The American as Noble Man 高尚的美國(guó)人
When he died Gregory Peck took movie idealism with him
格利高里·派克逝世了，也帶走了電影的理想主義
譯者點(diǎn)評(píng)：一個(gè)人，過著多個(gè)人的生活；分享多個(gè)人的身份；在演藝生涯中扮演了不知多少個(gè)角色；而謝世后，留下的卻只有一個(gè)逝去的時(shí)代。多事者問：何謂不朽？答曰：靈魂。多事者再問：何謂靈魂？再答曰：對(duì)理念的真知，因?yàn)槔砟钍怯篮愕?。那么，一如先哲所說的不變的永恒，對(duì)于曾經(jīng)代表了一個(gè)時(shí)代的派克，他的理念顯然是用來換取自由的力量和同情。而正因?yàn)樗チ耍淼牧α亢屯椴懦闪巳藗儌髡b的人之魂。
The movie studio wanted Rock Hudson to play Atticus Finch. Fate decreed otherwise. Gregory Peck got the role of the smalltown Southern lawyer in the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird. The hero of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prizewinning novel had been a man much like her father and when the author met the actor on the first day of shooting she noted “Gregory you’ve got a little potbelly just like my daddy.” The star replied “Harper that’s great acting.”
Actually it was great inhabiting. “You never really understand a person...” Atticus says “until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Tolerance ripening into empathy that was Peck’s gift in playing an elevated species of American the man of strength and compassion. Today that species is more than endangered it has nearly vanished. But it flourished for most of the actor’s halfcentury onscreen when Americans prided themselves on their fellow feeling for the downtrodden and their ability to uplift the races. Peck was liberal when liberal was cool.
From his early days as the most gorgeous man in pictures in Spellbound and Duel in the Sun to his long prime with a Mount Rushmore visage and the voice of Yahweh on a good day Peck was the sonorous pitchman for movie humanism. He showed how a strong man could also be a gentle man. He counseled ethnic tolerance of Jews in Gentleman’s Agreement and blacks in Mockingbird. As a crusading attorney who is also a gentle single dad to his two young kids Peck made rectitude appear robust. That sanctity had staying power this month the American Film Institute chose Atticus Finch as the top hero in U.S. movie history.
Peck wasn’t just an icon. He was an actor a smart one. He picked hit properties in a wide variety of genres romantic comedy Roman Holiday action The Guns of Nararone horror The Omen. He was bold in taking roles—Ahab General MacArthur—that twisted his nobleman image. He assayed his share of misanthropes including Nazi monster Josef Mengele and western hombres as craggy as a butte. But Peck will be best remembered as the movies’ exemplary father figure who often and surprisingly revealed the pacifism at the heart of heroism.
Good example Cape Fear with Peck as the head of a family menaced by alltime cunning sicko Robert Mitchum. At the climax Peck trains a gun on the villain. Shoot’im Greg But no. This time the good guy is not going to kill the bad guy the rotter will be tried convicted and imprisoned. A less confident actor might have let this verdict sound like weakness but Peck sells the notion that life in jail is as unpleasant as a bullet in the gut.
Winners and losers are all too clearly defined in today’s movies. Peck’s best films always found thoughtful shades of gray. Atticus has taken on the case of a black man accused of raping a white woman—a perilous assignment in an Alabama town in the 1930s. He argues his case brilliantly demolishes the opposition convinces each member of the movie audience.... and loses. But Atticus has shown courage in the fight. As he leaves the courtroom in defeat a black preacher attending the trial whispers a command to Atticus’ 6yearold daughter. “Miss Jean Louise stand up” he tells the girl. “Your father’s passin’.”
Later in the film Peck embodies a kind of pacifist resistance. The white woman’s racist father sees Peck with some blacks and spits in his face. Peck with ferocious dignity takes out a handkerchief wipes off the insult and walks away—the victor by not fighting back. Good man to lead tough act to follow.
It’s dangerous to confuse an actor with his movie roles. But by all accounts the reel and the real Gregory Peck were close kin. He was a model of probity a loyal friend to colleagues in distress a father confessor to the Hollywood community. He chaired the National Society of This the American Academy of That. He was laden with official honors Lyndon Johnson gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Richard Nixon put him on his Enemies List. Peck received perhaps his sweetest laurel last week when the reclusive Lee on hearing of his death said “Gregory Peck was a beautiful man. Atticus Finch gave him the opportunity to play himself.”
But who will play the Gregory Peck hero now that noble is for wimps and the best place to find integrity is in Webster’s﹖ The masculine delicacy that Peck represented is gone from films no star has filled his mold. Movie actors don’t have the voice or posture or temperament for it. Maybe America can’t believe in it.
To cherish Peck is to admit nostalgia for an era when popular and political culture could champion humanist ideals without smirking. If our time were not so facetious so often corrupt that time—and this man—would not seem so precious.
America stand up. Gregory Peck has passed on. -
格利高里·派克：不朽的美國(guó)紳士
制片廠打算讓羅克·赫德森飾演阿提庫斯·芬奇?？哨ぺぶ袇s偏偏另有安排。格利高里·派克獲得了那個(gè)角色，在1962年的影片《殺死一只知更鳥》中扮演南方小鎮(zhèn)的律師。這是哈珀·李獲普利策獎(jiǎng)的小說中的主人公，非常像她的父親；影片開拍的第一天，作者與演員相遇時(shí)，她說道：“格利高里，你恰好和我父親一樣有點(diǎn)大腹便便?！蹦敲餍腔卮鹫f，“哈珀，那才是真正的表演?！?BR> 實(shí)際上，那是真正的進(jìn)入角色。阿提庫斯說，“在你爬進(jìn)一個(gè)人的皮膚下，在他體內(nèi)行走之前，你永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)真正理解一個(gè)人……”寬容逐漸成熟而移情于角色之中：派克的才能是扮演一種高素質(zhì)的美國(guó)人——有力量和同情心的人。今天，那個(gè)“物種”已不僅僅瀕危了；它幾乎滅跡了。但在這個(gè)演員半個(gè)世紀(jì)的影藝生涯中的大部分時(shí)間里，這個(gè)物種都很興旺。當(dāng)時(shí)的美國(guó)人為他們對(duì)受壓迫者的同情和為自己提高人性素質(zhì)的能力而自豪。派克是個(gè)開明的人，而當(dāng)時(shí)開明是美德。
派克從早期影片(《愛德華醫(yī)生》又譯《迷魂咒》和《陽光下的決斗》又譯《太陽浴血記》)中的帥哥，到漫長(zhǎng)的全盛期中他那仿佛在晴空下的拉什莫爾石像的面孔和耶和華般的聲音，都表現(xiàn)出他是宣揚(yáng)電影人文主義的嘹亮歌手。他表明一個(gè)健壯的人也可以是一個(gè)溫柔的人。他提倡種族寬容：在《君子協(xié)定》中寬容*人，在《殺死一只知更鳥》中寬容黑人。作為進(jìn)行圣戰(zhàn)的律師和兩個(gè)年幼孩子的單身好父親，派克使正義堅(jiān)不可摧。神圣的正義是長(zhǎng)存的：本月，美國(guó)電影學(xué)院選出阿提庫斯·芬奇為美國(guó)電影的頭號(hào)主人公。
派克不僅僅是一個(gè)偶像。他是一個(gè)演員，一個(gè)聰明的演員。他在范圍廣泛的樣式中選擇了歡迎的那些：浪漫喜劇(《羅馬假日》)，動(dòng)作片(《六壯士》又譯《納瓦隆大炮》)，恐怖片(《兇兆》又譯《預(yù)兆》)。他大膽扮演了扭曲了他的高尚形象的角色——亞哈、麥克阿瑟將軍。他嘗試過厭惡人類者(包括納粹惡魔約瑟夫·門格勒)和像孤峰一樣粗野的西部漢子等角色。但人們最清楚地記得的派克還是影片中典型的長(zhǎng)者形象。他們常常出人意料地揭示了作為英雄主義核心的和平主義。
《恐怖角》又譯《海角驚魂》就是很好的一個(gè)例子。劇中，派克是一家之長(zhǎng)，全家人受到老謀深算、道德敗壞的羅伯特·米徹姆的威脅。在影片的高潮，派克把槍口對(duì)準(zhǔn)了這個(gè)惡棍。開槍打死他，格雷格！但他沒有開槍。這一次好人不打算殺死壞人；壞人要被審判、定罪和監(jiān)禁。缺乏自信心的演員也許會(huì)讓這個(gè)決定聽起來懦弱無力，但派克宣揚(yáng)的是這樣一個(gè)觀點(diǎn)，即身陷囹圄與遭槍子兒一樣是令人不愉快的事。
今天的影片中勝敗涇渭分明。在派克的影片中總能看到發(fā)人深省的灰色影子。阿提庫斯接手了一樁黑人男子被控強(qiáng)*白人女子的案子——這在20世紀(jì)30年代的亞拉巴馬小鎮(zhèn)乃是一項(xiàng)要命的差事。他辯護(hù)精彩，駁倒了對(duì)方，令影片的每一個(gè)觀眾心服口服……可他敗訴了。但阿提庫斯在戰(zhàn)斗中表現(xiàn)出了勇氣。當(dāng)他敗訴而離開法庭時(shí)，參加審判會(huì)的一個(gè)黑人牧師悄聲對(duì)阿提庫斯的6歲女兒說：“瓊·路易絲小姐，起立。你父親正從這里走過?！?BR> 后來，派克在影片中象征一種和平的抵制。受害的白人婦女的父親是種族主義者，看到派克與幾個(gè)黑人在一起，就朝他臉上吐唾沫。派克以憤怒的尊嚴(yán)拿出一塊手帕，擦掉了唾沫，走開了——不用反擊就打贏了戰(zhàn)斗的勝利者。君子之道為先；粗俗之舉居后。
把演員與其影片中的角色混為一談是危險(xiǎn)的。但人們說銀幕上的格利高里·派克和現(xiàn)實(shí)中的格利高里·派克十分相近。他是正直的表率，患難中的真交，好萊塢社區(qū)的告解神甫。他不是這個(gè)全國(guó)什么什么協(xié)會(huì)的會(huì)長(zhǎng)，就是那個(gè)美國(guó)什么什么學(xué)院的主席。他被官方榮譽(yù)壓得喘不過氣來：林登·約翰遜授予他總統(tǒng)自由獎(jiǎng)?wù)拢焕聿榈隆つ峥怂砂阉性诹藬硨?duì)者名單上。上周，隱居的李聽到他的死訊時(shí)說，“格利高里·派克是個(gè)帥男子。阿提庫斯·芬奇給了他扮演自己的機(jī)會(huì)?！边@也許是派克獲得的最甜蜜的桂冠。
但是，既然高尚已經(jīng)用在了懦弱之人的身上，尋找操守的地方只有在韋氏詞典里，那么，誰又將扮演格利高里·派克式的主人公呢？派克代表的男性典雅已經(jīng)從電影中消失了；任何明星都無法勝任他的那種類型。電影演員不具備他那種聲音、儀態(tài)和氣質(zhì)。也許美國(guó)不可能相信這種類型。
珍惜派克就等于承認(rèn)懷戀一個(gè)時(shí)代，那時(shí)，大眾文化和政治文化能夠真誠(chéng)地倡導(dǎo)人文主義理想。如果我們的時(shí)代不是如此荒唐，如此經(jīng)常地墮落的話，那個(gè)時(shí)代——以及這個(gè)人——就不會(huì)顯得那么寶貴了。
美國(guó)，肅然起立吧！格利高里·派克已經(jīng)逝世。陳永國(guó) 摘譯自 Time June 23 2003