Based on a true story, “Foxcatcher” was directed by Bennett Miller, who directed “Point Break” and “Capote”. I appreciated and liked the two handsome men in the film, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffolo, who played the wrestlers, but what really interested me was Steve Carell as Dupont.Carell won the 87th Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his great performance in Foxcatcher. It must be said that Carell’s Dupont formed a gloomy field in the film, and where there is him it seems that there are dark clouds following, but what this article wants to try to analyze is also not Carell’s acting, but the psychological defects of Carell’s Dupont.
What led to Dupont’s destruction?
“The Du Pont family, a dynasty of wealth and power, and the demand for arms in the United States allowed the family to accumulate a great deal of wealth”, John du Pont was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, and he saw so many power and money deals during his upbringing that it made him think that money and power are omnipotent in his life and worldview, and probably also because of the previous money and power This has led to his extreme ego. He used money to attract Mark Schulze, not enough, he had to use money to attract Dave Schulze again to, Mark said Dave is not the kind of person who can be impressed by money, Dupont did not believe. Eventually the facts also proved Dupont was right.
The money itself is not at fault, one side is a professional player, one side is a sponsor, this would have been no more normal, but if you this sponsor hard to make themselves into the identity of the savior, it is sure to go wrong. At this point I thought, if DuPont understood that “born without, for not bully, long but not slaughter, is called the mysterious virtue”, to produce all things, nourish all things without taking it for themselves, as the long of all things without dominating them, his life will not be more open?
It was indeed because of the attractive price offered by DuPont that Mark and Dave, the champion duo brothers, came to DuPont Home. But for Dupont, they came to satisfy their own desire to be wrestling coaches. So there was a disparity in the perception of the relationship.
For Mark and Dave, DuPont was just the golden master, and they could listen to him for training, but life was still their own and their will was their own. In Dupont’s eyes, Mark and Dave are his private property. Mark’s taking the initiative to let the team change the training time is a challenge to his authority, and Dave’s playing with his children’s family on weekends also makes him feel unhappy. He wanted to be Mark’s coach and father, but when Mark really loved him as a father, he felt all kinds of discomfort. He was always condescendingly “in love” with Mark, if there was ever a moment of “love” at all. The truth of “long but not slaughter”, Dupont did not understand.
The Tao Te Ching says that “good deeds have no trace, good words have no flaw”, but on the contrary, DuPont’s good deeds are so high-profile that he asked Mark to recite “ornithologist philatelist philanthropist” over and over again on the plane, and Mark recited it so tongue-in-cheek, but DuPont was a smooth end, in the end In the end, Dupont was extremely proud of his identity as an “ornithologist philatelist philanthropist”. It is not known whether philatelist has a meaning here, but through Mark’s behavior towards Dave, he is not always “philatelist” in charity.
All of DuPont’s actions are for show. The more his mother thought the wrestling coach was inferior, the more Dupont had to prove to her that he was “good”.
In other words, this family does not have a style of acting “underneath”. The water is as good as water, and the water is good for everything but does not compete. Both mother and son do not understand this Eastern philosophy.
Why did Dupont kill Dave in the end? The reason is in that TV interview, “As a coach, I want to develop young athletes, not only on a physical level, but also on a spiritual level” “My athletes, consider me as an older brother, a mentor, a father and a leader”.
He puts himself in a supreme position, he wants all his athletes to look up to him and worship him and be his father and brother in the way he likes. But in the case of Mark, he found it impossible to take Dave’s place. He was bent on sowing discord between the two brothers and made some progress at first, but in the end he still couldn’t really replace Dave. Dave proved to be Mark’s true sense of brother, father, mentor and coach, so when Dupont saw this cold truth, and found out that Dave had not only easily acquired all the identities, but also a harmonious and warm family, jealousy made him mad, and since he could not replace him he had to kill him.
“Heaven and earth can be long and long-lasting, because they do not live from themselves, so they can live forever. It is because the sage after its body but the body first, outside its body but the body exists. Is it not because they have no selfishness? Therefore, it can become its private.” The reason why heaven and earth can last is that they are not selfish. That is why wise leaders always put their own interests behind them, so that people are happy to accept their leadership and do not covet things outside of themselves, and only then do they allow themselves a better state of existence. Isn’t it because they have no selfishness that heaven and earth and the saints who emulate them are better able to achieve their selfishness of being respected and safe and sound?
Du Pont, who wanted to become a leading father, would have achieved his dream if he had acted according to the Tao in the Tao Te Ching.
