(This article was written in December 2019)
The last great film of the first half of 2019: Johnny Depp "Professor".
A story of how a dying person reconciled with himself, and how he did not compromise with the world.
People often have a sixth sense for their favorite movies, that is, they feel that this movie is different from the beginning. In other words, the reason why this movie is so good is that it reflects its atmosphere and tone from the very beginning. When I watched the basketball game at the beginning of the first part of "Growing Up" a long time ago, I thought I would like this movie very much.
The opening of "Professor" is like this, but its tone is much heavier.
Richard, the university professor played by Depp, is confirmed to have cancer, and the time left is only a few months.
The end is approaching.
Few people really slowly figure out the meaning of this word, and the helplessness, fear, and depression behind it.
Only this time. I used to think that the life that I could squander and plan at will, I saw the end in an instant. Like a wall at the end of the road, although it has not been touched yet, it is already visible from afar, announcing the end of the road. I have not done so many things, but at this time, I feel that those things are so unworthy. What should I do in this time when I can do anything but nothing makes sense?
At the beginning of the third part of "Three-Body", Yun Tianming, who was terminally ill, decided to end his life with euthanasia. In order to make sure that the patient is absolutely voluntary, the system will ask him to answer five of the same questions repeatedly: Are you sure you want to end your life? The keys for each question are different. Every time he presses a button, a part of his life flashes before his eyes. The past years have been compressed into a few fragmented clips, allowing him to recall in just a few seconds, and realize that things he thought he had forgotten had been in the depths of his memory for so many years.
Everyone who is approaching the end may recall his life in this way.
The first thing Richard did was to hold a family showdown with his wife and daughter. However, things were not as easy as he expected, or in other words, it was not unexpected at all that it was not easy.
The daughter announced that she had come out and had a fight with her mother; the wife announced that she had derailed, and the target was Richard's leader. The marriage that survives in name makes him feel that all these honesty are in vain, so why bother to make another trouble in the little time he has left?
When it was finally his turn, he smiled and said: I fried the steak.
A rational person is always self-consistent. They don't need a life mentor to tell them what they should do at what time they can take care of their mood and state. After the showdown, Richard figured out a lot of things.
He gave all the students who were uncomfortable in the class a passing grade and sent them out, leaving only a few people who really wanted to listen to his literary lectures; he said okay to his wife who was no longer passionate, we would go to whoever wanted to. Whoever wants to take drugs, just take drugs, don't affect my daughter; in the few remaining lives, I don't want to have any boring trivial matters to distract my energy. I wasted too much time to maintain the so-called interpersonal relationship, to maintain the surrounding social structure, to care about the thoughts of those who I don’t care about, and to entangle the things that weren’t important. For this purpose, I want to change back to myself in the last few days. When I no longer fear death, I no longer fear anyone.
So why did you figure it out now? Why must we wait until only a handful of the remaining time before finally letting go of these burdens?
This is how people are. Be cautious, like walking on thin ice, they are unwilling to destroy interpersonal relationships, and they are unwilling to give up the image of themselves in the eyes of other people, even if this image may be very different from what they originally thought, even this person who would rather sacrifice their own ideas to please people has never After caring about their changes, they will still live like this. What's more sad is how many people have made all kinds of compromises and forbearance, their lives are still messed up.
If it weren't for this sudden terminal illness, perhaps Richard would continue to do this, just like all living beings in this world, consuming his precious life to serve those who are not worthy. But at least he doesn't need it now.
He moved the class to the bar and put his heart to heart with a few students: You want to live, not just live; even if the novel of life is not meaningful, let it not be too boring; he finds a leader who cheats on his wife and says don’t think you are doing it. No one knows what's wrong, you'd better honestly criticize my fake.
My best friend didn't want to see him sink down, and took him to a mutual aid association for cancer patients. A group of men and women with cancer sat in a circle to share their feelings. Richard said that compared to me, you are the ones who need to be saved. Then I went to drink.
It's the same truth, self-consistent person, and he doesn't need others to give pointers.
Friends in the bar drink unconsciously, it seems that this person who watched his friend leave is more painful than Richard who has cancer. The students I met drove their friends home together and told Richard that I envied you for having the courage to live like yourself fearlessly. Richard thought for a moment: This is not courage, but indifference.
It is difficult not to compromise with the world, and reconciliation with oneself is even more precious. In the face of death, everything else seems very light, but also very heavy. Because you don't have a second chance. What a terminally ill church gives to a person is often heavier and deeper than the ordinary life of the previous decades.
In the church, my friend couldn't cry. Richard said to his almost only friend that there is nothing to cry, and that there is always something to come.
By this time, I gradually realized that this was a farewell. The whole movie is a farewell to myself, the people around me, the world, and the vainness in my heart. Under such a tone, those black humor, those frivolous and cynical, themselves put on a layer of sadness and depth, which will only appear to be even more embarrassing.
But like the last few months of Richard's life, even though it is not easy, it will eventually be over.
I have wondered more than once, what would it be like if the movie was found to be a false alarm at the end? As an audience, it is difficult for me to get rid of such thoughts. What about Richard? What about everyone in such an environment? Have you ever thought about it uncontrollably, if these are all false alarms...People want to deceive themselves, even if they know they are deceiving themselves.
I have seen a sentence, the most beautiful word in the world is to have no danger, even better than smooth sailing.
From the beginning of the movie, the audience and Richard learned together that he was terminally ill. This depressed mood has been injected into the movie. After that, people followed the director's lens and watched Richard wandering in all corners of their lives, using their own attitude to bid their final farewell to the world. From resentment to unwillingness to calmness everywhere. The audience and the protagonist wait together for this process of danger, which is the process of gradual acceptance of death. When it comes true, there will be no surprises, no despair, only a matter of course, like the climax of a concert, lingering in the last few notes.
All deaths are reunion after a long absence. It is like an old friend who has not been in contact for many years, but still knows it bye.
At a dinner, Richard told people about his situation. This is the final farewell. People tend to be exceptionally tolerant and understanding of people who are short of time, but forget what they were like before. Death is like an invisibility cloak, separating the people in it from others. When you stand in a crowd, what you see is what others show to you. Only when you are in it can you face the truth of sentient beings.
After watching a movie, he bid farewell to his friends, to his students, to his wife, to his daughter, and to his past self. Now, it is time for him to bid farewell to the world.
Richard's long vacation began. He picked up his bag, wore his favorite suit with a vintage knitted vest and brought his puppy, and drove on the road alone in the dark. There is no turning point, no accident, no false alarm, everything is logical.
Depp contributed the best acting skills in the past ten years, and also presented the most moving death teaching class. The delicate painting style of oil painting, like the retro and traditional architectural style of the university where Richard is located, makes people involuntarily calm down. The light piano music seems to make people drift on and off the screen, following the middle-aged professor, passing the cross-section of his life.
Until the end of the ending, still immersed and unable to extricate himself. The starry sky is vast, and life and death are mysterious.
I'm just going to meet a friend, under the stars.
(Finish)
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