Sister Aloysius loved. Therefore, except for Sister Aloysius, almost everyone in the film likes him, especially the black child Miller.
However, the screenwriter does not want the audience to make simple moral judgments. The fact that Sister Aloysius accused Father Flynn in the film is not obvious. In reality, yes and no are not as simple as the math problem. The racially biased white policeman in "Crash" finally gave up his life to save the black woman, while the companion who spit on him accidentally killed the black youth by mistake. . There are countless examples in reality. For example, Liu Hanhuang, who seeks compensation for work-related injuries, became a murderer, and a savage Taiwanese businessman became a victim. and many more. In the whole story, the screenwriter did not reveal whether the priest had committed child molestation. Just like the title, everything is a doubt.
Regardless of whether Miller himself is willing or not, secular laws and Christian doctrines do not allow child molestation. In response to the unfounded accusations made by Sister Aloysius, Flynn initially had an absolute advantage. But slowly, with the nun's persistent behavior, he became anxious and couldn't justify himself. He became emphasizing that what he did was good for little Miller and only good for everyone. But he also admitted that there are some things that cannot be confessed, which are beyond the scope of Sister Aloysius's ability to understand. But the screenwriter did not explain what this can't be said. According to normal inferences, it is possible that Father Flynn is also gay and has an abnormal relationship with Miller.
But there is no evidence for all this, everything is under ambiguity. Even the lie that Sister Aloysius lied to drive Flynn away can only prove that the priest left the previous parish because of a mistake. It cannot even prove that the priest’s fault was related to child sex or homosexuality. Moreover, Father Flynn also repented of his previous mistakes in front of Sister Aloysius, but was not tolerated.
We think in the best direction, and it might be like this: 12-year-old Miller was born gay. For this reason, he was bullied in a public school and often beaten by his father. Then, he was the only black child after he transferred to the parish school. At that time, it was 1966. The double discrimination of skin color and sexual orientation could kill him. Know that Jack in Brokeback Mountain was discriminated against homosexuals in 1981. Killed, so when the enlightened Father Flynn accepted and protected Miller, he won the gratitude of Mrs. Miller and the respect of little Miller. Finally, in order to keep the secret that Miller is a homosexual, Father Flynn could not defend himself in the face of the accusation of Sister Aloysius and had to leave the parish. Under this assumption, all characters exercise their justice out of goodness: Sister Aloysius represents serious justice and care; Father Flynn represents compassion, tolerance and sacrifice.
But the screenwriter did not make a final conclusion on any assumption. The film never denies the possibility that Sister Aloysius’s inference is correct, that is, Father Flynn does have a homosexual tendency that violates the doctrine and violates the law of child sex. In that case, Sister Aloysius becomes a superman, acting as an agent of justice arbitration when the judicial power is insufficient; while Father Flynn is not qualified to be a priest even though he can receive worldly sympathy. (The Catholic Church does not recognize homosexuality), and at the same time committed child molestation.
After providing the audience with such a two-way possibility, the script has tortured the good and evil, right and wrong of human nature from multiple angles. But the ingenuity of the script is more than that. The screenwriter sets up a self-confident dilemma for Sister Aloysius. On the surface, the priest symbolizes enlightened, transformative, and even a character who has a tendency to betray traditional dogma, and his behavior is also informal and non-conventional. Sister Aloysius attacked him just to defend the solemnity of the fundamentals. The image of Sister Aloysius is the opposite of that of the priest. She is a dogmatic, rigid, and meticulous person. However, when the story progressed to the point that she could not get the support of Mrs. Miller and collect no evidence to accuse Father Flynn, she chose to lie to achieve her goal. This kind of lies can be spread in secular accusations. For example, Zhou Xingchi in "Nine Pins of Sesame Officials" in order to deceive Changwei into confessing the facts of the crime, he took his own son to confess his relatives with blood, but deceived him that this was Zhang Min's child. Justice was served. But Sister Aloysius is not Bao Longxing. She is a priest who enshrines herself to the Lord. If she lied to force the priest away, then even if her motives were good, her behavior would be no different from the priest—even if she could It proved that Flynn was gay and was not qualified to serve the Lord, but she herself used lie, and she was also not qualified to serve the Lord again. What's more, the priest's behavior, regardless of the process, turned out to be good. He not only protected little Miller from being bullied by other students, but also made Miller happier and believe in the Lord. As he said in an ambiguous confession when faced with the questioning of Sister James: All this I do is out of love, which is what Heavenly Father calls "mortal love".
In this case, both Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn are only practicing their kindness and justice in their own way. What is right and wrong? Perhaps as the innocent and innocent Sister James marveled: It's upside down.
I have to mention that since the script is adapted from a famous drama, the narrative is quite concise, without any procrastination or spreading. Contrary to the plot of the story, each set of shots in the film has a clear role and is never ambiguous. The screenwriter left a lot of doubts for both sides of the doubt, and they were tit-for-tat. The portrayal of the characters also deliberately creates contrast. For example, in the film, the priest and his colleagues are talking vulgar but innocent jokes while eating. When the camera turns, the nun’s meal is as quiet as a spirit guard. The young Sister James just spit out some food she didn’t like, and immediately forced her to force her. Sister Aloysius glared at him and put it back in his mouth. For another example, the priest always cares and cares for the child, and the nun always punishes and punishes the child. Regarding the alleged prostitutes, the nun saw from a distance the scene of the priest pulling London's hand withdrawn from a distance, but it also explained the priest's habit of checking whether the children's hands and nails are clean. In this regard, the protagonist can accuse that the priest does have a tendency to punish children. He had hooked up with London before the young Miller and was rejected; the opponent could defend that the priest was just checking whether the child had washed his hands and was pushed away by the naughty and stubborn young London. . Without exception, the screenwriter is incomprehensible about the possibilities. The film is very laborious in the details and use of the lens. Even a seemingly ordinary lens has hints and foreshadowings, but the facts are always swaying between the two aspects of "evidence", and the truth is always unknown. In terms of character psychology, the audience will feel that Father Flynn's heart has gone through vicissitudes of life when watching the first trip. However, after the film is over, especially in the last scene when Sister Aloysius falls into Sister James’ arms, weeping and confessing, and confessing that her accusations are not conclusive, you will find that in fact, her inner journey is similarly bumpy. For this film, the truth is not the point. The screenwriter does not want the audience to only care about "Did Father Flynn do anything like that" after watching the film. The film did not give enough evidence to support either side. The reality is often the same. People of different beliefs, different cultures, different values, and different motives are intertwined in a big society, so there is no single correct answer to many things that happen. In short, the world cannot be understood in a unified manner.
If we say that each other has a kind and upright heart, nuns love children, and priests love children, but because of the different ways of loving, fighting to death and life for the rigid moral dogma, isn't it a tragedy? If I were to answer the question in the title, what is above the truth? I would say that it is tolerance.
By the way, Father Flynn presided over three sermons in the film along with the development of the plot. On the surface, the priest's sermon has nothing to do with the main plot of the film. But in fact, the theme of the film has long been metaphorical in the sermon content. I didn’t know much about Catholic evangelism before. After watching this film, I felt that it was like the author of the New Testament, using fables to preach the doctrines—it’s just that the priests combined the current world conditions to make up the stories and tell them. Come out.
During the first sermon, the priest told a story. A ship lost its way in the wind and rain. On a clear night, the captain determined a correct course by observing the stars. Then, the next twenty days were cloudy, he could no longer see the stars, and the ship did not reach the land. Facing the doubts in his heart and the crew, he couldn't help but doubt the star. He even suspected that even the clear night was his imagination, just to give himself a direction to stick to it. However, apart from smashing to the end, he has no retreat at this time. The highly symbolic, metaphorical, and effect of the story in this sermon on the entire script is comparable to the famous fable "at the door of the law" in Kafka's novel The Trial. In the story, the dilemma encountered by the lost captain is actually the dilemma of Sister Aloysius. Similarly, in order to carry out the justice of Aloysius and the captain who was born to escape, the only narrow road in front of them is the only way to go without regrets. .
I believe that every creator of narrative art will encounter a story that shines in front of him. It not only cares about the situation of people, but does not ignore the complexity of reality. It does not provide answers or truth and other things, but prompts the viewer to think. . This film is the work that made my eyes shine.
It is worth mentioning that the performance of the actors in this film is close to perfection. Most of the time, you can safely put your emotions in their hands. The heroes and heroines of the film are all winners of previous Oscar gold medals, and it is really like a fish in water when they encounter such a script that allows them to play to their fullest. In the end, the film’s leading actor and two supporting actors were nominated for Oscars last year.
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