In the film, the protagonist group of 6 talks to some veterans about this problem, and everyone's answers are vague.
For Paul, they are really young, and they only had a fantasy and a passion for the war at the beginning, and they came to the battlefield for romance. Their thinking is not yet mature, so their concept of war is also very vague. They were inspired by their teachers to come to the battlefield. They are "in this mountain, and the clouds are deep and do not know where to go".
For Carter and the others, they have been baptized by several battles, and they are old horses who know their way, but they don't know why they want to fight. Even the veterans said something like this: "When the war begins one day, let the kings and ministers of the two countries go to one place. Both sides wear the same clothes and pick up sticks. Whoever wins the war will win." It's ironic that they use the mind of a child to explain war.
There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, there is no right or wrong, only the distance from the truth. The same goes for the question of why wars are fought. Some people say it's patriotism, some people say it's uncomfortable to see each other, some people say it's impulsive, and some people say it's to experience war. However, I have such a question: "Why do you kill your fellow-people for various reasons?"
After returning to his hometown, Paul returned to the original classroom and saw that his teacher was encouraging students to join the war again. . Paul speaks out about the cruelty of war, but gets an angry answer. Paul said to the teacher, "You don't understand war!"
I think his implication is that for those who have not participated in war, they will not understand what war is! But Paul didn't even know why he wanted to fight, why he wanted to fight!
For most people, it's not clear what war is until the end of the movie. For example, it is difficult for us to say clearly what people live for.
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