A Story of a Nineteen – year – old Boy
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a film without extreme ups and downs yet full of conflicts. It can be presented without scruples. Perhaps Ang Lee once again wants to use his camera to fully interpret what “truth” means as completely as possible.
This is a story about a nineteen – year – old boy. Due to a family emergency, he had to put on a military uniform, go to a strange country, follow the commander’s instructions, and point his gun at those unfamiliar Arab faces. Men roared in fear, women cried in bewilderment, and children hid in fright. He didn’t know what all this was for.
He became a national hero after being on TV because of a battle. But actually, he didn’t feel anything special, for it was such a sad day for him. On that day, his squad leader Mushroom sacrificed, which was a huge trauma for Billy.
When he returned to his own country, the understanding and healing he hoped for didn’t happen. Everyone lived in their own world. He and his comrades were like a group of “strangers,” being scrutinized by onlookers.
He and his Bravo Company were invited to be guests at the halftime show of a football game because they became heroes, and there was even a possibility of making a movie and becoming a star. But this was still just a dream. They were arranged arbitrarily by the director like puppets, asked extremely boring questions by ignorant audiences, and constantly fought with a group of security guards. The so – called movie was just a tool for businessmen to make money. The promised $100,000 turned into $5,500 in an instant. His peers, facing the huge pressure of life, envied the military benefits. A cheerleader girl liked Billy, but she only liked the “combat hero” who was about to leave. Love was just like a passing breeze to Billy, having little to do with him.
In all these dream – like scenes, only his sister told him that she needed him to come home instead of fulfilling his duty on the battlefield.
Of course, Billy’s final choice was still to return to the battlefield – a place he was extremely familiar with and felt close to.
A Story about a Man’s Dream
I think this is also a story about a man’s dream, or rather, a “hero dream.” Maybe many boys had a “gun” as a toy when they were young. Winning in war games is the wish of many boys.
I inexplicably think of the story of Oedipus. Oedipus was abandoned in the suburbs after being born because a fortune – teller said he would kill his father and marry his mother when he grew up. By chance, he was adopted by another king. When he grew up, he really killed his father and married his mother in a war. However, after learning this intolerable truth, he blinded himself and hid in the mountains to think about his fate.
This story also became a stage in Freud’s discussion of a child’s development – the Oedipal stage, and of course, it brought out a metaphor of a complex – the Oedipus complex. But actually, we are also very concerned about a question: what if we transcend the Oedipal stage?
Let’s first talk about what happened to Oedipus later. After losing his sight, his heart seemed to become clearer, such as his understanding of his fate. This is a tragedy, but it seems to imply something, like our own fate.
Here, I temporarily deviated from Billy. But actually, I want to talk about one question. When facing the “title of hero,” besides competition and victory, what exactly do you want after the hail of bullets?
The late squad leader “Mushroom” who sacrificed in the play once said to Billy, “You need to find a belief higher than the meaning of your life.”
Yes, what is a lofty belief? The victory of war is surely a momentary excitement, and the narcissistic feeling of being worshipped by everyone is also short – lived. The appeal of being a “national hero” is also like “a Hollywood star, disappearing in a week.”
In this film, Director Ang Lee presented the truth as much as possible. All the “beauty” that Billy “thought” became one “soap bubble” after another in the face of reality. Even when he wanted to stay with the girl he liked, the girl completely shattered his dream with “Aren’t you leaving for the battlefield soon?”
In this prosperity, what is it all about? I think for Billy, he has to think about some questions: Who is he? Why did he go to the battlefield? What do all these honors mean? Since emotions, money, and the “title of hero” can all disappear in an instant, why does he go to the battlefield?
Billy told his sister that he would return to the battlefield, even though it was hard to part. He told the businessman Norman, “Fighting is his life. There is no special meaning. He doesn’t want to become anything. This is his life.”
Then what should his belief be? It seems that at the end, it is vaguely conveyed to us – he respects his life, he chooses what he is willing to do. There is no compulsion, and there is no comparison. This is his life. Perhaps the “I LOVE YOU” among comrades is their love, the inner belief that transcends their own lives.
Searching for the Meaning of Life
Oedipus understood the meaning of life after experiencing the heartbreaking physical pain. And Billy, in the baptism of war, in the face of all the conflicts and contradictions, is also trying to find evidence for himself to go to the battlefield.
All stories force a person to understand their own truth. Most transcendences mean the failure of the idealization of the world. How to think in the face of that broken tragedy?
Whether it is Oedipus’ self – exile or Billy’s return to the battlefield, they are all trying to find their own meaning and place their hearts in the most suitable life.
This is probably the subject state that Lacan has always described. Away from the call of the original desire of object a, away from the needs of the so – called big Other, you are just your own subject. The choices you make are just the persistence of your inner will.
The so – called belief, I think, is still a decision about how a person understands their way of existence. Abandon all the gazes. Who are you?
