Never Blind
Scent of a Woman is a classical film which I have heard long before. After I have enjoyed it for 3 times, I am really touched by the main emotion conveyed by the whole of the film.
This film tells us an extraordinary story about a retired veteran and a prep school student. In our daily life, we can hardly combine such two men together, while the director reveals the social problems with a special perspective. Lt Colonel Frank Slade is a hard-drinking blind ex-army, while Charlie Simms is an innocent high school student. When the Thanksgiving day is coming, Charlie finds a part-time job to earn the tickets back to home. Thus, he makes an acquaintance with a strange and positive retired veteran. As a weekend companion to the colonel, he starts for an unexpected experience with the blind colonel. In the Thanksgiving weekend, they redeem each other and encourage each other. The relation between the two is the biggest conflict of the film, as well as the brightest point of the whole story. There is no doubt that the two leading actors reprent two extreme characters. I sympathize with the colonel in his misfortune, and at the same time I admire C
harlie’s integrity. From this film, meaning of life and humanity are worthy deeply thinking about.
I will appreciate this film from the following three aspects:
Ⅰ. Background
This film was shot in 1992 and the two main characters both reprent two kinds of people in the society at that time.
The colonel, a very proud man with a glorious time as a soldier, lost his position becau he was addicted to alcohol and for this reason he became blind. At that gloomy period, he feels that he has lost all beautiful things in the world. He becomes positive and decides to commit suicide. The colonel is a typical image of the retired veteran at that time. Only difference between them is that the director exaggerates the miry of the colonel. In an esntial aspect, they are the same. They find their lives are meaningless. What they count most are all kinds of luxurious enjoyments. After they have lost their former lustrous
and dazzling life, they just can’t bear the n of loss. Under the influence of this social phenomenon, many people choo to sink.
Charlie Simms, an innocent poor student from Baird High School, meets with an important stuff in his school. When he is sick of this trouble, he is forced to make a ridiculous tour to New York with the colonel. Charlie is a vivid example of the students at that age. They are ignorant of worldly affairs, but the society pushes them into adults’ world. To be or not to be, that is a question. Like Charlie, they meet a mess of things to measure their integrity. They insist on their own principle and never lo hope for life, even though how complicated the society is.
The colonel and Charlie come to their crossroads, but their attitudes are totally different. What we should concern is the contradiction and complement between them. Similar contradiction exists in the society. If you still hold a soft heart, you will be saved sooner or later.
Ⅱ. Theme
There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. Just as this film, each spectator has his or her understanding of it’s theme. According to me, this film has three main themes.
The first theme is that how Charlie deals with his trouble. From the beginning, Charlie is involved in a trouble. Either he choos to defend his friendship with preppies or he accepts Trask’s bribe and disobey his principle. During the short and crazy Thanksgiving weekend, he experiences a lot and es through a lot. Suddenly, he comprehends the meaning of life. Throwing away the burdens and lfishness, he insists on his own belief, especially under the guide and encouragement of the colonel. The tour to New York rebuilds his affirmation of integrity.
The cond theme of this film is that how the colonel resumes the hope for life. In certain degree, Frank is a failed man. He hasn’t a happy family even his brother refus to keep contact with him. He is a blind man, all the beautiful things in the world including women become far away from him. For so many misfortunes, he has extremely lost the motivatio
n to keep alive in the cruel world. He starts a special tour, and he’d rather die in the sumptuous bed. A kind boy Charlie saves him from the verge of death. What Charlie has done and said come to change his mind. He feels the true love from Charlie’s perverance. Furthermore, the speech made by the colonel at the end of the film protects Charlie from an unfair punishment. He completes Charlie’s integrity and innocence and at the meantime he regains the happiness and confidence to be an ordinary people. The scene in which he plays tricks on his niece’s children is in sharp contrast to the indifference in the very beginning.
The third theme is that the colonel’s nsitive smell of women’s perfume. The film’s title is scent of a woman, which sounds very imaginative and attractive. Frankly speaking, I don’t think this is an appropriate title for this deep movie when I finish my first watching. After I have relished for three times, I find that it is the tile scent of a woman that makes this film more implicit. When Charlie and the colonel are flying to New York, the colonel says: who made women? God must have been a fucking genius. His words barely express his superficial desire for women. So this title, in another aspect, makes a crack o
n people’s falhood and affectation. Although the colonel is accustomed to say dirty words, he just does what is in his mind. Anyway, he is a true man.
Ⅲ. Conflicts
A ries of conflicts make the film. I will analyze them from the following three aspects:
