- Job 20:19
The world is handed over to the wicked, and the face of the judge of the world is blinded, if it were not who he was?
—Job 9:24
Can you catch a sea monster with a hook, or bind its tongue with a rope?
Can you put a rope through its nose? Can I hook it through its jawbone?
Does it plead with you and speak soft words?
Will you make a covenant with you that you will hold it as a slave forever?
—Job 41:1-4
The Leviathan tells the story of a small town near the Barents Sea. The corrupt mayor took a fancy to the property of the hero Kolya's family and wanted to take it for himself, so he instructed the local judicial system to force Kolya to move. Kolya refused to accept the verdict, filed an appeal, and brought in a lawyer friend, Dmitriy, from Moscow. But the court rejected Kolya's appeal. In the next episode, Kolya and Dmitriy again try to get justice for themselves through judicial channels, but the system has clearly been reduced to the mayor's tool. So Dmitriy adopted the second set of plans. He had some kind of criminal evidence of the mayor in his hands, hoping to blackmail the mayor, but he still failed, and he was taught a lesson. During this time, Dmitriy had an affair with Kolya's beautiful wife, Lilya, who was discovered by Kolya, and the grumpy Kolya directly beat the two of them. Dmitriy, who has experienced a double blow, has to return home. However, the suffering of the male protagonist Kolya is not over yet. Not only was he unable to keep his ancestral estate, but also the bizarre death of his wife Lilya made him guilty of killing his wife and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At the end of the film, Kolya's house is demolished, a magnificent church is erected on its original site, and the mayor's family listens to the bishop's sermon in the church.
"Leviathan" comes from the book of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible, and is a huge sea monster. Job was originally a devout believer, but after encountering many hardships, he began to question whether God is just, because he firmly believed that he was upright, and his wisdom was enough to prove that God was unfair to him. At this time, Jehovah appeared and pointed out Job’s ignorance and insignificance. Leviathan is just one example that Jehovah used to educate Job. In this film, Kolya, like Job, questioned the justice of God and even the existence of God after a series of bad luck. However, Kolya not only doesn't know how powerful Leviathan is, but even fights the giant monster naked. Therefore, his ending can only be worse than Job's. In the "Bible", Job was blessed by God after suffering, his family property was doubled, and his children and grandchildren were full. What about Kolya? Can he get his estate back? Will he live to be 140 years old? Can his wife be resurrected? The most ironic thing is that the mayor also asked the bishop for God's instructions several times during the process of pulling out the weeds of Kolya; after Kolya's home was destroyed, what was built on the original site was not the mayor's private house, but a church. ! In this contemporary book of Job by director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev, there is only the suffering of Job and the horror of Leviathan, but not the omnipotence of God.
The second meaning of "Leviathan" comes from the British thinker Hobbes's book of the same name, referring to the government with supreme power. Hobbes believed that, in accordance with the spirit of the contract, citizens hand over power to the government in order to obtain the protection of the government, but the power of the government should not be limited and should be as powerful and deterrent as the Leviathan. In this film, the mayor is Leviathan. He was supposed to protect the rights of citizens, but in fact he abused his power for personal gain, which maximized the negative side of Leviathan. The choice of Leviathan, a synonym for a powerful government, as the title shows Andrey Zvyagintsev's boldness and courage. The whole film is full of satire and criticism of the contemporary Russian power government. Needless to say, the female judge who read out the verdict at five times the speed, it is even more shocking to use the head of the Soviet leader as a gun target! But don't forget, the person preparing the target said that he also has the avatar of the current leader! However, the paradox is that the film was also funded by the Russian Ministry of Culture. I don’t know when this mystery will be solved... Due to the film’s criticism and satire of contemporary Russia (note, not the Soviet Union), Western public opinion, especially American public opinion The film received rave reviews. Many film critics have pointed out Kolya's representativeness, arguing that since Kolya is not a saint or a sage, the film shows that any ordinary Russian may suffer from Kolya's misfortune, thus reflecting the darkness of the entire Russian political system. Well, the United States does not have a Leviathan, so the United States welcomes "Leviathan" and prepares a statue for it. Do not believe? Just wait and see!
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