Swans sing poignant songs when they are dying, until the last moment of their lives. Although biologists have not confirmed the real reason for singing, people have been willing to believe this poignant legend since ancient times. - Introduction
Swan Elegy is a new Apple sci-fi film written and directed by Benjamin Clary and starring Mahersala Ali, Naomi Harris, Glenn Cross, Okafina and others. The film tells the story of a loving husband and father who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and faces a controversial plan to replace himself with a cloned copy. It will be "a subversive drama that takes place in the near future, exploring how far and how much one sacrifices one would go in order to make the life of one's loved one live a happier life."
When life and death are opposed, death is no longer the end of death
The film starts from the theme of cloning people, but the film is not limited to the setting of science fiction films, the film in addition to unmanned, automatic disinfection glasses, watch cameras and other small objects, there is almost no science fiction color, although the film seems to be exploring the future, thinking about the development of cloning technology, but aside from these, the core of the film is actually thinking about death, what is the end of death, the end of the flesh, but the continuation of another way is not death. On the brink of death, facing another "self," human beings should go where to go.
Starting from the personal choice of the protagonist Cameron, the film brings the audience into a story situation: when you know that you have little life and have to die, but there is another way to "clone" you to live forever, no one in the world knows that you are dead, where do you go. The point of view of the film is to show love, to show life and death, for the sake of your loved ones, how far you will go, but in fact, the core of the thoughts he expresses is deeper, and he is discussing with us what is life, what is life, what is death.
In the original sense, death is the end, and everyone has to face the fact that he has died and disappeared, but the protagonist in "Swan Elegy" is different, his choice is to use cloning technology, let the clone replace his own life, accompany his children and his unborn children. The Swan Elegy is about the last song of the swan before his death, it is said that the swan will sing a poignant song until the end of his life, so the swan elegy is regarded as the world's best song, for the protagonist Cameron, his situation is the same as the swan, and his last song is to agree to clone the human to live instead of himself.
The moment of life and death at the end of the film also takes on a new meaning.
Fragmented memories dissolve the content of the heavy content
The film uses interludes and sequences to tell the story, the film as a whole is a very dull story, but the fragmented way of telling, using dreams to slowly recall their original life structure, gives the audience a feeling of laughter and dissolves the serious atmosphere of the original film. Like many other science fiction films, most of the meetings are romantic moments with their wives, and they deepen the content of the film step by step with the reluctance of their families
Fragmented memories to some extent to speed up the pace of the film, "Swan Elegy" itself is very slow pace, although cloaked in science fiction, in fact, it is for life and death, for cloning technology thinking, the film is more important to emphasize deep thinking, not just to tell the true color, after the aftersound is also one of the charm of the film's self.
Jack and Cameron, who are emotionally externalized inside
Although the cloned Jack looks and remembers the same as Cameron, and even in the mouth of the "hospital", Jack is only a continuation of Cameron, but in fact, Jack is not An individual of Cameron, but a new beginning. Cameron and Jack can also be seen to some extent as an externalized manifestation of the two emotions facing the problem of death and survival, or facing the problem of cloning, and whether survival or death is interpreted by people in different situations, and living and dying also have different interpretations for them. In fact, the interpretation of clones is not uncommon, but the special feature of "Swan Elegy" is that it starts from individual emotions and tells the living conditions of people to be replaced, and clones are not directly replaceable, but also need to coexist with the ontology, and their contradictions and conflicts are born.
The first outbreak of the protagonist Cameron is because he has been worried that the clone is not doing a good job, but he is worried that the clone is doing too well, so he is abandoned by the world, so he angrily hangs up when he sees him on the phone with his wife. But with another sudden fainting, let the male protagonist examine himself, make up his mind to return to the medical institution, began the preparation of the clone, in the handover stage of the two, Cameron more than once secretly returned home, but he did not re-enter his own life, but secretly watched the life of the clone and his own family in the storage room, when life changed from staring at the subject to being gazed at, to some extent it also implied the departure of the protagonist.
Selfishness is for human nature, on the one hand, longing to be remembered by wives and children, on the other hand, not wanting wives and daughters to face real cruelty, then the theme of the film also appears: how long you can go for love. In the end, Cameron and Jack sat facing each other, quite a sense of "the sunset is infinitely good, but it is near dusk", for the two of them, this moment is both sunset and sunrise. The dialogue with the subconscious, the struggle between the two, the film finally gives the director's choice with the camera, cameron and Jack's final conversation, and the overall picture does not continue to use symmetrical shots, but favors Cameron. It is also implied that Cameron is gone and that Jack will officially live in his place. The handshake of the two men seemed to be a silent farewell, silent but very powerful.
Although the film is set in the near future, cloning technology has not been so developed so far, but his overall discussion is true and powerful, because it discusses life and death, discusses life, discusses family affection, discusses companionship, and each theme is closely related to our lives. Everyone will face life and death, in fact, whether there is a clone or not, everyone will face Cameron's state, afraid of being forgotten, afraid of being forgotten, just because of the emergence of clones, there are more contradictions. From an individual point of view, the director finally gave his own choice, because of love, all willing to give up, let himself bear more than his own family and loved ones. With the continuous development of technology, there will be more discussions on such issues in the film, the development of frozen man technology and sheep cloning technology are visible to the naked eye in our lives, and there are more and more films about life and death and technology, and I hope that this kind of film can stimulate us to think and discuss more about life.