story of Sartre's film "Doomsday" is very simple. It is a story of how morality will survive and how to survive in an extreme situation. It tells how a pair of father and son who stick to the bottom line maintain their dignity in a beastly world. A story of struggle to survive.
Liu Yu's film review said it well "The Road is not a disaster film or a family film in essence, it is a philosophical torture, pointing directly at the moral void of human beings in the face of the predicament of survival. Therefore, it does not tell a story in the post-disaster era. , but now, at this moment, the world you and I are in: it’s just that at this moment lack is not so extreme, and evil is not as extreme as cannibalism, but remove the extremeness in the movie, what it exposes is us The present life itself. It asks everyone: How to salvage the meaning of "goodness" from the void of life?" When in a world of despair, when life is shrouded in the shadow of death, what kind of goodness and virtue are there? significance? The director tells the story through the father and son in the film: No, it makes sense, even if you struggle to survive all the way south in a hopeless world and finally reach your destiny, it is better than giving up your life hastily or living like a man-eating beast. Dignified and more worthy of respect.
Why is man more noble than animals and plants? It's not that people use sophisticated tools to speak language, it's that humans have free will in different situations. In his Critique of Practical Reason, Kant wrote that only those who exercise free will can talk about morality. It cannot be said that a rose and a mouse have no morals, because they obey the inevitable laws of nature, and people can exercise free will even in a crisis situation. It made Achilles know that Troy's journey would be dead, and he also embarked on the road of honor; it made Andra in "Les Miserables" know the failure of the uprising, and it was broken in the barricade battle; it made the father and son in the movie keep the Although the "fire in the heart" is in a bleak situation, he also tries to be a good person. Only a true aristocrat can enjoy a can of Coke and appreciate the beauty of a beetle in times of crisis. Only a true aristocrat can stick to the belief in doing good on the ruins of the ruins. Although the father and son are in ragged clothes and are in a difficult situation, the brilliance of their humanity bursting out in the desperate situation is worthy of the word nobility. So Sartre would say that man invented his own life, he was thrown into the world, and sentenced to freedom, never to be pardoned.
How to become free under external pressure? How can one be free in a situation where leadership is at a higher level in the country or in a movie like that? It is true that most of us are powerless to get rid of the pressure placed on us in a huge situation, just like the father and son in the movie are powerless to resist the plight of the apocalypse world, but the dignity of human beings lies in the ethical strain of human beings under different situations and there is no absolute So we can see the seed of good in the fall and the shadow of evil in the splendor. In a desperate situation, people can do very little. In order to survive, some choose to eat people, and some choose to rob, while the father and son choose to guard the flames in their hearts and not do evil for survival. In this sense, the son is indeed an angel. In him, the father has obtained a kind of strength and bottom line to do good, a kind of courage to resist the darkness, and a kind of spiritual redemption in a desperate situation.
In the film "Scent of a Woman", Colonel Slade said in the school's defense: "Now that I am at a crossroads in my life, I never know which way is right, without exception, but I never go, Why, because it's so fucking hard." There's always a choice: a right way and an easy way. Indeed, removing the extreme situations of the film, the film tells the dilemma of real life, how to choose when faced with temptation, and how to find the meaning of goodness and virtue in such a fucking world? Of course, people can avoid such questioning, just like an ostrich burying its head in the sand when it encounters danger, but people who have been sentenced to "freedom" are just self-choosing and not making choices, leaving the choice of ethics to authority and customs. Or people cloud and cloud. Similar to the father and son in the movie, the practice of protecting the dignity of the bottom line is often a competitive disadvantage in this world where there is no limit to the competition. However, the dignity and value of human beings lie in the temptation of human beings, no matter how big the temptation of interests is. It is possible that in this anti-entropy move, the most dazzling brilliance of humanity shines. Just like the father and son in the animal world in the movie, willing to share the few cans with the elderly, willing to repent for depriving the black people of the clothes they had to steal, and willing to hold on to the flame of not doing evil in their hearts until they starved to death. It's a lesson about putting self-preservation over moral obligation, it's not doomed by any means, it's ultimately just a choice, a choice.
In "The Hobbit" Gandalf said to the Elf Queen that it is not powerful magic that can defeat the darkness, but the little things in life and the little loves. Arendt wrote something similar in her book, The last barrier against the power of totalitarianism is the persistence of love and kindness in the heart. The flame in a person's heart may be weak, but it also illuminates a little darkness, and if such light is gathered, there may not be a bright light. There is no universal bottom-line rule on how to "guard the flames in our hearts". There are only specific choices on how to achieve respect for human dignity and the world under what circumstances. In a sense, we have no guidance in the dark. Only act according to the good intentions of the heart. Taking care of your body is of course very important, but taking care of your soul is just as important, if not more important.
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