Son of Thor

Asa 2022-03-28 09:01:07

I accidentally saw this movie on TV yesterday. Maybe I couldn’t finish watching it a few years ago. The whole movie is full of shallow focus shots, plus noisy shouting dialogues, and no background music. Visually and audibly, there is almost no enjoyment at all. It is dull, dull, dull all the time. When I saw half of it, I suddenly felt that this movie might not have the sweet ending of most movies, at least the protagonist can escape, but I can't see the director wanting to. Leaving the protagonist alive, all I have to do is be prepared to face all the dashes of hope.
Since there is such an idea, of course, the angle of viewing a movie must be changed. Since there is no hope in sight, let’s enjoy death. It is said that the entire movie was shot with a handheld camera, and the focus is on Sol’s front face, side face, And on the back of the head, and in the blurry background out of focus, there are countless stories of countless Jews either being tricked into making them work or being forced into the gas chambers, with gunshots and cries, contingents Teams are busy moving corpses or collecting money from clothes. Some contingent members secretly extort money and bribe guards. Some German officers and soldiers are neat and well-groomed. Some contingent members shovel the piles of ashes into the river. These shots They are all linked together by the story of Sol's paranoid finding a rabbi to bury his "son".
Thor is actually a dead living person. The reason why he is alive is that the Nazis need living people to deal with dead people, and living people are actually dead people, they just need to move. Thor is a part of the killing machine in the Nazi concentration camp. The so-called part can be replaced at any time. I don't want to discuss whether Thor did it voluntarily. Anyway, he can be replaced at any time if he doesn't. There were two cases in which someone was not killed in the gas chamber. The first time was a girl and the second time was a boy. After being carried out, they were strangled to death by military doctors. you see. So Saul had an idea to find a rabbi to give the boy a proper burial.
In Judaism, a rabbi is a symbol of a teacher and a wise man. His duty is to preside over the worship service, attend weddings, ordinances, funerals, and circumcision. But it is not easy to find a rabbi to bury the boy in the concentration camp, not to mention that the boy needs to be autopsied and the documents must be filed. To take a step back, even if he is not autopsied, he will not be buried. Burning is the allowable attribution.
Sol found the first rabbi, but the rabbi refused to help Sol, and went to the river to be shot by the Nazis. In this scene, some people commented that Sol killed him, but I think there is another understanding. Since the rabbi was able to calmly walk into the river and be beaten to death, Sol rescued him and he refused to answer the question with a blank face. Angry, afraid, but like a living thing, even some animals may show fear of death in this situation, but this rabbi does not see it, indicating that he has no desire to survive. But why would he rather die now than help Sol? As a rabbi, he was obliged and qualified to hold a burial ceremony for the Jewish people. The rabbis had given up their faith and no longer believed in God.
In the process of searching for the rabbi, he experienced two things, one was collecting evidence of killing in the Nazi concentration camp, which was a meaningful thing, and the other was a riot escape, he was asked to go to the women's concentration camp to get a package (Dynamite), it's a survival thing. But Thor is an outsider all the time, and all he's doing is finding the rabbi. Unfortunately the first thing didn't work out, and the second thing he lost the package. Seeing this, I still couldn't hold back my anger. I was yelling at him for being a coward. He screwed up one thing after another. He was a pig teammate, a selfish person, and a loser.
When he got the package from the female prisoner, the female prisoner took his hand and called his name (I don't know if it was his wife, but they didn't have a son), he was still expressionless, and when he left soon, he left At that time, the Nazi guards mocked and said, "It's over so soon." I don't know if this is a description of family affection.
Finally, a rabbi was found among a group of people who were about to be executed. In order to rescue the rabbi, he put his work clothes on the rabbi, and he was almost pulled to be executed. Later, because of a list of 70 people to be executed, a riot broke out in the concentration camp. In the first-person view of killing and escaping, Saul carried the body and forced the rabbi to hold a ceremony. Giving up, Sol carried the corpse and fled to the woods to continue looking for an opportunity to bury his "son". During the rabbi's gaffe chanting, the identity of the fake rabbi was exposed. At this time, the Nazi police dog approached, and Sol had to carry the body again and walk away. He escaped into the river, but unfortunately the corpse drifted away. Sol tried to retrieve the body, but was rescued by the fake rabbi. After that, the fake rabbi pulled Sol to escape like a demented person.
They ended up escaping into a building, discussing what to do, there was a clear voice, to find the guerrillas, they had weapons, they had food, they had to fight, and in the discussion of the others, Sol saw a teenage The teenager looked through the crack of the door, and then ran away. After that, Sol's face changed for the first time in the whole play, and he slowly showed a smile. After the teenager ran away, a group of Nazi soldiers with live ammunition walked towards the building. The gunshots sounded, and the ending was predictable.
I want to decipher Thor's last smile. Is it because he saw a boy or a hallucinating boy? I think it's because I'm satisfied with the way his "son" corpse was solved, although he didn't ask the rabbi to guide him in the way of Judaism. It was buried correctly, but it was not burned, but floated away in the river, and in a sense, it has been freed.
Strangely, with the unsuspenseful gunshots of the final result, I seemed to be relieved, the hero I hoped for did not appear, and the miracle I hoped for did not happen, only the ending of death. I think Sol is me, you, and everyone around us. He lives like a dog, and occasionally he is crazy about something that is meaningless to others, and even hurts other people, and his own ending It also died like a pig and a dog. There have been many heroes in human history, and many people have gone down in history, but more people are Thor, so the last gunshot is pathetic, and each of us suffers failure and death all the time.
But even with death permeated throughout the play, there is still hope, doctors as prisoners, guards trying to maintain some kind of balance, rioters trying to survive, fake rabbi rescuers in the water and help on the road, The most hopeful thing in the world, in my opinion, is the most pointless thing, Sol's corpse drifting away in the river after risking all kinds of hardships to have a burial ceremony, and Sol's detached smile . Even if death cannot escape, I still maintain the dignity of ideal pursuit.
Director Laszlo Gerais is brave, there is no background music, no hero, no majestic scenes, and no life ending, but such a film makes people think carefully about the taste, the more you think about it, the more you feel. I admire the courage of the director and thank Son of Saul.

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Extended Reading

Son of Saul quotes

  • Abraham Warszawski: Who's this boy?

    Saul Ausländer: My son.

    Abraham Warszawski: But you have no son.

    Saul Ausländer: I do. I have to bury him.

    Abraham Warszawski: You don't need a rabbi for that.

    Saul Ausländer: At least he'll do what's right.

  • Saul Ausländer: I have to take care of my son. He's not from my wife.

    Abraham Warszawski: When did you last see him?

    [pause]

    Abraham Warszawski: You have no son.