Author: Month 1
Published with the author's permission
Before officially watching the movie, I was forced to watch the trailer many times before other movies, and the feeling at first was that this African-American actress was really good-looking. I could tell from the trailer that it was a story of fighting for rights, a story of love. Such a story generally does not go anywhere, after all, there are real events behind it, the actors are selected in place, and the director will not have a problem if he does not die. Such a story is also difficult to watch, after all, everyone has become accustomed to watching such "political correctness" and "main theme" movies, and will not feel novel. So I came to the point where I didn't have any films to watch before I came to see this film. The good villain is also a twenty-something person, and he feels that he will no longer be easily moved by the love story, and it is a big deal to eat a bite of dog food.
At the end of the movie, although I was touched by this love and felt that the interpretation was just right, it did not reach the point of tears, and I felt that this was the case. Until the moment when the final subtitles came out.
Seven years after the court's decision, Richard Loving was killed in a car accident caused by a drunken driver. Mildred didn't remarry and has been living in the same home Richard built for her... By 2008, she said in an interview, 'I miss him.' He took care of me. （I miss him. He took care of me.) 'The picture of the last scene is the scene restored in the play: Richard lies in Mildred's arms, and the two people laugh.
I just sat there, tears flowing down uncontrollably, out of shape. At that moment, I understood the subtlety of this film: it refused to create two "heroes", and all it did was to present the lives of these two people. Compared to their ordinary lives and happiness, trials, courts, and changing history are all insignificant little things. It is because I am accustomed to seeing the happiness that flows quietly and without a trace, and the final subtitle becomes a sharp blade into the heart. Reality is not a story, and even if the director wants to, he can't make up a perfect ending. Imagine if the final subtitles were played out, using the technique of using the child's growth and switching time, turning seven years, showing Richard's death, and then turning a few decades, and letting Mildred in 2008 say that line, it might not be a tear that could be wiped away on the spot. Two people do not have the final consummation, can not grow old in vain, but they are still "happy", after all, at the end of life, their relationship is no longer taboo.
In modern times, we don't respect the old traditions of the past, and even if Mildred later remarries someone else, it is not a "shattering love story". As rational human beings, we also know that love is nothing more than hormones, and there is nothing "unique" or "you can't do it". Mildred is not talking about "I love him", but "He took care of me", which may tell the true meaning of this relationship. In the movie, the male protagonist and his African-American friends return home sullen after drinking and chatting, and when he wakes up, Mildred greets him on the bed, he puts his arms around her, weakly and firmly saying, "I take care of you... (I take care of you... I take care of you. After he went, no one could take care of her anymore, and she didn't want anyone else to take care of her.
Back to the movie, looking up the story of two people in reality, the casting of this drama can be described as exquisite, perfectly restoring the old photos left by the two people. I think the two actors grasp this emotion just right, quietly showing a pair of ordinary lovers, and we know that only the ordinary is the most difficult to grasp. It may be that I have seen more of the pompous and forceful "love story" and especially liked this story. Richard of Mune rarely speaks, but he uses all his body language to show his love for her, his determination to take care of her.
There is a small detail in the film, that is, Richard feels the threat of his own calm family outside the news report, sees someone in the family interviewing, feels uneasy, and very hard calls Mildred out to stop all this. But Mildred turned back into the room with a calm face and said a few words—the man had no way to refute it, and as long as she said a word and a look, he lost all his anger. He could only go back to the house and sit next to him, holding his little daughter and watching in amazement.
He didn't fully understand her, he still had a relationship in his heart, but he loved her. He can't say the lines of the "domineering president" like the male protagonist in the idol drama, "I take care of you", and can only shake and hug her, showing his inner weakness, but incomparably firm. What a heavy line. This is a line that requires a lot of courage. In the relationship shown in the film, Richard as a husband is often passive: Mildred can't stand the city life, so he takes her back to his hometown overnight; Mildred is determined to fight for the right, and the fear in his heart is also accompanied to the end. He was by no means powerless to dominate the relationship, it was all because he loved her. And what gave Mildred the courage, after all, as the "black man", she stayed in prison longer and was criticized more.
The more ordinary the relationship, the more everyday the happiness, the more it can set off the ridiculousness of apartheid: they are just a couple everywhere, this is just a very ordinary relationship, and the hometown where they grew up cannot accommodate them. Their children are no different from ordinary children, but they are claimed to be "monsters" that should not be born. We may not understand it now, but looking at the legalization of gay marriage, which is also on the cusp of the storm, will it suddenly dawn on us? At the moment of the court's verdict, at the moment of their victory, a trembling Mildred put down the phone and walked out of the room, not running to his lover who was repairing the car, but just looking at him from a distance. As they were surrounded by questions from reporters coming and going, they didn't speak like the victors, just snuggled up to each other, as they had always done. As enlightened modern people, we may not feel anything, but it is such ordinary happiness that touched the people at that time and pushed the wheel of history.
This is what the reporter felt when he was shooting at Love's house, the untraceable love that he retained in the photos he left behind. Many people at that time could not accept such relationships, and they demonized interracial love, just as people today demonize same-sex marriage. The difference between the sexes is not as good as the people of the time were planted with them today. But no matter what kind of love, what it shows is nothing more than the plain love that any human being can perceive. Marriage is a fundamental human right, and denying this right on the basis of race 'is a direct subversion of the core principle of equality in the Remaining Fourteenth Amendment,' and is a denial of civil liberties to all without due process of law. —Chief Justice Earl Warren
In the wake of the Love incident, states lifted their bans on interracial marriages, opening a new history. But the movie doesn't show a hint of "grandeur" in the end, they just win, they just hug together. The Loving duo did not take advantage of the opportunity to become activists and heroes, but continued to live an ordinary life. Richard's only indication before the court session was, "Tell the court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia."
They don't want to be history, they just fight for the right to live in their hometown, nothing more. The main melody of the interpretation will become the wishful thinking of posterity, the closer to the original mood of the real people, perhaps the more valuable the movie, even if it seems a little too addictive. What the film does not tell is that during Richard's car accident, Mildred loses vision in his right eye. The thought of Mildred finally rejecting city life because of his son's car accident seemed like a family dream. I discussed with my dad about whether she hated not following him at that moment. Dad said that her husband would feel that even if he died a little more tragically, a little more painfully, he could not let her be hurt, and she would find someone to continue to take care of her and grow old with her. How happy he would be, she survived.
Loving, what a clever name. It is the last name of the couple, their common name, and the love between them. Loving, as if Heaven had given such a story to such a couple with a special surname, so that their story would be circulated with the name. None of this would have happened if they hadn't had their desire to return home and reunite with their families, if It hadn't been for Mildred's letter being seen and brought to the attention of the Bar Association. The only thing that can be believed is that even if there is no external coincidence, even if it will not be recognized in the end, they will still stick to each other. This is the most ordinary love.
References:[1] "Richard Loving Biography." The Biography.com website,. http://www.biography.com/people/richard-loving-110716
[2]"Mildred Loving Biography.", The Biography.com website. http://www.biography.com/people/mildred-loving-5884#synopsis