荣耀三九年

英国社文课的一次作业

The main story is set in the year before World War II, drew out by the narration of an old man who is a relative of the heroin Anne and who at that time was a little boy.

Anne was an adopted child of an aristocrat family. She was a popular actress before the War started. Her father Alexander and brother Ralph were all working for the government. The family seems to live a tranquil and idyllic life. However, after the death of an old friend of the family, the peace life was gone forever. Anne accidentally found a record which contained the evidence that Alexander and Ralph were arranging an action to assassinate their political opponents in order to keep Britain out of the war. And she later found out that whoever knew about the existence of this record was killed or commit suicide. Trying to dig out the truth, she met with strong resistance. And eventually, as she was getting closer to the truth, the family grounded her in a country villa. Being secretly released by her mother, Anne chose to leave the family forever.

The movie presents three common attitudes the British people held towards war.

One is represented by the father who had gone through the World War I. They had seen the cruelty of war and chose to do their best to keep the peace, even at the cost of that the Britain might be Nazified although they did not approve Nazism. From today’s perspective, their approach was least inadvisable, but this judgment is based on one premise that we already knew the course of history. Although the policy of appeasement is doomed to fail, this attitude still enjoyed great popularity before the war broke out. Because it not only corresponded to the country’s inherently conservative bias but also met people’s requirements of avoiding mass casualties. No wonder why the father in the movie, together with the whole family, would resort to extreme measures to stop Anne. Objectively speaking, Prime Minister Chamberlain’s appeasement policy was not useless at all for it bought Mr. Chamberlain some time for updating the Air Force and the defense radar system, which set the foundation for the Churchill government.

The second attitude is represented by Anne and Hector in the movie, and Winston Churchill in reality. On the one hand, Anne was driven by her sense of justice that people should never commit atrocity even it is for the interests of the country. On the other hand, she did realize that blindly making compromise to Germany was in vain.

The last one is represented by the mother, an inconspicuous member of the family. Compared to her husband and children, she showed little enthusiasm in politics and stayed out of the whole action towards Anne. Every time she appeared on the scene, she was doing gardening. Let things drift if they do not affect one personally. This is also a feasible way to save oneself during the war time, but it is the most passive method among the three.

I think the director shows clearly in the story which attitude he favors. In the end, all the other family members died. Except Walter and his brother who was just a baby when things happened, Anne was the only one survived, which symbolizes the victory of bravery and justice.

开头悬疑起的十足，原以为是谍战大戏。后面这剧情实在让人失望啊！难道全程抖放这家人怎么对养女阴阳怪气。伦敦20世纪三十年代贵族是看不上演员的吗？（也是，不管什么年代，贵族就看得上贵族而已）。一张唱片被养女收了藏了，讲真这很简单吧。随便叫个仆人把这张唱片找来销毁就是了。还那么多戏！唱片里讲的是什么？神神叨叨断断续续的故弄玄虚！真是浪费了这么强的卡司！还有小雀斑演的弟弟，即看不起这个养女姐姐。又对她怀有不怀好意的邪念！哪怕你给我演个禁忌之恋然后得不到就毁灭她的故事也比搞什么囚禁合逻辑。还有那个妹妹，门缝里姐姐朝外看她靠在父亲身上的镜头，父亲夸她是个合格的女主人啦，我TM以为这对父女有什么关系。女演员实在太欠扁轻佻又邪恶啊！毕竟这家的母亲整天拨弄园艺，她是活死人吗？！借她一万个胆也没胆放走养女的。导演最邪恶了！最后的结局，不尴尬啊！