The Legend of Xili is a pseudo-documentary film by Woody Allen in 1983. Just like his humorous nature, the whole film created a "serious nonsense" atmosphere in the form of pseudo-documentary, absurd, weird and funny. ,Satire. The film tells the extraordinary life of a man named Zelig (Woody Allen) in America in the 1920s. What makes his life unusual is that he has a strange disease: whenever Zelig gets into a crowd, he becomes exactly like the people around him, so he becomes one with them. This change is not only verbal, but also ideological, and sometimes even physical. When Zelig talked to the upper class and the Republicans, he appeared to be a complete aristocrat, even speaking with the purest Boston upper-class accent, and his thinking showed that he was a thorough gentleman. In the blink of an eye, among the lower classes of the Democratic Party, he spoke with a rude and offensive accent. He became black among black people, and he became fat among fat people. Immediately, he became famous, and countless people became his supporters inexplicably, and many people (such as the KKK) thought he was a scourge and wished he could live. The most shocking is the medical world, all doctors and professors have a great interest in unlocking the secrets of Zelig's body. Soon, a hospital accepted Zelig, they called Zelig's strange disease "chameleon disease", and claimed to explore the cause and treatment of Zelig. Later, the doctors who insisted on physical therapy gradually gave up, leaving only a young female doctor (played by Mia Farrow) who insisted that Zelig was mentally ill, and continued to work hard with psychotherapy, hoping to cure him. The narration in the film once said that everyone treats him as a disease and a problem, and only she treats Zelig as a person. The funny thing is that Zelig also "turned" himself into a doctor when he stayed with the doctor, and no one who knew it would doubt his identity as a doctor. Therefore, Zelig was very resistant to treatment. With the long-term efforts of the female doctor, Zelig was finally hypnotized and asked about his cause. It turned out that it all started from a book that Zelig had read when he was in school. That day, two well-studied children in the same class as Zelig asked him if he had watched Moby-Dick. Zelig was very scared. He was afraid that he would be laughed at and rejected if he said he had not watched it, so he threw it away. A lie, this lie is half a lifetime. At the same time, the female doctor also learned that Zelig was born in an unfortunate family. His brother would beat him, his sister would beat them both, his father would beat three of them, his mother would beat four of them, his neighbor would beat their house, and the others in another block would beat them. people hitting their blocks... In this endless beating and being beaten, the skinny Zelig has become the lowest creature. Without love and no support, he can only rely on the talent of being able to talk and get along well with all kinds of people. Lies are surrounded by lies, as if he has home. While being hypnotized, Zelig murmured, I'm nothing, my whole life has been a lie. As the treatment progresses, the female doctor finds that Zelig likes him. Although he thinks she is careless, has no sense of humor, and is a terrible cook, he can't help falling in love with her, not only because of the female doctor's love for her. Zelig's love and respect is also because of her real, imperfect but real. Later, many absurd and ridiculous things happened, and I will not describe them one by one here. In the end, Zelig was cured of the disease and lived happily with the female doctor. On his deathbed, he said that he had lived a happy life and that his only regret was that he had only just started reading Moby Dick.
Woody Allen likes to materialize spiritual things and turn them into very fabled stories. The story is just an introduction. What he really wants to say is often hidden behind the story. Very clever indeed. Zelig once said this in a half-awake state: You have to be yourself and make your own moral judgments, even if sometimes it really takes courage, otherwise you are like a robot or a lizard. Despite all the sarcasm and dark humor, I think that's what Woody Allen's film really wants to say. There is no "chameleon disease" in real life, nor does Zeliger exist, but each of us could be Zeliger. In this era of information explosion, people are expressing their views and opinions all the time, but this is not an era of spiritual independence. On the contrary, the right to speak is firmly in the hands of a small number of people, and the public tends to blindly follow public knowledge and big v People, thinking has become extremely valuable in this era, people are willing to spend a lot of energy to find the so-called "routine" and "the way of the predecessors", but do not want to believe that they can think, or even if they have their own ideas, they don't. Dare to speak out, like Zelig in the film, survive by agreeing with others and standing on the right side, but agreeing with others is the easiest, but it takes courage to say your own thoughts, of course there are people who say the wrong thing and think the wrong thing. When things happen, we do need to be cautious in our words and deeds in some situations, but in more cases, we should really think carefully about what I think about myself, instead of copying other people’s brains and lives.
There is such a case in economics, if you were to open a restaurant in a city, where would you choose? Is it a bustling and noisy commercial street with many peers, or an old city without peer competition but few people? I have asked a lot of people this question, and most of them chose the old city where one family can dominate, but economic principles tell us that the commercial street is the right choice. Why? Because the commercial street as a whole can attract more people and income than the sum of the same number of restaurants in the old city. Moreover, competition makes people grow. If there are tigers in the mountains, the monkeys will be more alert. If there are no tigers in the mountains, even if the monkeys dominate, It is also fragile and will be eliminated sooner or later when risks come. We ordinary people express themselves, just like this case. If you are afraid of confrontation, you will never be able to truly settle down. If you just follow others blindly, you will eventually lose your own way. Zelig still has a female doctor who treats him as a patient. What about those of us who consider ourselves healthy? There are thousands of people in the world. Do you want to be yourself, or just be one of the millions that doesn't matter?
Of course, because each of us has different knowledge and vision, it is difficult for us to make accurate judgments when faced with unfamiliar things. What should we do at this time? This is why most people feel confused. "It's not that I don't have my own ideas, it's just that I don't know how to express it." In fact, we all know how to solve this problem, but that method is too boring and far less interesting than game variety shows. We choose to ignore it subconsciously. Here I borrow a piece of advice from Zhihu’s master to end this superficial article mixed with film reviews and chicken soup:
1. Reading, reading, there are many methods on the Internet, but you can never sink your heart to read it.
2. Learning, learning hurts, there are many methods on the Internet, but you never get down to read.
3. When you open your mouth to speak, you must speak in the cold, you must speak when you are thin-skinned, and you must speak when you are beaten.
4. If you don't know what to do now, at least you can start by being a great student.
On the road of being yourself, share with you.
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