好萊塢為什么鐘情在電影里摧毀加州

California Dream Under Attack in All Manner of Cinematic Imaginings

好萊塢為什么鐘情在電影里摧毀加州

LOS ANGELES — Here it comes again: The California Apocalypse.

洛杉磯——加州大末日又來了。

As if motionless freeways, sky-high taxes and calamitous drought weren’t enough, Warner Bros. and its New Line Cinema unit have chosen this worrisome moment to unveil “San Andreas,” the latest cinematic assault on an increasingly fragile California dream.

好像水泄不通的高速公路、高昂的稅款和災難性的干旱還不夠，華納兄弟公司(Warner Bros.)以及它旗下的新線電影公司(New Line Cinema)特意選擇這個令人不安的時刻放映《末日崩塌》(San Andreas)，脆弱的加州夢又遭到新一波的影院攻擊。

How big is the Big One in “San Andreas”?

《末日崩塌》里的大災難到底有多大?

“Even though it’s happening here in California, you will feel it on the East Coast,” promises a seismic expert, played in the film by Paul Giamatti. We have just seen the Hoover Dam disintegrate in a mere foreshock.

“雖說是發(fā)生在加利福尼亞，但你會覺得好像是東海岸的事，”影片中保羅·吉亞馬提(Paul Giamatti)飾演的地震專家說。我們在預告片中看到胡佛大壩(Hoover Dam)在前震中就已經土崩瓦解。

Office towers crumble into dust. Yes, that is a tidal wave breaking over the Golden Gate Bridge. No, those aren’t the Mamas and the Papas chanting “California Dreamin’ ” through a trailer for the film: This version, a creepy dirge, is from Robot Koch and Delhia de France, and they’re not yearning to get here.

一棟棟辦公大樓化為齏粉。沒錯，巨浪也沖垮了金門大橋(Golden Gate Bridge)。不不，預告片里沒有“媽媽與爸爸”(Mamas and the Papas)唱著《加利福尼亞之夢》(California Dreamin)：這一回，我們聽到的是一曲令人不寒而栗的挽歌，來自羅伯特·科赫(Robot Koch)與德莉婭·德·弗朗斯(Delhia de France)，他們可并不希望到加州去。

“San Andreas,” an earthquake action-adventure film that opens on Friday, is directed by Brad Peyton (best known for the action-fantasy “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”) and counts Carlton Cuse (of ABC’s “Lost”) among its writers. Dwayne Johnson stars as a Los Angeles Fire Department rescue chopper pilot on a mission.

《末日崩塌》是一部地震冒險片，將于本周五上映，導演布拉德·佩頓(Brad Peyton)最著名的影片是《地心歷險記2：神秘島》(Journey 2: The Mysterious Island)。ABC臺《迷失》(Lost)的編劇卡爾頓·庫斯(Carlton Cuse)出任該片的編劇之一。道恩·強森(Dwayne Johnson)飾演洛杉磯消防隊中一位執(zhí)行任務的救生直升機飛行員。

The film is the latest in a long Hollywood tradition of making the rest of the world feel better by reveling in California’s slide toward its postapocalyptic worst.

這部新作延續(xù)了好萊塢久遠以來的傳統：讓加利福尼亞陷入末日天災，以此讓這個世界的其他地方覺得好過一點兒。

It’s no accident that Warner’s “San Andreas” trailer features a collapsing “Hollywood” sign: Movieland is often the first to go in these fables.

《末日崩塌》的預告片中出現了好萊塢山上“好萊塢”招牌垮掉的場景，這絕非偶然：在這樣的末世寓言中，電影王國通常是最早覆滅的地方。

“Audiences get a reflexive thrill in seeing Hollywood — the place that created the movie they’re watching — get decimated,” noted Ken Feil, an Emerson College professor who in 2005 published “Dying for a Laugh: Disaster Movies and the Camp Imagination” (Wesleyan University Press).

“看到為他們帶來這部影片的好萊塢遭到毀滅，觀眾們會有感同身受的顫栗之感，”艾默生學院教授肯·費爾(Ken Feil)說，他的著作《為笑聲而死：災難片與坎普想象》(Dying for a Laugh: Disaster Movies and the Camp Imagination, Wesleyan University Press )于2005年出版。

Mr. Feil was referring to a theory put forth about the disaster genre by Pauline Kael in her review in The New Yorker of “Earthquake,” released by Universal Pictures in 1974.

費爾指的是保琳·卡伊爾(Pauline Kael)為《紐約客》撰寫的《大地震》(Earthquake)影評，該片由環(huán)球影業(yè)于1974年發(fā)行。

In that film, Charlton Heston jogs by the Hollywood sign as things get rolling, and Geneviève Bujold plays an actress whose workday is ruined by a warning tremor. But Ms. Kael’s dictum might as easily have applied to Paramount’s “The Day of the Locust,” which in 1975 found the beginning of the end in a flaming riot during a premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, or Columbia Pictures’s “This Is the End,” from 2013, in which the world ended, more or less, at James Franco’s house.

在《大地震》中，災難開始之初，查爾頓·海斯頓(Charlton Heston)跑步經過好萊塢標志，詹妮薇芙·布卓(Geneviève Bujold)飾演的女演員的工作被可怕的大地顫栗打斷。但卡伊爾的觀點可能更適用于派拉蒙1975年的《蝗蟲之日》(The Day of the Locust)，最終的災難結局始于格勞曼中國劇場一場首映式上的暴亂;它也適用于哥倫比亞公司2013年的《世界末日》(This Is the End)，片中世界的終結多少都是始于詹姆斯·弗蘭科(James Franco)的家中。

Movie culture, said Mr. Feil, “seems to embody a kind of disposability, venality and manipulation that both personifies catastrophe and causes it.”

費爾說，電影文化“似乎能夠造成一種用后即拋的感覺，乃至一種腐敗，一種操縱，它把災難及其成因都人格化了”。

The urge to level those who live too well, or too wantonly, of course predates film: The Bible gave us Sodom and Gomorrah, inspiration for an Austrian silent blockbuster, “Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah,” by the director Michael Curtiz in 1922.

人們總想把過得太好或者太放蕩的人拉下馬，這種渴望顯然是早于電影出現的：《圣經》就給了我們索多瑪和蛾摩拉的例子，1922年的奧地利默片大片《索多瑪與蛾摩拉》(Queen of Sin and the Spectacle of Sodom and Gomorrah)就是以此為靈感產生的，導演是邁克爾·柯蒂斯(Michael Curtiz)。

Watching seemingly successful people punished by earthquakes, sudden illnesses or bad luck “is literally calming down the people’s anger (that they are less fortunate) and a perverse form of healing the tormented souls,” John-Stewart Gordon, a professor of anthropology and ethics at the University of Cologne in Germany, said in an email.

看到看似成功的人們遭到地震、突如其來的疾病或噩運懲罰，“實際上等于平復了人們(關于自身不怎么走運)的焦慮，是一種治療不安靈魂的變態(tài)療法，”德國科隆大學人類學與倫理學教授約翰-斯圖爾特·戈登(John-Stewart Gordon)在接受電子郵件采訪時說。

The suffering in Nepal is human; this is cinematic.

尼泊爾的苦難讓人同情;但我們現在說的是電影。

California’s earliest filmic leveling dates at least to 1906, when primitive newsreel footage captured falling buildings and smoking rubble immediately after the April 18 earthquake in San Francisco, then a gilded capital of sin, known for its Barbary Coast red-light district. “There were ruins on every hand,” read a perhaps gleeful card on one such film, now posted by the Library of Congress.

加利福尼亞最早在電影中實現這種“撫平”至少可以追溯到1906年，當時最原始的新聞短片鏡頭捕捉到了4月18日舊金山地震中倒塌的建筑與冒煙的殘骸，那個時候它擁有巴巴利灣紅燈區(qū)，堪稱紙醉金迷的罪惡之都。“到處都是廢墟，”一部國會圖書館發(fā)布的電影里，有人在一張卡片上以或許有些幸災樂禍的口氣寫道。

Destruction by earthquake reached feature length in 1936, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “San Francisco.” The melodrama starred Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Jeanette MacDonald; but the morally tinged destruction of San Francisco’s liquor-soaked hangouts was the sell.

1936年，在米高梅(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)的《火燒舊金山》(San Francisco)之后，地震災害題材成了長片。這部情節(jié)劇由克拉克·蓋博(Clark Gable)、斯賓塞·屈賽(Spencer Tracy)和珍妮特·麥克唐納(Jeanette MacDonald)主演，不過舊金山那些花天酒地的流氓巢穴最終惡有惡報才是最大的賣點。

“An earthquake, noisy and terrifying and so realistic that the customers will be dodging the falling buildings and mentally hurdling the crevices that yawn in the studio’s streets” awaited viewers, assured Variety in its review.

“喧囂恐怖的地震非常真實，觀影者們會忍不住躲避倒下來的建筑，在心里跳過制片廠外街頭草坪上的裂隙，”《綜藝》(Variety)在影評中向讀者們保證。

In “Earthquake,” Universal upped the ante with a Sensurround system that emitted low-frequency vibrations meant to make the audience feel as queasy as the people on screen. With computer-generated imagery, “San Andreas” can now rend the earth with startlingly wide fissures, crumple skyscrapers and send Mr. Johnson’s speedboat over that tidal wave in ways that Mark Robson, who directed “Earthquake,” could only imagine.

在《大地震》里，環(huán)球影業(yè)提高了規(guī)模，使用環(huán)繞聲系統，制造一種低頻震動，令觀眾和片中的人物一樣感到惡心難受?！赌┤毡浪防锸褂昧穗娔X圖像，制造出大地上驚人的巨大裂隙，坍塌的摩天大樓，為強森的高速游艇之后添上《大地震》的導演馬克·羅布森(Mark Robson)難以想象的滔天巨浪。

(Mr. Peyton and company also recorded seismic sounds of the San Andreas fault, and incorporated them in a score by Andrew Lockington.)

佩頓與公司還錄制了圣安德烈斷層地震的聲音，把它結合到安德魯·洛金頓(Andrew Lockington)創(chuàng)作的配樂中去。

“We haven’t had a major quake in many years, and that scares me,” acknowledged Mr. Peyton, who is from Newfoundland, Canada, and is not eager to share the fate his movie dishes out. “This is as close as I want to come.”

“我們已經多年沒有經歷過大地震了，這讓我覺得很可怕，”佩頓承認，他來自加拿大的紐芬蘭，他可不愿意經歷自己電影里的事情。“其實它就近在眼前。”

But filmmakers never stopped imagining the end of California, or parts of it, whether by giant ants, as in “Them!” (1954); pod people, as in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956); birds, as in “The Birds” (1963); or Japanese bombardment, plus John Belushi, as in “1941” (1979). There were more earthquakes, as in “Short Cuts” (1993) and “Escape From L.A.” (1996); a volcano, triggered by ill-advised subway construction, in “Volcano” (1997); falling frogs in “Magnolia” (1999); and armed aliens in “Battle: Los Angeles” (shot in Louisiana in 2009, and released in 2011).

但是電影拍攝者們一直都在想象加利福尼亞的終結，至少也是它的部分終結，比如在1954年的《X放射線》(Them!)里被巨大的螞蟻毀滅;在 1956年的《天外魔花》(Invasion of the Body Snatchers)里被豆莢人毀滅;在1963年的《群鳥》(The Birds)里被鳥毀滅;在1979年的電影《1941》里被日本炸彈外加約翰·貝魯希(John Belushi)毀滅。還有更多地震，諸如1993年的《銀色，性，男女》(Short Cuts)和1996年的《洛杉磯大逃亡》(Escape From LA);在1997年的《活火熔城》(Volcano)里，錯誤修建的地鐵導致火山爆發(fā);1999年的《木蘭花》(Magnolia)里，青蛙雨從天而降;《洛杉磯之戰(zhàn)》(Battle: Los Angeles)里則是外星人武裝入侵(該片于2009年在路易斯安那攝制，2011年上映)。

In “Miracle Mile,” an indie thriller written and directed by Steve De Jarnatt in 1988, it rained nuclear bombs on a date gone wrong between Mare Winningham and Anthony Edwards. Ground zero was the mid-Wilshire tower in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles that now houses The New York Times bureau: For those who live here, it gets personal.

1988年的《末日終結者》(Miracle Mile)是一部獨立驚悚片，由史蒂夫·德·加奈特(Steve De Jarnatt)編劇并執(zhí)導，片中在梅爾·溫寧漢姆(Mare Winningham)與安東尼·愛德華茲(Anthony Edwards)約會諸事不順的一天里，原子彈從天而降。洛杉磯米拉克邁爾區(qū)的中央威爾士塔如今是《紐約時報》駐洛杉磯分社所在地，它也在片中被夷為平地，對于那里的人們來說，這是一種報復。

(New York has suffered its share of movie damage, though it is usually not seismic. Apes and meteors often play a role, as in “King Kong,” from 1933, or “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” (both from 1998).

紐約也在電影中被毀滅過不少次，不過通常沒有地震，而是由巨猿和天象完成這一工作，比如1933年的《金剛》(King Kong)，以及1998年的《世界末日》(Armageddon)和《天地大沖撞》(Deep Impact)。

More than a few of the California films settled scores with a place that seemed to have it too good. In “San Andreas,” overcompensated Northern California techies get their comeuppance as tsunami-tossed ships, trolleys and office furniture crash through some of the most expensive real estate on the planet.

不少關于加利福尼亞的電影對這個看似得天獨厚的地方做了清算。在《末日崩塌》里，北加州酬勞過高的技術人員終于遭到了報應，海嘯掀翻了他們的船只與車輛，辦公家具從這個星球上最昂貴的一些房產中被席卷而出。

Salvation is low-tech: It comes in the form of land lines, hot-wired cars and raw nerve. Others might say Californians have done enough damage here, without Hollywood’s help.

低科技成了救星：包括陸地運輸線、熱線汽車與敏感的性格。其他人可能會說，就算沒有好萊塢的幫忙，加利福尼亞人自己搞的破壞也已經夠多的了。

Chuck DeVore, a former California Republican state assemblyman who is now vice president for policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, lists prohibitive housing costs, rising taxes and overbearing bureaucracy as contributors, in his view, to a paradise almost lost.

查克·德沃爾(Chuck DeVore)是前加利福尼亞共和黨州議員，現任得克薩斯州公共政策基金會政策部副總裁，他認為，限制住房成本、增稅與專橫的官僚制度都導致了加利福尼亞不再是人間天堂。

“If I didn’t think so, I guess I wouldn’t be in Texas,” he said.

“若不是這么想，現在我也不會來得克薩斯了，”他說。