Just like the reserve army school established by Hitler in Germany in the film, he dug holes for the young teenagers, planted them, and applied fanatical ideas and unrealistic fantasies as fertilizer. Sent to the front lines when his thoughts are projected as a human-matter of reality.
The entry point of the film is indeed unconventional. As a country that initiated the war, the people who were forced to join the war are well-deserved victims of a certain meaning. When human beings are indoctrinated with certain concepts in batches, it is a minority who can maintain independent thinking and are willing to be an anomaly. The male protagonist Friedrich also almost threw himself into the painting of the devil, but fortunately he met Albrecht, who was an anomaly, like the child in the emperor's new clothes. In a group of hot-headed people, speak the truth soberly and loudly.
1. Seed each other
Friedrich and Albrecht. It is probably a blessing in misfortune to find each other in such a tense and dark school. An important friend in your teenage years can have a profound impact on both of you than you might expect. Friedrich was a pure and simple boy from the beginning. Because of his kindness, he couldn't give his opponent the last punch. In layman's terms, he was an honest boy. Under the manic atmosphere of national supremacy, being able to attend so-called "elite schools", be able to serve the country, practice boxing well and take a comfortable bath is for a child who earns living expenses by shoveling coal and washes the family's bath water after washing. It's a heavenly existence.
So he went and changed unconsciously. School is the place that can subtly shape a person's three views and abilities, whether good or bad. So our second male lead, Albrecht, came, on a mysterious night that no one knew about, and then passed away quietly, and the school didn't even want to publish an obituary. Just like the snow that appears in the film, it falls at night and melts during the day, so quiet as if it never existed. Only in the heart of the male protagonist who has witnessed everything from beginning to end, he is probably the cinnabar mole that cannot be erased. .
The influence of the two on each other was obvious, and Friedrich eventually went back to not being able to deliver the last punch because Albrecht had warned him that it would be too cruel. From the headmaster's mouth, he also learned that Albrecht's parents thought he had changed after they knew him. I think it's a good change, becoming lively and lively? Because there is no way to know his past, but Friedrich may be the first reader who can make him feel happy. And Albrecht was willing to be with him because he felt the rare truth and beauty in his upbringing. Everyone was flattering or keeping away because of his father. Only the clumsy Friedrich, who didn't understand anything, was attracted to him. I See it as a lingering spiritual love.
As for Friedrich, in his upbringing and later school, he must have never seen a person like Albrecht. He may not come from a high position (after all, everything in the family was originally confiscated and given to his father there), but spiritually Absolutely brilliant, Albrecht is like a colorful flower in a black and white world.
Do you sometimes feel that you have endless things to talk about with a certain person, that kind of resonance or speculation that you have never felt before? Everything wants to be known to this person and done with this person. When the other person makes a decision without consulting you and you think it endangers him, you have an angina-like powerlessness, frustration, and even rage. That's how Friedrich feels about Albrecht's brave act of himself. It is a powerful spiritual love that I may even be unaware of. Like at the end he's shoving and hugging Albrecht in the bathroom, subconsciously feeling like he's about to lose the man. And they are each other's only in that world.
2. Soul cleansing
There are two distinct snowfalls in the film, and there may be other places as well but I don't remember. The first is that they shot and killed the Soviet prisoner. Albrecht held the dying boy. The boy did not know whether he was speaking a eulogy or a foreign language of nostalgia for his parents in his hometown. The hands of two equally pale young people, from different backgrounds and countries, With different missions, but the same misfortune. Albrecht was the only one of the five who clearly recognized the mistake and spoke out aloud. Friedrich was inspired by him and went to see the captive. Just like the text that their instructor asked them to teach in class, snow is pure and unsullied in the consciousness of all countries, and it falls from the sky, symbolizing the cleansing of the soul and sin. Albrecht and Friedrich were forgiven.
The second snowfall was when Friedrich left with the things he had brought in. The heavy snow fell, and the Nazi flag hung on the heights became more and more scarlet. This snowfall also washed away Friedrich's sins. The ignorant teenager showed no mercy under his guidance. destroyed the unarmed captives. It is understandable to kill the opponent in the war, and as Albrecht said, the opponent is a prisoner without weapons, which is inhumane. Friedrich's life was brought about by Albrecht's death, and if it wasn't for his awakening in the final boxing ring, he would probably have died on the battlefield. This was the last gift that Albrecht gave him.
But I don't think it's God's forgiveness and gift. There is no god in this world, there are only projections of all human consciousness, good and bad. If there really is a God, how could it be so ignorant and ignorant? How can such an endless mockery of the lives and fate of so many people.
3. Good and Evil
In short, a PE teacher is a good person in a sense. The boxing instructor is a villain.
The first time Friedrich's dad was investigated by the Gestapo, he was forced to work two shifts. It was because Friedrich was too naive to tell the instructor that his father did not agree. He was the only one who knew that his father did not agree. It must be after he informed him that his father suffered. The second time Albrecht was ruthlessly taught by his father was because the instructor reported it to his father. Everything he said in class. Know that the students may spread it, but it's just a rumor, and the first time his father read his article, it was thanks to the instructor.
The physical education teacher is an ignorant and loyal person, but his nature is not evil. His punishment for the bedwetting brother is indeed cruel, but in fact, in the physical education class after the younger brother Fei saved someone, the wrong boy who just persuaded him to quit walked by, and he asked Friedrich to beat him up. He punched, and he really wanted to use the pain in his body to repent and redeem the guilt in his soul. In the end, when Friedrich was packing his things, he turned his back, a kind of "I don't see what you're doing, just pack as you like".
Maybe he will marry and have children in an ordinary way, and live an ordinary life. If it wasn't for this photo, it would probably be as distant as someone else's memory.
Let him never forget the palm of his hand that was separated by the ice, and that scene of cruelty felt as if there were thousands of sticks stirring up one's internal organs and losing their place. Do you know what is more powerless and poignant?
Albrecht's death killed a part of Friedrich, and no emotion can match the person who resonated with your thoughts as a teenager and left you forever. Just imagine if both of them survived, they would only have occasional contact after the war, and they would be overwhelmed by the poverty and trivialities of the post-war life and forget everything.
Therefore, it is even more difficult to forget Albrecht who died under the ice, a young man as pure and beautiful as ice and snow, and finally has nothing to do with the war on the ground, pure and peaceful, sleeping forever, maybe a few years later there will be a blonde The prince kissed him to wake him up?
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