The Struggle for Truth – Watching the Movie "The Legend of Zola"

While browsing the headlines, I suddenly saw the movie "ZuoLa Biography", randomly collected it, and wanted to find another time to watch it. After the class, I remembered this movie, remembered it while watching it, and watched it in one breath. "Zola Biography" is a biographical film of Zola, the film begins with a poor literary youth, until he finally died of gas poisoning, fully presenting two-thirds of Zola's literary career and extraordinary life. The film revolves around the central event of Zola's justice for Dreyfus. Zola was one of the most eminent Writers of the Nineteenth Century in France, and his most representative work is the literary masterpiece of the Lugong-Makar Family. Zola lost his father at an early age and was raised by his mother and taught himself. His path to literary creation was quite uneven, and no matter how difficult and difficult it was, it did not extinguish his literary enthusiasm. Kung Fu pays off. Zola finally succeeded, became famous in the French literary world, and became a famous and influential writer, but he was also condemned and criticized from all sides of society. Critics of his "Rout", "Nana", "Sprouts" and others "deprived the whole country of self-confidence and dignity", "attacked the French army", "attacked the Third Republic", "disgusting", "infuriating and unsettling". Zola was uncompromising in the face of social criticism, accusations and attacks on him, and always believed in his literary intentions. He argues, "People don't want to see the naked truth. And "I will dig like a marmot, digging east and west, discovering the hard, ugly side of life." After becoming famous, Zola worked tirelessly and worked day and night, using Hugo and Balzac as his role models. When he first became famous in the literary world, he expressed to his good friend Cézanne that he needed a "friend who reminded me of my past struggling days" to remind himself not to forget the past, not to lose the original intention and mission of the writer. At the time of Zola's rise to fame, there was a case of treason in French military circles. Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was convicted of treason by a military tribunal on "trumped-up" charges in the name of the holy law and the French people. The military used public opinion to seduce the citizens of Paris and organized demonstrations to arouse the public's anger against the traitors. Dreyfus was furious at the military's ruling, believing in his innocence and innocence. The military searched Dreyfus' home and tried to get what it wanted, but ultimately found nothing. In response to the society's doubts about the case, the French military falsely assigned the intelligence director to investigate the truth, trying to further cover up the truth with a false investigation. But the intelligence chief in charge of the investigation is a very serious investigator with a clear conscience and perhaps a lack of understanding of the leader's intentions. The results of the investigation proved that Dreyfus was innocent and that the traitor was someone else. The director of intelligence reported the results of the investigation to the Ministry of War, which replied that the results could not be corrected. The reason and logic given by the Military Department was that if it confessed to making a mistake, the General Staff would become a sacrifice to scandal-stricken newspapers throughout France. Rather than let a living man sink into his grievances, the army cannot admit its mistakes. One lie, more lies are needed to cover up. In order to further cover up the lies, the military decided, on the one hand, to remove the director of the intelligence service and exile him to the French overseas colonies, and on the other hand, the military court, in the name of the "French people", "unanimously agreed that the true traitor was not guilty and not suspected of any crime", and declared acquittal and free. For the sake of its own face, the military still chooses to release the real traitors in the face of finding out the truth, arresting conscientious investigators and those who are not hesitant to know the truth about the military's decision. Dreyfus's wife did not succumb to military intimidation and firmly believed that her husband was innocent and innocent. She went around collecting evidence and calling for complaints, but she ran into walls everywhere, and no one believed her or helped her. Desperate, she went to the writer Zola to try her luck. Zola initially refused Mrs. Dreyfus's request. In the case of "all France recognized Dreyfus as a traitor and a traitor", "anyone who dares to challenge will be destroyed by them". As Zola put it, "Enough has been done with struggle, chaos, struggle" . For Zola, who has achieved fame, "Living at home is happy and self-sufficient, why bother?" Madame was rejected and went away in great despair. Zola took the material left by Mrs. Dreyfus and browsed it, and was touched by the content and the desperate pain of Madame, so that the conscience in his heart made him decide to do something for Dreyfus. Zola decided to write directly to the President of the French Republic to complain on behalf of Dreyfus. This letter is the famous "I Accuse." Zola writes, "Because if I don't say it, my nights will be haunted by the ghosts of the innocent." They had gone through the most terrible torture, only because of a case in which they had not committed a crime. "When I complained, I knew I was exposed to persecution, but it didn't matter, the main purpose of my actions was to hasten the whitening of truth and righteousness." After the letter was published in the newspaper, the citizens of Paris were indignant, burning Zola's books, destroying the newspaper library, and organizing demonstrations to ignite Zola's portrait to vent their "anger". Zola was summoned by the court and accused of publishing articles in newspapers to defame the court-martial verdict. The military further hoodwinked the citizens and used them to launch a public opinion offensive against Zola. For a time, Zola was in a dangerous situation, threatened by security, isolated and helpless, and became an "enemy of the whole people" and fell into the ocean of "people's justice". Zola became a defendant in the courtroom, and also a defendant in the "whole people". The military rebutted Zola's allegations against them in court, and they were clever and introverted. "I can't silently tolerate these allegations, but the law has been used." French soldiers shed blood for the country, military tribunals ruled according to law, but some people hid in the rear to smear and attack the army. They mean that the army, who has shed blood and sacrificed on the front line, can tolerate the slander and vicious attack of the "Fifth Column" behind it? Zola affirmed in response to the military's shameless rhetoric: "Everyone has their own way of serving the country, some use a sword, another uses a pen." Hostility will choose between your name and my name. The military is angry and forceful, and in court it is not convincing people with reason, but wielding a moral stick to oppress people: "I will never tolerate such humiliation of those who are conscientious." ...... That's a fellow traitor. They also threatened the judge to stop Zola's lawyers for questioning in the name of resigning to affect national security. The judge was pressured to openly favor the military against judicial fairness, and the lawyer on the Zola side showed a strong spirit of independence, arguing on the basis of reason, saying that he would carry out the protest to the end. Citizens and soldiers who did not know the truth shouted together the slogan of hitting Zola. Zola and Zola's legal team seem to have suddenly fallen into the moral opposite, and the clamor of "down with Zola" in the courtroom is one after another. Faced with a tidal wave of crusade, Zola calmly and forcefully stated his belief: "My profession is writing, not speaking. But since my struggling youth to this day, my main goal is to discover the truth. ...... One man stands alone against the vast legal apparatus, the glory of the army, the power of the government. They warned me that my actions would be mercilessly dealt a blow and that I would be destroyed. If an individual is tragically destroyed, what a shame that justice can be done? It is said that the government summoned me to appear in court, which is not true. Based on personal choice alone, you judged me on the basis of your own decision, and I alone decided that this grievance would be exposed to the sun. Let the whole of France know the truth and be able to express its opinion. My actions have no other goal, and I personally don't matter. I am satisfied. But my confidence in you does not include the government, which does not dare to tell the whole truth and leave it to you for judgment. It wasn't my fault. You have seen for yourself how my defendant lawyers remain silent. Folks, I know you, you are the elite and intellectuals of my beloved Paris. I was born in Paris and studied it for forty years. I'll see you with your family at dusk under the streetlights. I will accompany you in your factories and shops, all of you are workers and upright people. You wouldn't say what it matters that innocent people were abused on Alcatraz? The suffering of an unknown man does not affect a great nation. Perhaps by punishing me, you may be able to stop the wounds of France. Folks, if that's what you think, you're dead wrong. Look at me, do I look like a money slave, a liar, or a traitor? I'm just a freelance writer who dedicates my life to work and is going back to work tomorrow. Nor am I here to defend myself. You are under great pressure to save the Army, to sentence Zola, to save France. Let me tell you, take on this challenge! Save the Army, save France, but let the truth prevail. This is not only an innocent man's cry for justice, but it goes far beyond that. A great nation is desperate to save honor. Don't carry on yourself a burden that can never be lifted off history. We have made a big mistake. At the cost of the innocent for the exoneration of a guilty person. And today, you are commanded to judge me. For I refuse to see France in this mess. At this grave moment, in the face of the jury representing human justice, before the jury, before the whole of France, before the whole world, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. I have worked for forty years, with everything I have, to spread the spirit of France. I swear, Dreyfus is innocent. Zola's Shen said that he was not powerless, but it did not seem to reduce the hostility of the citizens to him, but on the contrary, it further angered the citizens in the audience. In the end, Zola was sentenced to one year in prison and fined three thousand francs. The jury ignored the facts and obeyed the judge's verdict. Humiliated by his personality, Zola fled to England under the persuasion of his friends, continued to fight with his own pen, continued to do justice for Dreyfus, continued to write articles, and beat the conscience of the world. Zola's "Truth Still Advances" and other articles quickly set off a whirlpool of public opinion. The focus of public opinion all over the world is on France, on the French Army. Under the onslaught of public opinion around the world, which is eager for the truth, the French government decided to track down the truth and rehabilitate Dreyfus. Some people in the military were panicked and sought self-preservation, some committing suicide in fear of crime, some fleeing, some resigning... The French government finally rehabilitated Dreyfus and reinstated himself in the military. Zola smiled with relief when he heard the news abroad. "Fight for the truth and finally win." "The truth is still marching, invincible" As Zola says at the end of the film, "Every time I think of us saving innocent people from the brink of death, when I think of them being set free, when I think of holding their hands, it is the most gratifying reward." Our efforts have only been half won, and we still have to work, friends, by writing books, speaking, and acting, we in France will give freedom to the world, and now we will give justice to the world. "As long as the idea is passed down, why should the personal encounter care?" Zola had intended to attend Dreyfus's reinstatement ceremony, but unfortunately, due to gas poisoning, he ended his lifelong pursuit of truth. In the farewell speech to Zola, the movie ends! The last words left to the world are: "Do not forget the martyrs who fought for freedom, and the great minds that won the glory of fate, this is the moment of awakening of the human conscience." Zola's life was a life of truth, justice and conscience.