Note: There are spoilers below
Recently, I watched the horror film "The Barbarian" and found its political metaphors very interesting.
But the online film reviews did not mention this, so I decided to write one.
"Savage" is a thrilling horror film, but at its core, it is actually an exploration of the reasons for the decline of Detroit, a city known as the "American ghost town".
Detroit was once a thriving city known for its automobile manufacturing industry, and at its peak, 90% of the world's cars were produced a year.
But starting in the '70s, Detroit's population plummeted, the white middle class fled en masse, more and more homes were vacant, filled with paupers and drug addicts, and crime was rampant.
Detroit became a "ghost town."
I have the impression that there are several crime horror films, all set in Detroit.
For example, the 1987 version of "Robocop", the story takes place in Detroit, in the film the protagonist turned into a machine and returned to the house where he lived, but it was completely empty.
It feels like "vacant houses" are the symbol of the city of Detroit.
There is also the 2016 horror film "Hold Your Breath", a group of young people robbed an old man in a deserted neighborhood in Detroit, and the old man turned out to be a soldier, so the group of young people was abused.
This "Barbarian" is also about Detroit.
And it is a little different from the above two, in addition to bringing the audience sensory stimulation, it also combines current political issues to reveal why Detroit is in decline.
Why is Detroit in decline?
The answer is excessive liberal democracy, or excessive political correctness.
In the film, the heroine rents a Detroit house online in order to find a job, and when she arrives, she finds it an abandoned neighborhood.
Then she discovers that in the depths of this house there is a secret room where a naked strange man lives.
This strange man usually doesn't do anything, just plays the mother and feeds the child.
She treats the heroine as her own child, feeds her every day, and if she does not drink milk, she will die a terrible death.
What does this episode mean?
It is a metaphor for the shortcomings that Detroit's once high welfare system has brought to the city.
At that time, the three major automobile giants, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, created countless jobs for Detroit. Brought prosperity to the city,
But then an organization called the United Auto Workers was born, the union.
The union demanded that manufacturers improve the treatment of auto workers, and often held general strikes, making it impossible for manufacturers to produce normally.
In desperation, the manufacturer had to agree to increase the wages and benefits of workers.
At that time, Detroit auto workers were extremely high hourly wages, and for every car produced, they also had to enjoy considerable health insurance costs.
I read online that there was a time when GM earned as much as $70 an hour, and for every car produced, it also gave workers $1500 in benefits.
This is not to mention, the manufacturer also has to give the worker's family subsidies according to the headcount, and when a worker retires, the manufacturer must continue to pay the worker's family pension and medical insurance for life.
This has led to a result, in order to get more money, many people desperately have children, and some people even live on this.
In the film, the earliest owner of that house kidnapped many women, gave birth to children for him in the secret room, and the children born gave birth to each other, and finally created the monster.
Coupled with drugs and crime, it naturally becomes a dirty and rotten scene in the film.
This is a metaphor for the evil consequences of high welfare.
In reality, because the three major auto giants have to pay tens of billions of high benefits every year, one of them has gone bankrupt, and the rest have withdrawn from Detroit in order to survive, and the city has become a "ghost town".
In addition, there are also domestic views that in addition to the high welfare system, there is also excessive protection of black civil rights, which is often called "black life is expensive" that crushes Detroit.
Automakers settled in Detroit and needed a large number of workers, a role naturally played by blacks, which led to the fact that most of Detroit's population was black.
In 1967, a massive black civil rights movement broke out in Detroit, and the government even sent the army to suppress it, which greatly damaged the city.
In this battle between black and white, the white middle class fled, leaving Detroit with a large number of talents, leaving behind blacks with low literacy levels.
This is obviously not good for urban development.
Corresponding to the plot in the film, the neighbor of the first homeowner said that he was moving away, and the place was simply terrible.
Of course, respecting the rights of black people is inviolable to this day, so the film does not tell this aspect.
There is also a plot in the film that enriches this "politically correct" atmosphere, that is, one of the owners of the house, the TV star.
He was accused of sexually assaulting an actress and desperately needed a sum of money, so he returned to his old home in Detroit with the intention of selling it, only to be involved in a killing.
This small background detail undoubtedly alludes to the Me Too movement that swept the world in previous years.
In previous years, no movie dared to mention this matter, but in recent years, many stars have been cleared of their accusations, and gradually some people have begun to shoot this theme.
And the creators still believe that the Me Too movement is justified, so the TV star starts out like a good guy, but then shows his face and turns out to be a selfish bastard.
In short, "The Barbarian" is a reflection on the "evils of liberal democracy" in the United States, revealing the roots of a city's decline.
If left unreflected, this will be the root cause of America's decline.
Reading this, I believe you think the same as me, that is, when will China come to Hegang?
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