Recently, the box office of the movie "Chosin Lake" has been constantly breaking records. Many people, while relishing the achievements of domestic films, inevitably compare them with domestic and foreign war films. The United States' "Saving Private Ryan" and China's "Chosin Lake", both films are based on the theme of war, from the perspective of ordinary soldiers to ask the meaning of war, but finally came to two completely opposite conclusions, what is the specific reason, today Bai Yu will have a good chat with you
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >, the salvation and sacrifice of Private Ryan</h1>
In the movie "Saving Private Ryan", the asymmetry of the number of characters in the story highlights the interpretation of the relationship between the meaning of salvation and sacrifice. The viewer sees how the collective values the individual and the efforts made to save the lives of the individual.
When the U.S. military decided to rescue Private Ryan, the most concerned paradox in the film appeared: Is it worth it for eight soldiers, including officers, to save one person? The rescue squad had discussed the issue as soon as it set out on its way. Captain Miller gave the answer: "Ryan is just a symbol for me".
This symbol represents the heroic image of the American soldier, in this environment, saving the soldier Ryan is not just an individual life, but a collective concern for the life of the individual, he represents thousands of American soldiers in the war, and Ryan's family symbolizes countless families in the United States. All mothers hope for the peace of their son, for every wish to return home, and to save him is like saving lives, saving families, and saving the goodness of this world.
Because of this symbol, the U.S. Navy gave Spielberg the "Outstanding Public Service Award." This reward shows that the content of this film is in line with the taste of the US government and mainstream values.
In Chosin Lake, MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the United Forces, said the same famous phrase: "We can finish the war and go home before Christmas." The same is said to be home, but the meaning of expression is completely different. In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the United States was both the initiator and perpetrator of the war.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" >2, the sacrifice and salvation of Chosin Lake</h1>
In "Saving Private Ryan", several teammates of the US army look for a nameplate from the fallen soldier to see if there is Ryan in it. Several soldiers around them clearly used the signs that pin the lives of their comrades as poker, and played the game happily under the gaze of the soldiers marching around. Even Captain Miller, who was the spiritual leader, did not stop it, but instead smiled and acquiesced in the occurrence of this situation.
In "Chosin Lake", there is a classic "joining ceremony". From the numbers shouted by the soldiers themselves to the notebooks in the hands of the company commanders, everything shows that this heroic unit has a long history and fine traditions. In contrast, the US military does not have the will to inherit, and the "military soul" is an incomprehensible thing for them.
The most basic need in human nature is the desire to survive. Whether it is a warring soldier or a civilian, when faced with survival and death, the values of the East and the West have different values. Death in war is both mutual and mutual. But as a righteous party in war, any form of death can be called sacrifice, and the death of the enemy is called "annihilation."
In "Chosin Lake", there are those who are sacrificed with explosive packs, and there are also those who are bombed and killed by enemy aircraft, and the film shows the beliefs, ideals, obligations, responsibilities, human nature, etc. in a complex state where reason and emotion are intertwined, and the connotation of sacrifice and death is expressed more richly and profoundly.
The most impressive sacrifice in "Chosin Lake" is the spiritual teacher of the Seventh Company, "Lei Gong". For the sake of the soldiers of the Seventh Company and for the sake of his comrades on the battlefield, he drove the "beacon bombs" that constantly emitted white phosphorus and rushed into the enemy tank group. This kind of righteousness, heroic dedication, sacrifice of the ego, the overall image of the volunteer army to defend the country is representative.
This kind of sacrifice, out of a spontaneous belief in the supremacy of national interests, embodies the immutable ethical and moral law of the supremacy of the interests of the nation and the state and its inviolability. Countless Chinese people have sacrificed their lives for national independence, especially the collective sacrifice of the "Ice Sculpture Company" has also been endowed with a sacred character and sublimated into a noble spiritual symbol.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > third, spiritual core comparison and reflection</h1>
The cruelty of war makes Sino-US war movies have a certain degree of similarity, emphasizing the thinking of human nature. But in fact, the understanding and practice of "war movies" has different trends in different eras and different countries.
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War, the hegemonic rule of the United States was raging around the world, and the war-torn environment also provided a hotbed for the development of American war-themed films.
"The Lone Survivor", "The Fall of Olympus", "The Green Zone", "The Truth", which are the best works of American war films in recent years, invariably reduce the proportion of the portrayal of the grand scenes of the war, but instead emphasize the inner world of the little people in the shadow of the war, and explore the changes in the thoughts and emotions of the characters in the war.
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea has a completely different significance for the countries concerned; it is a civil war that the Korean nation cannot look back on, a war that no one wants to recall and understand" for the United States, and for China, it is "a declaration of the people of Chinese standing up in the east of the world, and it is an important milestone for the Chinese nation to move toward great rejuvenation."
There is an anti-war commonality in most war movies in the United States, and American soldiers are basically deeply tired, they are full of confusion about war, hate war from the heart, long to return home, miss their mothers. Because ordinary people who face the shadow of war for no reason, and those soldiers who are forced to participate in war, are victims of the abuse of hegemonism.
These are very characteristic of the new century of American war movies, from the perspective of soldiers participating in the war, telling the stories of those who experienced the war, and through the depiction of characters and the portrayal of scenes, telling the feelings of home and country under the shadow of war and the distortion of human nature.
Different from American war movies, Chinese war movies are more of a reflection, reflecting on why war exists, why it broke out, and reflecting on the dialectical relationship between home and country in peacetime. Most of China's war-themed films are about the types of films about the war of aggression against China, exposing human nature in the field of war, thinking about survival, and then reflecting on the evils of war through the portrayal of invaders.
In the movie "Chosin Lake", a kind of big country discourse and position expression of "friends come with good wine, enemies come with shotguns" is conveyed. The word "righteousness" comes first, human nature is the core, and while respecting the grand scene narrative of traditional war movies, it can also dig deep into the portrayal of human nature within the film.
From "Shangganling" and "Heroes and Children" to "King Kong Chuan" and "Chosin Lake", the films of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea have always had a consistent and distinct patriotic stance, a character model of revolutionary heroism, and a lofty aesthetic of exuberant masculinity, which is in strong contrast with the historical sadness, rectification of chaos, and darkness of human nature depicted on the basis of reflective and critical stances in war films such as "Black Hawk Down", "Field Platoon", and "Billy Lynn's Halftime War".
Bai Yu commented: Compared with China's long history, the United States is obviously a "young" country, because of the short period of founding, and has not suffered from the real sense of war, which in turn makes the United States for any war is a bystander's God perspective. Therefore, the War Movie from the American perspective is divorced from the standard of moral right and wrong judgment, and the premise of calm thinking makes every shot meaningful. In the eyes of the Americans, the war was not won or lost, and the war was ultimately faced with a lose-lose situation. The main thing our films want to convey is that the just war is victorious. The aim of the ideology and the desire to achieve was to prove that the revolutionary historical path at that time was correct and that the leadership of the Party was wise, so that people could be liberated from the shadow of war and optimistically and positively welcome a new life under the leadership of the revolution.
Wars are not the norm, and our daily lives are bland and trivial. The wars in movies may be more similar to the problems and difficulties we may encounter in real life. Expressing the people and society in war through the artistic way of war films not only reflects the excellent qualities of bravery, strength and unity that we human beings show in the face of war, but also the reflection of human beings on self, life and society stimulated by the film is common.