In fact, what the prison implies is just a disguised real world, so there are strong predators, transactions, and different ideas... All kinds of things are mixed together, and some sparks may collide. The story expresses the life of the prison through two aspects, one is the inspection system of the prison, and the other is the life requirements of the prison. Living requirements include work and rest, meeting, eating, etc. These two aspects are undoubtedly to show the hardship of prisoners and the cruelty of the system, which is one of the motives for prisoners to escape. The second motive is that they are all felons who will die sooner or later, so they want to escape and regain their freedom. Regarding felons, I want to explain here, felons imply people who are oppressed, and another implication is people whose thoughts and emotions have changed: like Gio to his mother. Everyone is full of hope for a new life, and it is equally predictable that they will definitely be a good person after a successful escape. On the contrary, those who are called good people by the warden are those who are emotionally fragile and can never wake up. They will only continue to become accomplices of the system, and then they will be forever reincarnated in the tragedy of the system. Just like the last line of the film: You are so pitiful.
In performance you will find that many places have implied the picture of Gaspoder's betrayal. It starts with a contrast between the attitude of another prisoner towards the warden and his attitude towards the warden, who feels vulnerable. There's also a scene in which the plumber stole something back, where Gaspodd reacts differently from the others, he's more of a succubus. Of course, this scenario also implies problems in the system. The film uses a lot of footage to dig holes for escape, during which it shows the spirit of resistance and the struggle between prison and prisoners. Likewise, the camaraderie of the escaped prisoners is shown here. From the very beginning, everyone did not trust Gaspoder, and it was manifested three times in total: when Gaspoder first came, he dug a hole and asked him to go, and suspected him of being a whistleblower. In the end, he turned out to be a whistleblower.
In this type of film, there are a lot of close-ups, and I am reminded of Bresson's "Last Escape", but the latter is more psychological and action-oriented, and the soundtrack is very good. "Hole" also uses a lot of close-up shots, mostly to express actions and human emotions. At the end of the film, the prison break was discovered, but we already know from the title that the four people escaped from the prison successfully, and Gaspoder has no ending, and may be in prison forever. So, he is so pathetic.
To explain the film as confrontation with the system is something I don't like very much. I prefer the film to show a kind of hope. What "The Hole" does is only part of it, it's not perfect, but the ending is somewhat unexpected, with surprising effects. Interpreted as resistance and freedom, the understanding of the film will be a little deeper.
View more about Le Trou reviews
