Smell the Woman, a 1992 film that won four Oscar nominations, was also awarded an Oscar for his film that beat Robert Downey Jr.'s Chaplin. The theme of this film has nothing to do with women and perfumes, it all starts with two unfortunate men.
Charlie was a student at an aristocratic school with excellent grades but from a poor family, and in order to maintain his studies, he had to earn money by working part-time. To earn money for a flight home on Thanksgiving, Charlie found a job as a caregiver. The object of care is a retired lieutenant colonel, who was originally a staff member of the 36th president of the United States, Lyndon Baynes Johnson, and the candidate for General Neiding, but he accidentally pulled a grenade after getting drunk once, which not only destroyed his eyes, but also buried his political future. The two's first meeting was also broken up by the lieutenant colonel's strange personality, but Charlie, who was strapped for money, took the job.
Compared to the lieutenant colonel's self-inflicted guilt, Charlie's misfortune can be described as a senseless disaster. Charlie, who comes out of the study room late at night, inadvertently witnesses with his classmate George as several classmates prepare to tease the headmaster. The next day, the principal was painted in public. In order to find out the prankster, the angry headmaster recruited two witnesses, unlike George, who is the elite of society and his father is the president of General Motors in the United Kingdom, Charlie is just a powerless and powerless poor boy, and naturally becomes the headmaster's breakthrough.
The principal left Charlie alone, and after a verbal threat, he gave him two options: say who he was, and he would escort Charlie into Harvard; and keep his mouth shut, and Charlie would be expelled at a school-wide hearing on Monday. For the sake of the principle in his heart, Charlie decided to reject the headmaster and agreed with George to remain silent on the matter.
Distraught, Charlie arrives at Frank's house, but Frank says he is going to New York and asks Charlie to go with him. Although he was reluctant, after all, he took over the work, and Charlie had to agree. The two went to New York, ate the most expensive burgers, lived in a luxurious presidential suite, and customized expensive suits. Although the Colonel spends thousands of dollars with Charlie and indulges in pleasure, the film is always shrouded in a gloomy color, because the fate of the two seems to have been inevitably destroyed: the Lieutenant Colonel decides to end his life with a may fourth after the final revelry; and Charlie, who is determined not to violate his principles, will be ruined by a small headmaster in a lynching trial on Monday, which is called a hearing.
During this time, Frank also learned about Charlie's situation, all of which was just a child in the eyes of frank, who had been through the world in politics, and he pointed out to the point that George would definitely tell his father, and Charlie would bear all the firepower, probably out of conceit, and he condescended to show Charlie the simplest and least frustrated way - accepting the principal's bribe and preemptively informing. But the upright Charlie decided to stay true to himself.
The next day, Frank and Charlie meet donna, a strange girl, in a restaurant, and frank and Donna's elegant tango danced with "One Step Away" has been regarded as a classic by countless people.
Frank at this time was gentleman, mature, elegant, confident, and who would have thought that this was a discouraged man who was about to end himself. After he invites the girl to dance, the girl says that she is afraid that her dance steps will be wrong, to which Frank replies: "There is no so-called wrong step in tango, unlike life... If you make a mistake, just move on. Frank's words also seem to imply that his life has gone wrong, and his life is not like tango, he has no intention and is unable to continue.
Frank again persuades Charlie to inform the headmaster in exchange for a ticket to Harvard, but this time out of genuine love for Charlie, the two become closer because of various things. More importantly, as a staff member of the president and a candidate for a general, all kinds of big people around him have not let his arrogance be half restrained, but the poor boy in the middle school has undoubtedly won the respect of the lieutenant colonel in the face of the choices that can control his life. But Charlie still did not waver, and Frank heard a meaningful sigh: "Then you have a lot of suffering to eat in this world." ”
After the revelry, it was the end that Frank had prepared for himself. While Frank was about to commit suicide, Charlie arrived, and after some argument and robbery, Frank put down his gun, and for a moment the two men burst into tears. Many people think that the twist here in the film is a bit far-fetched, will Frank change his suicidal thoughts because of only a few words? But I don't think there's anything wrong with the movie here, it's very reasonable.
Frank said that he had been rebelling against the rules of the world all his life, only in this way could he find the meaning of his existence, and at this time, blind and hopeless, this man had been defeated by fate, powerless to change but unwilling to compromise, he chose to drink bullets and commit suicide, which was his last struggle with life, but it could also be said to be another helpless compromise.
It was Frank's luck to meet Charlie at this point. The two are at the bottom of their destiny, standing at the crossroads of life. Although Charlie is gentle and even a little shy, deep down Charlie and Frank are undoubtedly a fighter, and both have something in their hearts that they have to protect no matter what.
Messing around with big people all day, Frank is used to good people, but Charlie comes to his side- a hairy boy with no money and no power, but he has qualities that even those big people don't have. He has always been conceited and lost in the battle of life, and this little fighter who seems weak and penniless in his own eyes also faces the calamity of life, but he holds the sword of his principle and never bows his head. Even if he knew that the torrent of fate would engulf and crush him, he still wouldn't budge.
And this undoubtedly brought Frank quite a shock, but also shook his decision - at first, Charlie, who seemed so inconspicuous to him, chose to insist, whether he had to choose to compromise. So the moment he picked up the gun, I believed that his heart must have been struggling, and Charlie's exhortation at this time was only the last straw that affected his decision.
Frank's life is saved by Charlie's appearance, but Charlie has to go back to the hearing. George did sit with his father in the judgment seat, and the lonely Charlie looked like a prisoner. Unexpectedly, Frank shows up, and he attends in place of Charlie's parents. At the hearing, even though his father was the president of General Motors in the United Kingdom, George was pressured to say his friend's name, while the powerless Charlie chose to stick to his principles and bottom line when George had already spoken and the perpetrator was not even his friend. And what awaits him will be the consequences of his expulsion.
At this time, Frank speaks generously in his characteristic way, defending Charlie's dignity, while also protecting the boy who changed his life with victory. This speech was undoubtedly the climax of the whole play, and for the first time when I was a child, I felt that words could be so cheerful and deafening. One of the sentences I have used in English essays in the college entrance examination.
However, this generous statement is also the most controversial part of the whole play – is Charlie's silence right or wrong?
Every time you get to this point, the bullet screen and the comments will be debated endlessly. Is it right to harbor the wicked? Is it wrong to stick to your principles? The answers to many of life's questions are not black and white, and I think everyone has their own answers to this question, because everyone's values and outlook on life are different, and in his speech Frank himself admitted that he did not know whether he was right or wrong about Charlie's silence today, all he saw was that Charlie had his own principles, and he did it at all costs. If you take a step back, you will lose something important forever, after all, "the soul has no prosthesis."
There was a sentence in the speech that I thought could put an end to this controversy: I am standing at the crossroads of life now, I always know which way I should go, without exception, I just know, but I never take this road, because this road is too difficult to go. 」
I am also faced with choices in my life, I believe that everyone is the same, every time I know how to do the right thing, but because of laziness, because of fear, because of greed, I have also made the wrong choice again and again. At this time, I was working overtime to write articles, and I actually thought about going home from work immediately, and it was a big deal to submit the manuscript next week. There seems to be an Earlies mirror in Harry Potter on the fork in the road of life, in which we can always see the most urgent and intense desire in our hearts. Even if you know the right choice in your heart, you are still tempted to go astray again and again. Even the nearly perfect lieutenant colonel in the play, in addition to blindness and conceit, almost chose to die more easily for him. So I think it's less important whether this thing is correct or not, and it is even more precious to be able to remember the original intention like Charlie, and to be able to stick to the path that he thinks is correct no matter what.
The blind Frank can judge a woman's message by the woman's scent, and I think he must have smelled the sweet fragrance emanating from Charlie's soul. I hope that you can also become the idealistic fighters of your own life, regain the things in your life that are better and more worthy of cherishing than fame and fortune, compromise and perseverance, and make choices that make you regretless.
The above is just a little bit of personal humble opinion, I am Bang Lan, we will see you in the next issue of the tour.