< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > what does the police chief's confession mean? ——Essay on the translated film "Confessions of the Police Chief" (Author: Dai Xuelu).</h1>
"The murderer can kill me, and the judge can send me to jail with a verdict," is the self-description of a police chief living in a Western society where officials and bandits are complicit. Because he only wanted to do justice, to do justice, to punish a gang leader who had committed sixty-three lives. The political film "Confessions of a Police Chief" vividly exposed the accumulated crimes of the Italian mafia in the early 1970s, and profoundly exposed the lies of so-called political democracy and legal justice in capitalist society. Artistically, it inherits and carries forward the characteristics of Italian neorealist cinema and has become one of the influential works in the political film boom that appeared in the international film scene in the early seventies.
Artistically, Confessions of a Police Chief, Confessions of a Police Chief breaks through the traditional way in which such films focus only on political events. It not only vividly portrays the three main characters of police chief Pontavia, prosecutor Quonni and gang leader Lomono, but also portrays Serena, the attorney general, lawyers, Lipma, and even characters such as thieves, fortune tellers, lunatics, thugs, mayors, bankers, and parliamentarians. It is through this group of unforgettable sentient beings that the director of the film truly displays the image of the dark society on the screen, and powerfully renders the political theme he wants to reveal. This film not only provides a good repertoire for us to watch and study the political films that were once famous in the international film world, but also enlightens for exploring how to vividly shape characters on the screen.
The climactic scene of the police chief and the prosecutor engaged in an ideological confrontation on the hillside in the film is not only sonorous and powerful, but also echoes the scene at the end of the procurator's visit to the prison, one by one, and the concept is ingenious. On the hillside, they argue bitterly: prosecutors stubbornly believe that the law is blameless and that the key is to enforce it fairly. The police chief warned him through his own lessons: bourgeois law has always been unfair to the working people. How many bloody cases have been covered up in the name of the law. He used the example of defamation to let the prosecutor also understand what it means to add to the crime, and why there is no excuse. On the other hand, those who commit the most heinous crimes can always go unpunished under the cloak of the law. The prosecutor did not understand this until the last time he visited the prison. As for the end of the film, the prosecutor's stunned treatment of the attorney general in front of the city hall is even more subtle, powerful, and just right. The police chief has given his life to punish the gang leader. What should the prosecutor do and how will the end be in the face of this harsh reality and hypocritical law, and the film leaves the audience with a deep and thought-provoking question.
The film exposes the control of gangster forces in the political circles and the influence of the law as a political event, which is undoubtedly bold and has positive practical significance. It makes people deeply feel the darkness, decay, hypocrisy and cruelty of capitalist society. However, we must also see that the self-inflicted "killing" of the scum of society advocated by Police Chief Bonnevia is not only unworkable, but even harmful. In the late 1970s, the successive political killings, hijacking of airplanes, and hostage-taking in Western countries not only failed to gain sympathy and support from the people of all countries, but had the opposite political impact. Admittedly, the director does not aim to promote this approach, but through this plot, inspires the audience to think: what should be done? However, the protagonist's claims and actions will inevitably affect the audience. And "killing him" is an important stroke for the protagonist to improve his personality and sublimate it, and its counter-effect is bound to exist.
(Originally published in Wen Wei Po on 1981-10-18