時報為安吉麗娜·朱莉導演處女作點贊

Surviving the Sea, and the Cruelties Beyond

時報為安吉麗娜·朱莉導演處女作點贊

Angelina Jolie opens “Unbroken” with a shot of a celestial blue sky that soon darkens with a battle scene so tense and fluidly choreographed that you quickly sense that, as a director, she leans closer to hell than heaven. She has given herself plenty to work with: The movie takes a slice out of the life of Louis Zamperini, the Olympic runner turned World War II bombardier who, after surviving a plane crash and 47 days adrift on the Pacific, was fished out of the water by a Japanese patrol boat and then imprisoned in camps where he was brutalized for years. His is one of those stories that has come to define the Greatest Generation.

安吉麗娜·朱莉(Angelina Jolie)的《堅不可摧》(Unbroken)以這樣一個鏡頭開始：蔚藍的天空迅速變得昏暗，出現(xiàn)了緊湊的戰(zhàn)爭場面。場景設計優(yōu)美流暢，讓你很快感覺到，作為導演，她更加貼近地獄，而非天堂。朱莉給自己安排了很重的任務：這部影片反映了路易·贊貝里尼(Louis Zamperini)的人生片段，他曾是奧運會長跑選手，后來成為“二戰(zhàn)”中的轟炸機士兵，墮機生還后在太平洋上漂流了47天，被日軍巡洋艦從海上撈起，關入集中營，受到數(shù)年殘忍虐待。他的生平是曾經(jīng)定義了“最偉大一代”的故事之一。

That story, in its human reach and cosmic scale, in its different permutations and theaters of war, has been recounted in memoirs, novels, fiction films and all too painfully true documentaries. It emerges again in Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best seller, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption,” which is the basis for the movie. With some narrative rejigging, a lot of compression and one significant exception, Ms. Jolie follows the lead of the book, which focuses on the first 25 years or so of Mr. Zamperini’s life. She also sweeps through his early education as a peewee gangster, truculent son of Italian immigrants and accidental athlete who discovers he can run like the wind, but she gets to the war sooner.

這個故事有著人性的角度與宏大的規(guī)模，曾以各種排列組合方式進入各種關于戰(zhàn)爭的領域，它曾經(jīng)成為回憶錄、小說、虛構電影以及極度真實的紀錄片。 2010年，它又再度浮現(xiàn)于勞拉·希倫布蘭特(Laura Hillenbrand)的暢銷書《堅不可摧：一個二戰(zhàn)中生存、堅韌與救贖的故事》(Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and redemption)之中，電影正是根據(jù)此書拍攝。朱莉做了若干敘事性的調整，進行了很多壓縮，以及一處重要的刪節(jié)，但主要還是跟著這本書的線索，關注贊貝里尼前25年左右的人生。她還簡單介紹了他早期做小流氓時的經(jīng)歷，他是意大利移民的兒子，兇猛好斗，意外成為運動員，發(fā)現(xiàn)自己可以跑得像風一樣飛快。但朱莉很快就讓故事來到了戰(zhàn)爭的部分。

Ms. Jolie is a fast worker. After her inaugural nod at the wide blue yonder, she thrusts you inside the claustrophobic confines of a B-24 bomber that’s soon under Japanese attack. There, the adult Louie, as he was called, bounces through the plane while bullets begin shredding its exterior and soon its occupants, the fusillade opening little circles of light in the hull as effortlessly as a pencil punches holes in paper. It’s a shrewd opener, because it immediately puts you on notice in regard to the story’s life-and-death stakes and draws you close to Louie (the appealing Jack O’Connell). Mr. Zamperini was a distance runner, but here he’s a sprinter whose quicksilver movements — he crouches and scuttles while tending the wounded plane and men — suck you in with gravitational force.

朱莉追求快速的進展，拍完遙遠的藍色天際，她馬上就讓你進入B-24轟炸機幽閉恐懼般的世界，很快又受到日軍的襲擊。已經(jīng)長大成人的路易在機艙里顛簸，子彈突破了轟炸機的外殼，也打中了里面的人，炮火在機艙外殼上打出一個個小圓點，光亮透進來，就像用鉛筆在白紙上戳出窟窿一樣容易。這是一個聰明的片頭，因為它能很快讓你意識到，這個故事是關于生死之間的重大主題，也能讓你馬上關注路易(由迷人的杰克·奧康奈爾[Jack O’Connell]飾演)。贊貝里尼是長跑運動員，但此時他成了個反應很快的短跑運動員——他臥倒，疾走，同時還在照顧受傷的飛機和人們——這一切馬上就能吸引住你。

Louie’s life moves so rapidly here that about 30 minutes after the movie’s start, he’s running laps at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. There, he catches a glimpse of Jesse Owens and gawps at the cheering crowds and bloated Nazi spectacle, which Ms. Jolie conveys with digital effects and a touch of Leni Riefenstahl pomp-and-creepiness. Then Louie’s off to the races, and we’re off to something of a narrative cheat. He scores mightily on the track — with a rabbity final sprint — but Ms. Jolie pumps the inspirational uplift so high that with all the soaring music, swirling camerawork, excited commentary and slow-motion shots of Louie’s straining and gasping you may not realize he didn’t win any Olympic medals.

在影片開頭的30分鐘里，路易的生活變化很快，他在1936年的柏林奧運會上奔跑?？匆娏私芪?middot;歐文斯(Jesse Owens)的身影，看著歡呼的群眾與膨脹的納粹場面，不禁為之震驚，朱莉用數(shù)碼特效和蕾妮·瑞芬舒丹(Leni Riefenstahl)那種壯麗而又詭異的風格營造出了這些納粹的景觀。后來路易參賽了，我們則得到一個敘事上的欺騙。他在田徑賽場上成績出色，像兔子一樣最后沖刺，朱莉使用了上揚的音樂、回旋的鏡頭、興奮的評論，用慢鏡頭拍攝路易的拼搏和喘息，她把這鼓舞人心的一幕拔得太高，搞得你可能根本意識不到，他其實并沒有獲得奧運獎牌。

That Mr. Zamperini didn’t win that day doesn’t lessen his accomplishments on or off the track, of course, or make his story any less touching. Being an Olympian is a triumph in and of itself, yet that truism doesn’t seem to have been grand enough for Ms. Jolie’s purposes. The Olympic interlude is sandwiched between some wartime scenes, right after the plane that Louie’s on starts to malfunction and just before it falls into the Pacific. The placement of his Olympic experience suggests that Louie’s life is flashing before him or that he’s drawing strength from a memory. But the triumphalism of the race is so excessive that it competes with, rather than complements, the war scenes and ends up being another clip in what increasingly will feel like one man’s extended highlight reel.

贊貝里尼那天一無所獲，但是，這并不能令他在田徑場內外的成就減色，或者讓他的故事不那么動人。成為奧運選手本身就已經(jīng)很榮耀了，但是這個不證自明的真理似乎對于朱莉來說還不夠輝煌。奧林匹克的場景被夾在戰(zhàn)爭戲之間，發(fā)生在在路易乘坐的飛機失靈之后，飛機墮入太平洋之前。這段奧運的經(jīng)驗說明路易的一生在他腦海中閃回，或者說他從回憶中汲取了力量。但競賽中的必勝信念有些過度，使得它仿佛不是戰(zhàn)爭場面的補足，而是和戰(zhàn)爭場面在競爭，最后仿佛成了另一段剪輯，感覺越來越像一個人的高光時刻紀錄。

It took four marquee writers — Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson — to wrestle Ms. Hillenbrand’s many pages into a movie, which clocks in at 2 hours 17 minutes. That’s scarcely enough time for any life, but it’s impossible when each chapter in that life could itself be a book (including an underplayed epiphany), and the strain shows, especially in the camp sequences. Ms. Jolie does fine work throughout, including on the raft where, after the crash, Louie and two others, Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock), battle dehydration, starvation and sharks, including one that the men, in a jolting scene, wrestle onboard and devour. Like a lot of actors turned directors, she’s good with the performers, even when platitudes gush from their mouths along with the blood.

電影有四個編劇——喬爾·科恩(Joel Coen)、伊桑·科恩(Ethan Coen)、理查德·拉·格拉文思(Richard LaGravenese)和威廉姆·尼克爾森(William Nicholson)，他們勉強才把希倫布蘭特篇幅浩大的書濃縮成一部2小時17分鐘的電影。這么長的時間對任何人來說都堪稱寶貴，但對于這個人生中的任何一段經(jīng)歷都足以獨立成書的人來說(包括一段頓悟人生真諦的故事，電影里沒有拍)，還是顯得短了些。敘事很緊湊，特別是在集中營中的幾幕戲。朱莉的工作從始至終很細致，包括墮機后在木筏上的戲。路易和另外兩人，菲爾(Phil，多姆納爾·格利森[Domhnall Gleeson]飾)和馬克(Mac，芬·維特洛克[Finn Wittrock]飾)與脫水、饑餓和鯊魚作戰(zhàn)，在令人震撼的一場戲里，其中一人在船上掙扎，最后走向覆滅。和許多演員出身的導演一樣，朱莉擅長處理和演員有關的環(huán)節(jié)，盡管他們一邊吐血，一邊說著一些陳詞濫調。

That blood gushes and splatters, mostly discreetly, at times with misplaced tastefulness, as Louie falls and rises in spirit and body. Ms. Jolie’s tendency to go David Lean with this material works against her in the camp sequences, because what you want to know isn’t what the prisoners looked like standing in formation in long shot but what they thought and did to survive. What the movie ends up in desperate need of is a sense of life made real and palpable through dreadful, transporting details, not a life embalmed in hagiographic awe. You can find that movie here, at times, tucked amid the crane shots and angelic singing, though mostly in the perverse intimacy that emerges between Louie and the sadistic officer, Watanabe (Miyavi), and shows just how personal war can really be.

鮮血流淌的場面大都處理得很謹慎，有時也有不恰當?shù)钠肺唬热缏芬自陟`魂和肉體之間掙扎。朱莉傾向于模仿大衛(wèi)·里恩(David Lean)，但在集中營里，這些素材并不合適，因為觀眾想知道的并不是囚犯在長鏡頭中列隊站好時的模樣，而是想知道這些人為了生存，心里在想些什么、要做些什么。影片結束時，最迫切需要的是一種生命令一切成真之感，是可感知的、可以傳達給觀眾的細節(jié)，而不是一個被封存在圣人行傳的敬畏感之中的人生。在這部電影中，觀眾偶爾可能會感受到這一點，有時是通過俯拍鏡頭和天使般的歌唱聲，不過主要是通過路易與虐待狂日本軍官渡邊(石原貴雅飾)之間變態(tài)的親密感，它讓人們看到戰(zhàn)爭有可能變得多么個人化。