Sartre and Lacombe Lucien - Essay Example

Over the of the film, the viewer does not develop love for Lucien Lacombe, the fine-boned Parisian hero. Instead it is a sense of empathy, perhaps even camaraderie, that links the viewer with the unwitting hero’s plight. Lucien Lacombe, the film’s namesake, is depicted as many young men: only moderately intelligent, sadly ignorant of larger political motivations, and desperately in need of the reaffirmation and approval of authority in his life. In the film Lacombe, Lucien the concept of the soldier hero and the solitude of the main character are important in establishing the film in a greater philosophical context in term of Sartre’s work.

In terms of war, the archetype of the victorious hero—an idealization of the victor—is largely determined by the outcome of the conflict. The film breaks through these preconceptions by presenting a main character who in the course of the film attempts to join the resistance, works for the Gestapo, and, nearly accidentally defects. The character is presented as simple man. In fact, the simplicity of his character could be considered allegorical for the undereducated front line solider of the war, men barely more than boys who might otherwise have been simple farmers or tradesmen.

Like these soldiers, Lucien Lacombe takes on a life that he did not choose, but also one that he does not fight, as if swept up in powers beyond his control. In The Republic of Silence, Sartre comments of being faced with choices in the face of death that “the choice that each of us made of his life and of his being was an authentic choice”, implying that human strength of resolve in the face of adversity is a choice more true to one’s self and thus to humanity as well (Liebling and Sartre 498).

In another work, Satre suggests the a person should “seek within [oneself] an authentic impulse to action” (Blunden et al. 1). In this sense, the character Lucien Lacombe is found lacking, as his choices are therefore less authentic because they were not based in his personal resolve. This can be extended to the comparison of the multitude of soldiers on both sides of the conflict, merely doing their jobs while not exercising freedom of personal choice. This contrasts the traditional archetype of the victorious hero.

The main character of the film faces isolation, finding it difficult to relate to even his mother. He clings to the approval he receives at the hands of the Gestapo mentor, who treats him almost like a pet to be trained—despite which Lucien clings to the connection that he has established, as if to escape his isolation. Sartre addresses solitude and abandonment, stating that “man is condemned to be free” and that a man must “find [something] to depend upon either within or outside himself” (Blunden et al. 1). In the text, Sartre is analyzing the existence of God, and how the nonexistence of God impacts man.

In the film, Lucien puts first his schoolmaster, then the resistance, and later the Gestapo as a God figure, relieving himself of the freedom of responsibility for his own decisions, as evidenced by his apathetic attitude towards the horrors committed around him as he displays no more outrage for human torture than skinning a hunted animal. Sartre, in another passage states that there is “total responsibility in total solitude,” and goes on to cite the authentic nature of choices made for one’s self alone (Liebling and Sartre 500).

Lucien is portrayed as a character that acts against these principles, trading solitude for the approval of a higher power, to which he surrenders his natural born freedoms. In the film Lacombe, Lucien a compelling and yet dark portrait of human nature is illustrated. The film highlights Sartre’s idea that only in isolation can man make authentic choices that reflect his most inmost human nature. This concept is expressed through the disproval of the archetype of the victorious hero and the solitude of the main character.

The film carries a contemporarily relevant message that one must retain personal freedom by not succumbing to the opportunity to surrender the ability to choose for one’s self, and ability which may be threatened by religious and political God figures. Works Cited Liebling, A. J. and Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Republic of Silence. New York: Harcourt, Brace and, 1947. Print. Lacombe, Lucien. Dir. Louis Malle. By Patrick Modiano. Perf. Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clement, and Holger Lowenadler. 20th Century Fox, 1974. DVD. Blunden, Andy ed.

Sartre, Jean-Paul, John Kulka, Arlette Elkaim-Sartre, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Web Reproduction: Existentialism Is a Humanism. Marxist Org. New York: Meridian Publishing Company, 1998. Accessed 28 March 2011 < http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm >