--Starting with determinism and fatalism
Author: Zhang Yiwen
The film "Blue Blood Sands" is a 1948 Western film directed by John Houston, set in the American "gold rush", telling the story of three gold diggers who go from nothing to gold and finally to disillusionment under the corrosion of greedy nature. Westerns are a commercially charged film genre. However, on the basis of following the commercial tradition, this film touches and even stings the evil of human greed, realizing an expression of exhortation meaning, making it a classic of Westerns, and the value of reviving the classic lies in the practical significance of the historical present.
Poster of "Sands of Green Blood"
Today, under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, some people have been blinded by money and have not hesitated to embark on the road of breaking the law and committing crimes, and there have been mercenary behaviors such as manufacturing and selling fake masks in society. We cannot allow such things to happen again and again, and avoid the blind pursuit of wealth paranoia, the disregard for life and emotions. In this regard, we may get some inspiration from the movie "Green Blood Sands", and then correctly treat the relationship between people and wealth, and complete the redemption of the soul. Here, the author intends to analyze it from the perspective of determinism and fatalism.
Determinism and fatalism are a set of philosophical concepts: determinism holds that any result is determined by corresponding actions, and that man's actions cause his result; fatalism holds that everything that man has been predestined before he is born, and that man is only done in a step-by-step manner. Leaving aside the philosophical arguments of right and wrong, just from the perspective of the two to cut into "The Sands of Blue Blood", you will find that no matter what kind of vision, the greed of human nature eventually leads to the demise of man. As far as determinism is concerned, in the film, Dolby, Curtin, howard are not rich people, Dolby, Cortin is even poor to the point of no food to eat, sleeping with rats and insects, the situation of the two determines the pursuit of wealth, so after being deceived by the dock owner, the two gave up the dock work and decided to go gold panning with the old man Howard. The development of the plot is like the simple causal theory (referring to the cause that leads to the result, rather than the good cause and effect in the metaphysical sense), the three gold diggers have gone through difficulties to find the gold mine and began a 10-month gold panning process, just as the accumulation of wealth is increasing, Dobisi's greed is getting heavier, the element of human nature begins to sway determinism, the three people who have seen the good can return to the city normal life smoothly, under the influence of greed, Dubisi shot at Curtin. Losing his companions, Dubicy decided that he was physically and mentally exhausted and unable to deal with the Indian bandits, and was eventually killed, and the bags of golden sand were scattered on the ground by the bandits who did not "know the goods" and scattered with the wind. From the perspective of the framework structure of the narrative, each result corresponds to the protagonist's actions, poverty - work - cheated - gold panning - split - broken, the important variable is the greed of human nature, if there is no greed, the three can be as originally thought, get the gold and live a good life, but the reality is that Dobisi died, Cotting went to Dallas, Howard stayed in the Indian tribe.
Stills from "The Sands of Green Blood"
Human greed, as a deterministic variable, is quantitative in the fatalistic sense, that is, the performance of Dolby's greed in "The Sands of Blood" is fixed, while Curtin and Howard, who are also wealth grabbers, are more peaceful. At the beginning of the film, Dobissi is constructed as a man who gets for nothing, and he has begged a man in a white suit three times for food money, until the third time the man complains that he is "begging for another person". In the context of Chinese and Western cultures, it is a shameful manifestation, in the West it is against the "duty" proposed by the Lutherans, and in China it is the rebellion against Confucius's "unrighteous and rich and expensive, and I am like a floating cloud", resulting in greed in human nature, in the sense of fatalism, Dobisi's opening chapter corresponds to the end of his death due to wealth. It is worth mentioning that Dolby's behavior also constantly confirms the warning of the old man Howard, such as Howard once said before leaving, "Gold will change the soul of a person." It is dangerous to find a partner to go with, and murderers often lurk in it. On his return, Dobissi became the murderer. For example, when looking for gold, Howard said to Dubisi that "water is precious, sometimes it is more precious than gold", "When you meet Indian robbers, they may kill you because of the boots on your feet", but in a word, Dubisi encountered robbers when he was extremely thirsty in search of water, and the first thing the robbers did after killing him was to put on his boots. On the contrary, Because Curtin chose to save between "saving and not saving" when he was trapped in the Dobissy mine, this means that he gave up the possession of his companions' wealth, and also showed that his emphasis on the value of life and emotional value was much higher than wealth, which was a victory for human greed; Howard, when he left the gold mine, demanded that the destroyed mountain be restored, reflecting the great wisdom of man and nature, and also the gratitude for the gifts of nature. As a result, the greedy Dolby is eventually killed, and the good and wise Corting and Howard end up as they wish, like fatalism, the greedy one dies in the dark, and the good and wise person lives on.
Whether from a deterministic or fatalistic point of view, whether human greed manifests itself as quantitative or variable, the greedy person always has a definite ending, and it is also ethical and exhortatory. In fact, in addition to the punishment of greed, the film also shows a reasonable attitude toward wealth many times, such as Howard mentions, "The innocence of gold depends entirely on whether the person who found the gold is the right person", or after the three of them have found a certain amount of gold sand, Both Cotting and Howard agree to close it because it is enough. Obviously, compared to Chaplin's satire of the lust for wealth in The Gold Rush, "The Sands of Blood" goes further, and it makes timely suggestions while satirizing: to obtain and use wealth reasonably, rather than to be subject to wealth.
The "gold rush" in American history is no less than the current phenomenon of "gold worship", and "Blue Blood Golden Sands" is like a gold rush apocalypse, exhorting people to rationally view gold panning behavior and restrain greed in human nature. Although the film has been released more than seventy years ago, its exhortation meaning is like a mirror that illuminates the primitive stupidity in people's hearts; it is also like a wake-up call, constantly reminding people that they do not have to and should not take the pursuit of money as the joy of life, because the greatest wealth, such as health, family, friendship, cannot be measured by materials. (Zhang Yiwen)