《指环王》系列金奖大导演彼得·杰克逊亲自执导重拍的影片《金刚》是根据1933年的同名经典影片改编的。这部长达3小时、耗资2.07亿美元的新版《金刚》自2005年12月5日在美国纽约时代广场举行超大首映式以来，着实让全球观众重新领略到了“金刚”这只大猩猩的风采。
By Roger Ebert 辽宁抚顺一中 李铁锋/编注
It was beauty killed the beast.
There are astonishments to behold in Peter Jackson’s new “King Kong,” but one sequence1, relatively subdued2, holds the key to the movie’s success. Kong has captured Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and carried her to his perch3 high on the mountain. He puts her down, not roughly, and then begins to roar, bare his teeth and pound his chest. Ann, an unemployed vaudeville acrobat4, somehow instinctively knows that the gorilla5 is not threatening her but trying to impress her by behaving as an alpha6 male—the King of the Jungle. She doesn’t know how Queen Kong would respond, but she does what she can: She goes into her stage routine7, doing backflips8, dancing like Chaplin9, juggling10 three stones.
Her instincts and empathy serve her well.11 From then on, Kong thinks of himself as the girl’s possessor12 and protector. She is like a tiny beautiful toy that he has been given for his very own, and before long, they are regarding13 the sunset together, both of them silenced by its majesty14. The scene is crucial because it creates a wordless bond that allows her to trust him. When Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) climbs the mountain to rescue her, he finds her comfortably nestled15 in Kong’s big palm. Ann and Kong in this movie will be threatened by dinosaurs, man-eating worms, giant bats, loathsome16 insects, spiders, machine guns and the Army Air Corps17, and could fall to their death into chasms18 on Skull Island or from the Empire State Building19. But Ann will be as safe as Kong can make her, and he will protect her even from her own species.
The movie more or less faithfully follows the outlines of the original film, but this fundamental adjustment in the relationship between the beauty and the beast gives it heart, a quality the earlier film was lacking. Yes, Kong in 1933 cares for his captive20, but she doesn’t care so much for him. Kong was always misunderstood, but in the 2005 film, there is someone who knows it.
As Kong ascends the skyscraper21, Ann screams not because of the gorilla but because of the attacks on the gorilla by a society that assumes22 he must be destroyed. The movie makes the same kind of shift involving a giant gorilla that Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) did when he replaced 1950s attacks on alien visitors with a very 1970s attempt to communicate with them.23
“King Kong” is a magnificent entertainment. Computers are used not merely to create special effects, but also to create style and beauty, to find a look for the film that fits its story. And the characters are not cardboard heroes or villains seen in stark outline, but quirky individuals with personalities.24
There was a stir25 when Jackson informed the home office that his movie would run 187 minutes. The executives had something around 140 minutes in mind, so they could turn over26 the audience more quickly. After they saw the movie, their objections were stilled27. Yes, the movie is a tad28 too long, and we could do without a few of the monsters and overturned elevated trains29. But it is so well done that we are complaining, really, only about too much of a good thing30. This is one of the great modern epics31.
Jackson, fresh from32 his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy33, wisely doesn’t show the gorilla or the other creatures until more than an hour into the movie. There is an hour of anticipation, of low ominous music, of subtle rumblings, of uneasy squints into the fog and mutinous grumblings from the crew, before the tramp steamer arrives at Skull Island—or, more accurately, is thrown against its jagged rocks in the first of many scary action sequences.34
During that time, we see Depression-era breadlines and soup kitchens35, and meet the unemployed heroes of the film: Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), whose vaudeville theater36 has closed, and who is faced with debasing37 herself in burlesque38; Carl Denham (Jack Black), whose footage39 for a new movie is so unconvincing that the movie’s backers40 want to sell it off as background footage; Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), a playwright whose dreams lie off-Broadway41 and who thrusts 15 pages of a first draft screenplay at Denham and tries to disappear.
They all find themselves aboard the tramp steamer of Capt42. Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann), who is persuaded to cast off43 just as Denham’s creditors44 arrive on the docks in police cars. They set course for45 the South Seas, where Denham believes an uncharted46 island may hold the secret of a box office blockbuster47. On board, Ann and Jack grow close, but not too close, because the movie’s real love story is between the girl and the gorilla.
Once on Skull Island, the second act of the movie is mostly a series of hair-curling48 special effects, as overgrown49 prehistoric creatures endlessly pursue the humans, occasionally killing or eating a supporting character50. The bridges and logs over chasms are even better used here, especially when an assortment of51 humans and creatures fall in stages52 from a great height, resuming53 their deadly struggle whenever they can grab a convenient vine54, rock or tree. Two story lines are intercut55: Ann and the ape, and everybody else and the other creatures.
The third act returns to Manhattan. It isn’t precisely realistic, but more of a dreamed city in which key elements swim in and out of view. There’s a poetic scene where Kong and the girl find a frozen pond in Central Park, and the gorilla is lost in delight as it slides on the ice. Some of the Manhattan effects are not completely convincing. But special effects do not need to be convincing if they are effective, and Jackson trades a little realism for a lot of impact and momentum56. The final ascent of the Empire State Building is magnificent, and for once, the gorilla seems the same size in every shot57.
Although Naomi Watts makes a splendid heroine, there have been complaints that Jack Black and Adrien Brody are not precisely hero material. Nor should they be, in my opinion. They are a director and a writer. They do not require big muscles and square jaws58. What they require are strong personalities that can be transformed59 under stress. Denham the director clings desperately to his camera, no matter what happens to him, and Driscoll the writer beats a strategic retreat60 before essentially rewriting his personal role in his own mind. Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) is an actor who plays the movie’s hero, and now has to decide if he can play his role for real. And Preston (Colin Hanks) is a production assistant who, as is often the case, would be a hero if anybody would give him a chance.
The result is a surprisingly involving61 and rather beautiful movie—one that will appeal strongly to the primary action audience62, and also cross over to63 people who have no plans to see “King Kong” but will change their minds the more they hear. I think the film even has a message, and it isn’t that beauty killed the beast. It’s that we feel threatened by beauty, especially when it overwhelms64 us, and we pay a terrible price when we try to deny its essential nature and turn it into a product, or a target. This is one of the year’s best films.
Notes:
1. sequence连续的电影镜头
2. subdued舒缓的，平和的
3. perch栖息处,位置较高的歇脚处
4. vaudeville acrobat歌舞杂耍演员
5. gorilla 大猩猩
6. alpha第一位的，首要的
7. stage routine舞台常规动作
8. backflip后空翻
9. Chaplin卓别林(1889-1977)， 英裔 美国电影演员、导演和制片人，以其所演的一个穿肥大裤子、戴圆顶礼帽的流浪汉角色而闻名
10. juggle用……玩杂耍，边抛边接
11. 本句意为：她的直觉和善解人意帮了她很大忙。
12. possessor所有人
13. regard 观赏,凝视
14. majesty壮丽
15. nestle使(舒适地)安顿下来,为……供巢
16. loathsome令人作呕的
17. the Army Air Corps美国陆军航空兵团
18. chasm深渊或峡谷
19. the Empire State Building纽约帝国大厦
20. captive俘虏
21. ascend the skyscraper登上摩天大楼
22. assume想当然地认为
23. 此句意为: 斯皮尔伯格在20世纪70年代执导的电影《第三类接触》(1977年)中曾一改50年代攻击外星人的作法,转而试图同他们交流。这部电影在对待巨型黑猩猩的问题上做了同样的转变。
24. 此句意为:本片中的人物都是些有个性的怪人, 而不是老一套的、形象鲜明的英雄或坏蛋。cardboard老一套的; villain 坏人; stark outline鲜明的轮廓; quirky多变的,古怪的
25. stir轰动
26. turn over周转
27. still (使) 平息
28. a tad稍微
29. elevated train高架火车
30. too much of a good thing太棒了,太妙了
31. epic电影大片
32. fresh from刚拍完
33. trilogy三部曲
34. 此句意为：在蒸汽货轮到达骷髅岛，或更准确地说被抛向岛上锯齿状的巨石并开始一连串恐怖打斗镜头之前，先是有一小时的酝酿。在这一小时里有低沉不祥的音乐、诡秘的轰鸣声、人们向雾中不安的张望以及强烈的抱怨。anticipation期待; ominous不祥的; rumbling隆隆声; squint斜视; mutinous反抗的; jagged锯齿状的
35. Depression-era breadlines and soup kitchens美国经济大萧条时期排队领救济品的穷人队伍和免费施饭站
36. vaudeville theater (演出滑稽舞蹈、唱歌、杂剧等的)杂耍剧院
37. debase 降低……身分
38. burlesque滑稽表演
39. footage拍摄好的电影胶卷
40. backer赞助人
41. off-Broadway 在外百老汇戏剧界（外百老汇戏剧指有别于百老汇商业性戏剧的纽约中小型剧院的戏剧，其特征是强调艺术价值和实验性）
42. Capt. 即Captain的缩写，船长
43. cast off 解缆绳出航
44. creditor 债权人
45. set course for 向……驶去
46. uncharted未知的，海图上未标明的
47. a box office blockbuster非常叫座的大片。blockbuster 重磅炸弹
48. hair-curling使人毛骨悚然的
49. overgrown长得太大的
50. supporting character配角
51. an assortment of多种多样的
52. fall in stages 一段一段地往下掉
53. resume继续
54. convenient vine 顺手能抓到的藤蔓
55. intercut (使镜头)交切
56. Jackson trades a ... and momentum 杰克逊用一点现实为代价,换来了不小的影片效果和冲 击力。momentum冲力
57. shot电影镜头
58. big muscles and square jaws发达的肌肉和(坚毅的)方下巴
59. transform改变
60. beat a strategic retreat 进行战略撤退,此处意为计划打退堂鼓
61. involving吸引人的
62. the primary action audience主要喜欢动作片的观众
63. cross over to 穿过……到某处，此处意思是吸引
64. overwhelm 控制 |
