The confrontation between civilization and barbarism presents the basic posture of human development, and in the continuous competition with barbarism, civilization has become a social ideal pursued by all mankind. But in the confrontation between the two, we reap not only the victory as scheduled, but also a deeper understanding of civilization and barbarism.
What is civilization? It is precipitated throughout history, and is beneficial to enhancing human adaptation and cognition of the objective world, the sum of humanistic spirit, inventions and creations, and public order and good customs that conform to human spiritual pursuits, which can be recognized and accepted by the vast majority of people.
In The Hunt for the Barbarians, civilization is better understood, it is represented by the head of the children's welfare home, they not only abide by the laws of society but also formulate the norms of survival, in order to prevent a child from flowing into the barbarians, they persevere.
So, what is barbarism? It naturally stands on the opposite side of civilization, uncivilized intellect, acting crudely and brutally, contrary to the progress pursued by all mankind.
In the movie, it's still the pranks and untamable pranks of Little Fat Ricky, the manslaughter and illiterate of Uncle Ector. In the eyes of the civilized side, they should be encircled and suppressed until they are eliminated, so that all mankind can achieve common progress, which is why the protracted jungle hunt has been staged.
The Hunt for the Barbarians
In addition to escape and hunting, the film has other lovely places, such as New Zealand's stunning forest scenery, road-movie-like adventures, and healing emotional interactions. What is even more remarkable is that beneath its shallow cuteness there are also reflections on deep issues, such as the true meaning of civilization and barbarism and their relationship:
Is the civilization of the present pure civilization?
Is the savagery of the present also utter barbarism?
Based on the interpretation of the above two questions, what happens when such civilization and barbarism meet?
< h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" >01 Impure civilization</h1>
Since the evolution of human civilization is not achieved overnight, it is a slow development process from low to high, so even if there are milestones in history that can be marked as the development of civilization, there is no clear dividing line between civilization and barbarism. Therefore, civilization will always be mixed with some barbarism, and the so-called development is just constantly eliminating these barbaric elements, but this is a process that can never be eliminated.
Therefore, the civilization in the movie is of course not pure, it has a lot of impurities, such as prejudice, discrimination ... These impurities are also the factors that lead the protagonists Ricky and Exto to extremes.
Deep-seated prejudices
It is Paula, the head of the children's welfare institute, who is very stubbornly prejudiced against Ricky, and in the process of dealing with this naughty boy for many years, she should have been the one who should know Ricky's needs the most, but her understanding of him is one-sided, thin, and impersonal.
Paula's mantra of "not giving up on a child" sounds like an extreme sense of responsibility, but it is actually a formalism that can only comfort herself. When she sends Ricky to her newest adoptive family, Bella and Extor, here's how she introduces the child to Aunt Bella:
He is a little villain who does nothing wrong, disobedient, loves to steal, spit, throw stones, kick things...
Bad deeds, no good, the child had never glowed in her eyes.
When Ricky's escape became the big news of the whole country, the morning news host asked Paula Ricky what kind of child paula Ricky was, and she still answered negatively. But the host, as a bystander who met Ricky for the first time, she was curious with a normal, objective attitude:
Even so, Paula, he was still just a child, he was alone in the jungle, and he must have been scared.
Her curiosity and questions reveal the right vision of the child, even if he is naughty, but he still has the nature of a child, he will be afraid, will cry, of course, may love. But Paula didn't think so, she laughed, she didn't think Ricky was the kind of timid kid who did nothing evil, and there was no soft place in his heart that could be pierced by fear.
Civilization has long carried such prejudices, suppressing Ricky's desire to seek recognition and help. The formalistic law enforcement methods and the rigid and extreme evaluation system make Ricky aware of the hypocrisy of civilization, if civilization is to lock him in the house, civilization is to make him despair, then where should he find freedom and happiness?
Looking for the antithesis of civilization, barbarism, he tries small-scale pranks, desires to become a rapper, admires gangster society, and finally escapes with Uncle Exeto. This is not an instinctive act made because of the inherent evil of sex, but an appeal when you surrender to civilization but are not truly accepted. He thought it was hope to turn around and go barbaric, but it was nothing more than a misleading mistake in civilization.
Preconceived discrimination
The media must evaluate a stranger and cannot leave the background investigation, and the understanding of this stranger by ordinary people must rely on the media that masters the role of public opinion guidance, which forms an information dissemination chain.
The news media in a civilized society need to strive for objectivity and fairness while maintaining timeliness, and must not influence the judgment of the readership with subjective and misleading language.
But apparently, the newspaper that carried the news of Ricky's escape from Uncle Ector was preconceived in the initial background research. Uncle Ector's drunken manslaughter in his youth led to his attitude towards social avoidance, and he lived on the edge of the dense forest, hunting for a living, illiterate, and a fierce face, which constituted the social impression of his barbarism.
Because of such a previous conviction and such a marginal attitude to life, the media speculated that he was psychopathic and behaved dangerously. At the same time, because of such sloppy news reports, people believed it to be true and sounded a defensive alarm for this dangerous person in their hearts.
At the forest supply depot, the three hunters meet Ricky and Ector, who are resting here, for the first time, but they come up and ask Ricky:
Did he (Uncle Ector) hurt you?
Ricky didn't recognize that this was a biased question, and he answered truthfully:
No, but I've fallen into a trap...
The hunter didn't have time to hear the real meaning:
Did he push you into the trap? child?
Although the media coverage may disturb people's judgment, they neither believe in the reality in front of them, nor do they have the desire to dig out the truth, and they are blind to the current atmosphere of peace between the two of them, Ricky's safety and thoughtfulness. Their objective evaluation system was turned off when they first saw Uncle Ector. Even when Ricky yells that his uncle hasn't kidnapped him and threatens them with a gun to let go of Extor, they still believe that the child has been brainwashed and controlled.
Ricky and Uncle Héctor escape, but they don't escape the preconceived notions. Ricky said to Uncle Ector:
I'll tell them you're taking care of me.
But Uncle Héctor did not believe the world:
It doesn't matter what you say to them, they won't believe you.
Ricky and Héctor, who originally lived in the blurred zone between civilization and barbarism, were stranded in an island because of the death of Aunt Bella, the bridge between them and society, and because of the prejudices in civilization, they completely embarked on the road of chasing barbarism.
It's ironic and dramatic, and civilization wants to help the uncivilized crowds and push them out.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" >02 incomplete barbarism</h1>
The escape route between the two is the process of their acquaintance with themselves and each other, from looking at each other unfavorably to relying on each other. Ricky creates pleasure and Ector teaches the technique. You can see that Ricky's survival skills are improving, and you can see that Exto's hard heart is softening, and they have left traces of civilization on the way to barbaric escape.
Versatile "little villain"
Paula, the head of the welfare institute, denounces the little villain, who has an unknown side, and he has a little knowledge and the ability to make full use of this knowledge.
In his field experiences, he always needed two things the most: toilet paper and books. Civilization left a little mark on him, and the complete change of circumstances prompted him to learn the skill of survival. But the situation made him dirty on the outside, but it did not completely make him give up the good character and habits he already had.
He would read, under a campfire at night, for the illiterate Uncle Ector. He would sing, twisting his body in the wild forest, bringing melodies to the wild. He also writes, writes rhyming little poems, and injects a bit of wishful thinking:
Trees, birds, rivers, the sky
Ran away with my uncle
And then together forever
You can see in the little poem that there is a soft place in his heart. It's not just that he holds a hot water bottle in his memory of Aunt Bella. During the hunt, Ricky had a brief encounter with the head of the welfare home, and on the edge of a ditch that separated the civilized from the barbarians, Paula took out a bag of nuts to tease Ricky, promising him that he would only confess his uncle and explain that everything was forced by him, and would not send him to the juvenile correctional center.
Gluttonous Ricky craves good food, and the fearful Ricky craves stability, but he knows that his family who can give him warmth is the hardest to come by, and he replies to Paula as he turns around and runs away:
Family members cannot be traded.
When civilized people capture barbarians, they use inferior threats and shameless temptations, but the barbarians return her resistance with innocence and affection.
Warm "perverts"
Uncle Ector's savage aura covered from his head to the soles of his feet, and he did not trim his edges, his eyes were sharp, and he did not smile. But he is not a thorough sociopath, he has access to civilized living conditions that Bella has created for him, as he himself says:
Bella has no family, that's why she wants to take care of you and then sympathize with me, and she wants to help us when the world abandons us.
Circumstances change people, so under the influence of Bella, There is still warmth in Exto, who is illiterate and unable to discern the knowledge of civilization, but he understands the laws of the wilderness. Not only did he take good care of Ricky, but he also taught him what he knew, telling him that if he went up the river, he could see the direction; he could catch an eel with a lame leg...
The seed of civilization that Bella planted on him did not dry up, and it regained nourishment during the days that Extor and Ricky had been with. So Ecktor, who is often unsmiling, will thank Ricky for carrying Bella's ashes with him and encouraging Ricky to read his haiku on the bed. Even at the end of the story, he is able to snap his fingers and recite another little poem by Ricky word for word:
Me and this little fat guy
We ran away, ate, and read together
And it was the best time of my life
Bella's death meant the departure of the only civilization in the world that affirmed him, and the world looked at him with colored glasses and thought he would inevitably fall into danger. In the same way, he cannot fully trust civilization, but he is only hesitant and hesitant, in a deep wilderness where he can get his own way, but it is not impossible to enter civilization.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >03 When civilization meets barbarism</h1>
Completely opposite
Although civilizations are not pure enough and barbarism is not complete, when they misunderstand each other and miss the opportunity to read what they have in common with each other, all that remains is a fierce confrontation.
Civilization has the responsibility to purify backwardness and ignorance, but it should also give the barbarians the freedom to argue and prove, to allow them to criticize not in denial, to approve of their escape from betrayal.
Ricky had the desire to have a civilized family that should not always look at him with the eyes of a discipliner, treat him kindly, and be tolerant of him. He didn't ask for much, but Aunt Bella's birthday cake, a birthday song that he sang casually, and a hot water bottle satisfied him, and no one gave him a birthday before coming to this house.
The same is true of Uncle Héctor, who has a previous conviction and civilization has released him from a visible prison, but he has been living in a cell of prejudice. He lived on the edge of the nearly inaccessible jungle, teetering between the hesitation of acceptance and non-acceptance in the civilized world.
The paranoia in barbarism is also terrible. Ricky would rather burn the warehouse and disguise himself as a fake death than believe that he has any hope of a new life, believing that his home is a juvenile correctional facility, which is full of misfortune and cruelty. When he and Uncle Héctor had been surrounded by the police to the point where there was no way out, he still encouraged Uncle Héctor to resist to the end with the courage to burn out the last bullet.
The opposition between civilization and barbarism is essentially a confrontation of power and paranoia, and although it is doomed to the cruelty of defeat on one side, they are inevitable.
Absolute encirclement
As you already know, civilization is the civilization of the majority, barbarism is the barbarism of the minority, and their opposition is destined to be the ostensible result of civilization encircling and suppressing barbarism, which is also foreseeable in the film.
On their way to escape, Ricky and Exto meet a strange man named Sam, who lives in the forest and is half mad and half sane.
He had grass stalks all over his back, so that he could be human on the front and grass on the reverse, both as an identity in barbarism and as a disguise that could blind civilization.
He also enthusiastically helped Ricky and Hacto put a bowl on their heads, telling them that the government would not be able to see them. Equally ironic is their attempt to escape, trying to escape from the tunnel, only to find that the tunnel has not yet been dug...
You will find that Sam's journey to barbarism is full of self-deception, and he claims that he does not want to return to society at all, like a figure who is completely detached from society and government. Such a character exists both to hint at the end of Ricky's escape from Ecktor and to prove that no one can completely sever ties with human civilization, even if you are in the middle of a desolate forest.
Barbarism was defeated by civilization, which was also the end that Exto expected, who was no longer struggling.
Make concessions to each other
The first half of the film is lighthearted and witty, but the ending moves toward healing, and in showing the transformation of personal destiny and personality, it also reveals another relationship between civilization and barbarism — mutual concessions.
Ricky's arbitrary behavior was not punished too severely, and instead of being sent to the juvenile detention center as expected, he was adopted by a harmonious family with tolerance and goodwill. This is the concession of civilization to this barbarian who has some good qualities.
Uncle Ector ended his short prison life and was sent to the home of the old man, where, despite his boredom and loneliness, he learned to read and write poetry, fading his antipathy and rejection of civilization. This is a barbaric compromise on civilization.
At the end of the film, they return to the dense forest, this time no longer to escape, they are looking for the legendary extinct birds. After the battle, the barbaric land is not without grass, there is still new life and hope.
If they had foreseen the outcome of the encounter between civilization and barbarism in the first place, would they have fled?
Of course it will, not only will it, but it will inevitably escape. This is not out of fear of fate, but with the courage to do it knowing that it cannot be done.
With resistance, you can not be tamed in the first place. In the long process, deliberately or unintentionally leak the appeal to fate. Only in this way can narrow civilizations recognize the power contained in barbarism, and respect and accept it.
It is the escape that gives people an idea of what true civilization and true barbarism look like, and that there are other possibilities between them besides conflict.
Therefore, running away is useful and glorious.