"Lawless": Forcing Liangshan

Bill 2022-06-24 19:17:12

When ordinary people held AK-47 and swept towards a group of policemen who defended the forces of the wicked, how fun it was! But the tragedy may have been doomed, is the society betrayed these people or are these people betraying society?
——Han Xi

This is a British film. In this very traditional country, there have always been some unconventional hero images, such as Robin Hood. And this film is trying to create a modern image of Robin Hood, doing justice for the sky, adjudicating for the people, and ignoring the law. The title of "Modern Robin Hood" is not the author, but the film's words from the media. Therefore, another title "Extrajudicial Law" seems to be more able to convey the essence of the film.
There is no need to describe the basic story and frame of this type of film, and these individuals of modern Robin Hood are really worth noting. It is very important that this group of members organized to achieve justice covers almost all social classes and social contradictions. It also elevates a simple revenge story to a reflection on society. come in a sense.
The soldier is from the Middle East, and his wife has another love after demobilization. This is undoubtedly tragic, but more importantly, the soldier seems to be unable to find his place in this society. Hatred made him embark on the road of revenge. Obviously, the director strongly opposed the British government's attitude towards the Middle East in this character, and also reflected the persecution of the soldiers by the senseless war from an objective point of view.
The second character is a lawyer and a black man. When he was upholding justice, he was retaliated by evil forces for not compromising with evil, and his pregnant wife was killed in Huangquan. If the soldier is someone exiled by the government, then the lawyer is obviously someone who serves the government, but he also got the same fate in the face of the so-called law, in other words, the government betrayed him. A man who upholds the law finally goes to the other side of the law when it doesn't work.
The third character is an ordinary company employee who is cowardly by nature and even has nightmares from time to time. It is conceivable that even if such a character is a white-collar class, his psychological status is low, and he can only endure all kinds of contempt and ridicule in silence. The fourth figure is a college student who has been stigmatized as gay because of his good looks, and who has been severely beaten to the point of disfigurement. Here, the director consciously or unintentionally expressed a sense of sympathy for the social situation of homosexuality, which also belongs to a social problem.
The most special is a blue-collar security guard. In fact, he is an extremist. In his mind, this society is basically dirty and needs to be cleaned with violence, and this extremist is actually British or European. A microcosm of some organization.
The last person is a policeman. Originally, like a lawyer, he is a person who maintains national order, but because of his work, he is more exposed to sins, and how some people in the government cover up sins, which undoubtedly makes him full of reality. He was skeptical, and thus deepened his determination to build an organization.
Six characters, different in class, religion, and even ideology, but the fact that these six people can be united is a terrible prophecy in itself, and more importantly, the experiences of these six people reflect the current British situation. The various disadvantages of the stage, almost all social problems are displayed in front of the audience without reservation. The director spends a considerable amount of space on the background of these people, and the intention is of course obvious, so the revenge against the wicked seems so logical, and these exiles will complete the task that the law cannot.
The transformation of ordinary people into so-called "thugs" must be a sequential process. After the organization is fully established, the director adopts a progressive approach to their actions. And every action is inseparable from the mental process. The first was a group fight outside the bar. Obviously, they had no rules to speak of, so they lost a mess, but a wholehearted release made these ordinary people consciously betray the so-called rules and social legal system. So from a psychological point of view, they are the clear winners, there is no doubt about that.
But as the violence escalated, several were finally at odds. Lawyers gave up killing because of their education, but security guards tried to create more terrible and extreme violence, so everyone exiled the security guards. The director made a rather interesting comparison here. Because they gave up killing and killed their partner, the policeman who wanted to punish the crime, at the same time, the soldiers, lawyers, etc. could not stand the extremism of the security guard and hang him. In this comparison, it is difficult for us to tell whether the security guard's extremism is right or wrong, and it is even more difficult for us to tell whether lawyers and soldiers are really giving up violence. But two points are very clear. Extremists are absolutely unpopular. On the other hand, these heroes are actually weak and cannot really take on the dark side of society. After all, they are still ordinary people and continue to bound by social morality.
At the end of the film, the student found self-confidence and left the organization because of love, which is undoubtedly a bright ending, because he represents the future of Britain, the world that needs to be saved with love. But what happened next was brutal. The soldiers, lawyers and staff strayed into the trap. They had to fight their last stand, and the guns were pointed at a group of police. This is obviously an escalation of contradictions. This group of people has always punished those who did evil, but in the end, they can only face the government, and the question we have to consider at this time is whether the government is the biggest evil As plainly expressed, the government is the umbrella for the perpetrators?
The answer given in the film is definitely not bright. When the lawyer saw the soldier die, he could only raise his gun and surrender, but the man who had the most illusion about the government and the law finally died under the gun of the police. It was not an accident, but kill. Although he escaped professionally and completed the punishment of evil forces, he could not hide this dark and helpless background. Obviously, the director is pessimistic, and the final punishment is nothing more than fulfilling the wishes of the audience. The dark tone of the entire film has wiped out all the good.
When the film ends, the police chief who ordered the killing of the lawyer is still at large, and the clerk may not be able to shake his position, indicating how strong or unbreakable this dark government is. This is an uncompromising film, and I am afraid we can only sigh for the fate of these ordinary people in the film. But maybe sighing is a power in itself, at least the director thinks so.

Han Xi
2007-8-10 in Tongzhou


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Extended Reading
  • Keith 2022-06-24 23:24:51

    Ruined... ps: I don't like this shaky lens effect

Outlaw quotes

  • Simon Hillier: What did I tell you, eh? Fucking out-there.

    Gene Dekker: He's completely insane.

  • Walter Lewis: You get that right and I'll feed you paedophiles, dealers, bullies, junkies, scum, cunts, dogs... the lot.