Machine senses our surprise, surprise, and maybe even an unrecognized sense of shame, but he answers all our upcoming questions ahead of time: "What? Did you expect me to look like a monster? Are you surprised I 'm just a regular guy?" He told Nicolas Cage and us, the audience, that he grew up in a normal family, he was neither abused by his mother nor raped by his father, the reason why he wanted to kill like that perverted, It's just because he likes to kill, and the reason he's wearing that anonymous, cold machine mask is just because other psycho killers are like that.
If the movie gives such an explanation for the case of the torture and murder of a girl, then in theory it will make a little contribution, that is, it shows that there are indeed some people who are born to like to kill, and their nature is evil, rather than acquired education, which can be cultivated by family probation. or corrected. is it really like this?
Further exploration of this issue requires us to pay attention to another thread in the film: the family. First look at Nicolas Cage's family, he, his wife and daughter. In this family triangle, Nicolas Cage is a husband who will not reveal more professional information to his wife, a husband who can tell lies, but at the same time he is a man who loves his wife and daughter and always cares about their safety. Husband is a good father. In general, the flaws do not hide the flaws. In the end, the director and screenwriter also gave Cage's family a perfect ending: even after some setbacks, it ended in a happy ending. No legal sanctions were received.
Let's look at the family of Mary Ann, a girl who was tortured and murdered. Her family is an "abnormal" family consisting of her mother and stepfather. Her torture and murder was due to her running away from home at first. On the one hand, she has a dream in her heart, but she is unkind, on the other hand, her stepfather beats her mother, and she helps her mother fight back against her stepfather. After the tragedy, her stepfather also left her mother.
Before talking about Machine's family, don't forget the family of the old lady who commissioned her, which was the beginning of the revelation of all evil and the driving force behind the whole story. What the old lady did was to reveal her husband's sins, that is, what kind of person was her husband under the glamorous appearance of a celebrity? Is that kind of girl torture and murder related to her husband again? But what about the other side of the "family"? There is no mention of the old lady's children in the movie, but there is a lawyer who is actually arranged by the director to play the role of "son", this "son" helps his "father" to have fun and find various All kinds of perverted things to please his "father", and at the same time, whether in his "father" life or after his death, he did everything possible to prohibit "mother" from knowing the crime of "father". The end of this "abnormal" family is also tragic, the "son" was killed, and the mother committed suicide to cover up the true face of the father.
Finally, let’s talk about Machine’s family. In the video, we only see him and his mother. His mother is a devout believer. He even gave him the opportunity to go to the church to repent, saying that only religion can heal his wounds (not only It was only a stab wound on his stomach, possibly a mental one), but when his mother left home in a minibus (going to church?), Machine's family atmosphere changed, and his cabin was full of After taking all kinds of drugs, there was a perverted music in the air, and the most real murderer of the girl came back. Here, or read as, when the mother is absent, when the prohibition of the Superego is no longer in play, the idea of the true self is no longer in control. What about the father of the family? We only know that Machine shares a medical card with his mother, and the image only states that he has one and only one relative, his mother, that is, what this family presents to us is still an "incomplete" or "abnormal" "Family, think about the previous example, what does an "abnormal" family mean? It means that someone must die, and tragedies must occur, and these tragedies must be related to "one's own family". Only the happy ending comes from a complete family.
From one clue, Machine denies the influence of this family, and emphasizes his natural hobby to kill. From another clue, tragedy and the murderer are always related to "incomplete" family relationships. So how should we choose, identify, and seek truth? What exactly caused Machine to kill?
If my interpretation is correct, or at least reasonable, I prefer to regard the answer to this question as an open text, a text that is inherently controversial, that is, the director may have wanted to write from the very beginning. A somewhat contradictory and controversial text, although no one can deny Machine's confession that he does like to kill, can this "self-affirmation" fully explain his own behavior? Digging out another clue related to the family may be able to show that this self-assured "self-affirmation" may still be influenced by the "family", and
real life should be like this. We may have been pursuing a kind of A life of perfect autonomy, but we may not be able to leave others for the rest of our lives.
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