"Elysium Space" "Elysium Space" is one of my favorite movies introduced this year. Since "The Ninth District" in 2009, Neill Blomkamp, who was born in Johannesburg The post-70s director, screenwriter, and visual effects left a very deep impression on me. In "The Ninth District", the space environment created by the director not only comes from Johannesburg, which the director is familiar with. It is a post-industrial world view of the human world, which highlights the weird combination of technological advancement and the decline of civilization. The world presents a fragmentation. The structure is layered. And this fragmented worldview extends from "The Ninth District" to "Elysium Space".
If in "The Ninth District", this fragmented picture of the world gives the audience an association with the racial system, then in "Elysium" this kind of imagination gives way to a Marxist class Classification-the so-called "Marxism" is what I said, not necessarily the director's own cognitive structure; a more suitable statement is: a social cognitive view of the Western left. In "Elysium", all politicians, capitalists, and soldiers are negative characters, and even the middle class-residents of "Elysium"-although there are not many shots in the movie, but in a seemingly silent In the context, the middle class has become a symbol of high-hanging, floating in the space of the power class; on the contrary, the working class, even gangsters and criminals, contain the power to promote social change. Max, the protagonist of the movie, is the representative of this transformative force. His resume has the greatest intersection with the image of a revolutionary from the perspective of Marxism (Western Left). Max is an orphan who grew up in a monastery. He showed an anti-social growth trend when he was a child, and he seemed to have a class birthmark for his embarking on a criminal path. When the bald Matt Damon appeared again in Los Angeles in the middle of the 22nd century, it was not his appearance that surprised me, but that Los Angeles at this time was simply Johannesburg in "The Ninth District." According to the setting in the movie, not only Los Angeles, but the entire earth has become a slum in the solar system. Dilapidated buildings, yellow dusty streets, crowded and desperate people, almost no public service system... In addition to the robot police still marking the management of power, there is no sign of political civilization on the earth. Not only the paralysis of the public service system, but even the state tools present a landscape after the withdrawal of "human", or "human alienation" is projected on the robot parole officer.
If none of these make people think about class struggle, then look at the factory where the protagonist makes a living, and is it comparable to the sweatshops of the accumulation stage of capitalism in the 18th century? It is interesting to note that the protagonist produces robots on the assembly line, and it is these robots that have become violent tools for maintaining order on the earth. Max had just been interrupted by a robot in the morning, but he had to rush to work. In order to keep his job, he stepped up production of robots. Not only that, but the foreman also forced Max to repair the electric door, causing Max to be infected with deadly radiation, which became the driving force for the development of the story.
In the movie, the director sets up many scenes where humans interact with robots. While highlighting the cold and cruelty of robots, does the director also express some anxiety and thinking about the "alienation of humans" in the post-industrial era? As a symbol of authority or bureaucracy, in a highly technological and information age, are robots better or worse in terms of serving people? Undoubtedly, the director's opinion is the latter.
Here is an additional question. Accompanying the scenes of the movie, the knowledge that has been far away comes to mind so clearly that I have to use those doctrines and theories to relate to images. My question is: What is the meaning of the Western leftist tradition? Connect with Chinese? Take Marxism as an example. As a representative of the radical left, Marxism has not only influenced the direction of Western civilization in theory and practice (I will not make a value judgment on these influences here). Looking at ourselves, since the founding of the CCP until today, Marxism has remained an unrelenting banner. If Western leftist theories-from radical to conservative pedigree-still have a general consensus on social issues, and this consensus has become an integral part of today's universal values, then we still insist on Marxism for us. As far as countries are concerned, we should not be unfamiliar with the basic care of these Western leftists. In a sense, we should have more thinking and practice on these value demands. However, when I watched the movie, I couldn’t help it. I feel a kind of secret ashamed. This kind of psychology is very complicated. A Western director (assuming he is a leftist) makes me constantly use Marxism to examine virtual social issues; and local film works—just look at it. A bunch of Chinese-language movies released this year-but there is no leftist (to be precise, universal values) humanistic care. When Neill While Blomkamp was depicting the decline of Western civilization, I saw a scene of "the rise of great powers" in Chinese movies. Take a look at reality, who is more like Los Angeles in the 22nd century? I won't put my beak anymore, everyone will see for themselves. I'm just thinking about how much we can understand and accept the tradition of a long-standing hierarchical system like China and the Western leftist tradition as a theory and value pedigree. Take Marxism as an example. Marx as a revolutionary theory is better known in Chinese than Marx as a struggle for equality. The paradox is that if some "Mao Zuo" today are not from other dimensions, they can actually find better theoretical support and expression in the leftist theories already provided by the West. [Of course, my premise is to find a connection in the theory of the left. In fact, in the history of the West, the left and the right have already reached a consensus on some social issues in China, and the consensus lies in today’s universal values and democracy. system. 】For a system that adheres to Marxism, the introduction and spread of Western leftists, and the theories and practices on which it is established are pitifully scarce, who should be sighing at it? If people in the Mao era achieved a kind of "equality" as a last resort (actually, the "special offer" of the power class exists in an unknown way) under the conditions of universal deprivation; but today, the new Classes are also formed with the emergence of "state marketization." Unlike the multi-level social stratification in the West, today's new class stratification has created two opposing classes, almost the rich and the poor. And the so-called "middle class" today is probably more embarrassed than the residents of Bliss Space in the movie, right?
There are many things that stimulate imagination in this movie, and here I just want to think about one of them.
One of the biggest differences, or contradictions, between "Elysium Space" and the Earth is that there are medical equipment in the "Elysium Space". The film emphatically shows that the inhabitants of the earth "smuggled" to the "Essence Space" in order to cure the powerless diseases on the earth. The heroine's daughter is suffering from leukemia, and only "Elysium Space" can treat her. However, the medical equipment in the "Elysium Space" can only treat residents in the "Elysium Space". Therefore, the "smuggling" service provided by Spider also includes arranging a resident status in the "Elysium Space" for smugglers. If so, the stowaways can be treated with medical equipment. The advanced medical equipment in the film is superb, probably as long as it survives for a while, it can be rejuvenated. Of course, this advanced technology is only a symbol, and can be regarded as a kind of civil right possessed by citizens in the "Blessed Space". And this right strictly corresponds to citizenship, and all people outside of citizenship are excluded from this right.
This reminds me of the city-state era in ancient Greece. All citizens of a city-state have inherent political rights and can participate in the management of city-state politics. Women, children, Gentiles, and slaves do not belong to the category of "citizens." Therefore, these non-citizens cannot participate in the politics of the city-state and become "people without rights." Taking into account the characteristics of city-state politics, political rights for citizens and non-citizens are a question of whether they exist or not.
If you examine the ideas of ancient Greek thinkers, such as the works of Plato, you will find that this political scientist rarely involves slaves when discussing politics. It cannot be considered that Plato or other thinkers are the kind of people who lack humane care as we think, but in the works of these people, especially those that discuss politics, there are few slaves. What's the reason? The reason is that slaves are excluded from citizenship. In these discussions about political systems, the slave population does not enter the vision of thinkers. [It needs to be pointed out that in actual life, slaves are not generally abused because they have no citizenship. Take Athens as an example. At the end of the city-state era, there are written records that the slaves’ eating, drinking, and dressing were the same as their masters. Although this is not a common situation, the imaginary harsh oppression of slaves is not a common phenomenon. Compared with citizenship, the important thing is not what kind of treatment the slave people receive, but whether the slave people have the right to participate in politics. ]
In fact, until the end of the era of city-states, citizens and non-citizens the right to identity differences are not resolved. The Roman Empire also had such a tension between citizens and non-citizens. For example, compared with Roman citizens, the provinces who accounted for the vast majority of the empire’s population did not enjoy the rights of Roman citizens. Regarding this kind of internal tension, the rule of law in the Roman Empire eased this contradiction to a great extent, and this was also a political theory and practice that contributed to the earliest empire form in history. However, even so, there are still people who are excluded from citizenship, such as the slave population. The several slave uprisings experienced by the Roman Empire, in addition to the great turmoil of the empire’s rule, also highlighted the contradictions related to rights in a violent way. come out.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, secular politics has been in anarchy. The feudal system that has gradually developed in this established a new relationship between identity and power. There is a contractual relationship between the lord and the servants, and the lord opposes the servants. The servants provide shelter, and the servants are obliged to be loyal to the lord. However, on the one hand, this feudal system still cannot cover the entire population. For example, the knight class is the foundation of the feudal system, and the classes under the knights do not apply to this contractual relationship; on the other hand, with the expansion of the feudal system, The relationship between servants has become complicated and chaotic, and a person may have multiple lords and servants.
With the advancement of the Enlightenment, whether it was the struggle for political rights that was steadily promoted by the parliamentary system in the United Kingdom, or the fierce struggle for rights represented by the French Revolution, it was all based on "struggling for rights." Social movement. The disintegration of the feudal system and the establishment of the capitalist system did not weaken this social tendency to fight for rights. Western leftists have contributed to the conceptual power that promotes this trend. Just like the Marxism mentioned above, it also has a place in this dimension of the struggle for rights.
The establishment and turbulence of the democratic system finally began to mature in the middle of the twentieth century. At this time, the democratic system can be compatible with different value demands to the greatest extent, and civil rights have been extended to all adult citizens (it needs to be pointed out that Women’s universal suffrage and the civil rights of ethnic minorities came into being relatively late, and they are also accompanied by struggles within the social scope. Although most of the struggles are carried out in a non-violent way, moreover, it is important that they are within the framework of a democratic system. To launch a struggle for rights). To this day, the trend of social movements fighting for rights in the West has not ended. In the general democratic system, such more detailed and localized claims for rights, such as feminism, homosexuality, environmentalism, etc., still rely on the system. Unfold by itself.
It should be said that the struggle for rights itself also contains the requirements of the struggle for equality, and this pursuit of equality has an ancient origin in Western civilization. In the French Revolution, it was finally expressed in the form of documents and became The future inspires people to fight for the value pursuit. To this day, the equality that Westerners pursued thousands of years ago has been realized and guaranteed in the form of a democratic system.
In this sense, the film's imagination of future human society is indeed a negative imagination. However, even in the imagination based on the bleak prospects for the future of mankind, he still holds the confidence and expectation of fighting for rights and even fearless sacrifice. [It is necessary to point out that I have used a lot of leftist analytical perspectives for the film, such as Marxism. In fact, the film’s creation of the protagonist by no means adopted Marx’s revolutionary view. Although the protagonist has a strong revolutionary color, when Max sacrificed himself to fight for the citizenship of the earth’s citizens, the film once again turned to The theme of "sacrifice" in Christianity returns. "Sacrifice" is the meta-theme of Christian civilization. And religion is either not mentioned in the theoretical pedigree of the left, or it becomes the object of criticism. Just look at Marx's views on religion. In fact, the origin of the western concept of equality is directly related to Christianity. 】The English name of the movie is "Elysium" which means paradise, heaven. The use of this term to name a man-made city-state that is lonely in space is inherently ironic. People are not angels, so politics are needed, and any political system is not heaven, so there is the least bad system. When the "snakehead" spider finally restarted the program of "Elysium" with the help of the protagonist, so that people on the earth also obtained citizenship, and then countless spacecraft rushed to the earth to carry out a huge medical service, the depression from the beginning of the movie My emotions are finally released. I have to say that I haven't been moved by the image for a long time.
Stepping out of the movie theater, it is approaching dusk. While waiting for the bus, I was thinking: Is it possible to fight for rights for a Chinese civilization with no religious traditions and a long and profound hierarchical system? In other words, will the Chinese civilization itself produce this kind of internal demand for equality, and will it be demonstrated in practice? If we have acquiesced to the taking and taking of power, if we have acquiesced in the inequality of rights, if we are only fighting for power rather than rights, then the "bliss space" in any sense is just another scene for us The Chinese dream is nothing more than...
Written on September 16, 2013, cloudy afternoon
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