The number one demand for movies in today's audiences is the story (although there is no shortage of audiences for actors and special effects). Many viewers want to capture a complete or interesting or in-depth story from a film.
Although "Death of the Sacred Deer" evolves in chronological order, the details of the plot are not complete, and the relationship between the characters is also obscure. As a result, the story is also fragmented and requires considerable interpretation ability to infer the original appearance of the story.
Unlike the consistent sense of absurdity in "The Lobster" that is easy to accept, the first half of "Death of the Sacred Deer" has no traces of supernaturalness. I even think this is another simple family film similar to "Dog Tooth". A dark tide is surging in the seemingly harmonious family.
However, the supernatural elements that suddenly entered were indeed abrupt, and the curses that the boy casually said came true one by one: paralysis of the lower limbs, hunger strike, blood in the eyes, and death.
What makes many God-style audiences uncomfortable is that they long to have a complete grasp of the plot, and even clarify the complete character behavior motivation and the logical chain of the plot. But the director rudely did not explain the reason for the curse, the characters were also distorted under certain pressure, and the motivation of the behavior became elusive.
Discomfort and jumping feet are inevitable.
Starting from the title, Lanthimos' preference for animal metaphors is undoubtedly revealed in his previous films, and "The Death of the Sacred Deer" is based on Greek mythology: the Greek Mycenaeian king Agamemnon hunted in the hunt Killing the god deer of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, Artemis sent divine punishment.
At this time, it was rumored that Agamemnon could only quell the wrath of the goddess by offering his eldest daughter Iphigenia. After experiencing the struggle, the daughter was willing to sacrifice and went to the altar to face the sacrifice.
As a result, the execution was that the man on the altar turned into a red deer.
In the movie, his father, Steven, had a medical accident because of drinking, and the boy's father, Martin, died. In addition to guilt, he often helped the orphans and widows of the family, and even developed a slightly ambiguous relationship with Martin.
And Steven even hoped that Martin could integrate into his family, invited him to be a guest, and introduced his wife Anna, eldest daughter Kim, and youngest son Bob.
The family gets along well with him, and Kim even has a secret affection for him.
Martin, who did not forget his father's death, told Steven that one by one, his family would be paralyzed, go on hunger strike, and bleed from the eyes until one of them died, implying that Steven had the right to choose who died.
Steven's reaction was the same as mine: "Aren't you a fucking idiot?"
But the curses were fulfilled one by one. Finally, when he saw that he couldn't do anything, Steven chose to kill the man by covering his head and shooting in circles. As a result, his youngest son, Bob, was shot and died.
The story is first and foremost a story about homomorphic revenge.
Whether it's "Deer of the Sacred Deer",
or Martin showing Steven his view of revenge in the basement: he bites off a piece of meat from Steven's arm, then tells him to apologize and touch his wound. It was useless, the
only thing that could make both parties feel relieved was to repay with his own flesh, so he bit off a piece of flesh on his arm.
Naked performance of "a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye".
But the seemingly just life-for-life result is that the father who made a mistake lived well, while the son Bob, who had nothing to do with the matter, died, which undoubtedly denounced the unreasonableness of homomorphic revenge and the harm to innocents.
Second, not much different from what I expected at first, this film is actually an exploration of family.
The father who makes a mistake does not have to bear the consequences for his mistakes, but instead has the huge power to judge the life and death of the family.
The son, who was originally rebellious to his father, chose to be submissive to his father in the face of life and death, while the wife, who had less right to speak, chose to be flattering.
The daughter learned of her father's preference for her, so she took a different approach and took the initiative to ask her father for sacrifice, hoping to use her disguised bravery and love to impress her father to escape death.
This is exactly what life looks like in a patriarchal family: the father is always right, and the rest of the family is dominated.
What's even more ridiculous in this is that both mother and daughter expect to sacrifice other families to protect themselves,
and the last one died was the youngest son Bob who never wanted others to die in his place.
The tragic death of a would-be rebel in a patriarchal family is undoubtedly another mockery of the whole affair.
Whether Anna's mother and daughter will always be dominated by patriarchy after this experience is also a very interesting question.
I certainly admit that this film has a unique perspective, but the shredding violin and rushing piano sounds interspersed throughout the film, as well as the "fake" suspenseful atmosphere created by it, make people uncomfortable.
It also contains images of crosses and several interspersed religious songs that are also very strange.
After watching the film, it feels more like a lengthy cult ritual than a massacre.
Even a cult ritual with Nicole Kidman nude still feels creepy.
(This article once authorized the daily release of films by the public account Li Xiaojun, this is the author, there are deletions and modifications)
View more about The Killing of a Sacred Deer reviews
