About half an hour before the movie, when I saw Charlie, a young high school student, get into a little trouble at school, and had to accompany the retired officer who looked crazy to new york for a weekend, I thought it would be another story about young people growing up under the guidance of a life tutor. After watching the whole movie, I realized that this is not just a one-way relationship between education and learning. I would have thought that officers who have experienced war, experienced frustration and are not afraid to give orders to anyone will teach Charlie what courage is.
But at the end, it was discovered that Charlie had taught frustrated officers to face the unhappiness in life bravely. As the officer said in his last speech: Every time I come to the crossroads of my life, I know which is the right way. But I never go, because I know that road is too difficult. The road of adhering to principles is left to those who have courage.
Experienced officers who have seen all kinds of ugliness and evil in the world did not have the courage to go that way, and even did not have the courage to continue living in the end. Charlie, who is not deeply involved in the world, may be naive on the one hand and kind on the other, but never feel afraid. He used the officer's own words to educate the officer: life is like dancing tango, it doesn't matter if you step on the wrong step, then step on the next step.
One night before watching this movie, I watched another English movie, Killer Without Holiday, which is also a very good movie. There are many similarities between the two films, which are about an old man and a young man wandering in the third place. The old man in both films stood up like a father to protect the young man at the crucial moment.
The religious meaning of Killer Without Holiday is stronger. The two men went to a religious town in Europe. The last sacrifice of the old killer was almost a direct reference to the coming of Jesus. He bought a chance for the young man with his own death. Compared with Killer Without Holiday, this movie is more great in that the old officer protected Charlie on the one hand, but also got redemption from Charlie on the other.
The officer finally came to the school to defend Charlie, but Charlie also stood up and bravely grabbed the pistol in the Waldof hotel room to prevent the officer from committing suicide. Charlie can make the officer open his heart with tears in front of him, but he can finally make him smile again and show his desire for life.
This movie also has some similarities with another British movie I have seen, Another Country. Both films are about a young man who is out of place, somewhat excluded and isolated, who is isolated in a top middle school and will be sacrificed collectively. Both films expose and criticize the ruthlessness, hypocrisy and exclusion of the upper class in British and American capitalist society. Don't think that only Chinese people pay attention to "relationship".
In some countries (especially Britain and the United States), because their social class division has not been washed and subverted by too many revolutions or civil wars in the past two or three hundred years, the nepotism and interest ties among the wealthy and powerful classes at the top of society are established and maintained through marriage, business dealings, clubs, alumni associations, chambers of commerce and other organizations, which are actually far stronger and more unbreakable than those so-called "relationships" in China now. It is a relationship of money and interests, not just the relationship of face and face. Just like George, another classmate facing the same dilemma, Dad called the principal or a school manager with a phone call and promised to donate a little more money, so he almost got out perfectly and even got a reward.
Therefore, in the end, this film is actually a film that celebrates the purity at the beginning of human nature, even with a little naive courage and integrity, and criticizes the sleek sophistication and inferior quality of the world. In the whole movie, only Charlie still exudes this noble quality, and everyone else, including the old officers who protected him, chose the easier path in their lives. That path of integrity and adherence to principles is not left for ordinary people, but for people with leadership qualities. This film praising idealism and noble morality also reflects a kind of American spiritual culture.
Therefore, the final ending of this film is very different from Another Country: here, the brave spirit of sticking to the principle and never giving in finally defeated the Wall Street spirit of holding the group to warm up, and integrity won collective respect and applause. In Another Country, which was filmed by more realistic British people, individuals who refused to compromise were eventually sacrificed collectively, and their ideals gradually turned into fantasy.
These movies are very thought-provoking after watching them, especially for young people. In the long road of life in the future, we will walk through many such crossroads. Which road should be chosen and which road is suitable for it is worth pondering.