Many people's first feeling after watching it is objective, but in fact, this is not objective. I think this feeling comes directly from the documentary technique used by Linklater-interviews. The theme of this movie is: what is right and what is wrong. Bernie killed Ma Jiali, but Bernie is a good person and Ma Jiali is a bad-tempered high-nose (this is not only portrayed by other people’s perspectives in the form of interviews in the film, but also directly used images to verify its authenticity) . The director did not give an answer, but raised a question: killing is wrong, but if a good person kills a "bad guy" who bullies him in a difficult situation (the image of Ma Jiali in this film is undoubtedly Bad), then should he be punished? This touches on the composition and realization of law and morality: law and morality are not abstract concepts and terms, they are also about people, and ultimately belong to people. We have seen that in the town of Carthage, the moral and legal standards are very unstable. People have repeatedly sought reasons for Bernie’s murder, and never cared about the victims. In the small town, humanity surpassed law and morality, and came to a conclusion that was contrary to law and morality-Bernie was not guilty.
Why this film is not objective? The reason is that the director is not faithful to show the characters objectively. He deliberately avoided Bernie's enjoyment of Mrs. Ma Jiali’s glory and wealth, and focused on his use of the money to help the residents of the town. . For Ma Jiali, the director portrayed her as almost evil, and never tried to give her the reason for being so "evil". No, the purpose of the director is to show the essence of law and morality. Through interviews and videos, he extremeized the images of good Bernie and bad Ma Jiali (whether in the eyes of other people or seen by the audience), and intensified the conflict between human sentiment and moral law regarding the innocence of innocence. The "famous" side has very good reasons-Bernie has always been a good person, good people are bullied, self-defense/manslaughter/temporary loss of reason, etc.-to oppose the conclusion drawn by the law, so as to stimulate the audience to think about it. . In other words, to show conflict is the most important goal of the director. In order to achieve good results, the director chooses to show unobjectively to maximize the force of the collision.
Linklater is a very unique work, and I will try to summarize his things after I have finished reading it.
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