10 Classic Western Movies (I)

文/勞麗·伯德 

譯/孟潔冰

By Laurie Boeder

High Noon, 1952

《正午》，1952 年

With Gary Cooper and a radi-ant Grace Kelly, High Noon is the tale of a dutiful sheriff deserted by the cowardly townspeople he has served as a gang of desperadoes descends on the town. Spare, tense, and told almost in real time, the film pares the conven-tional western to its bones as the sheriff stays to fight over the protests of his friends and his pacifist Quaker wife. In-terpreted variously as a preachy liberal fable, an allegory of the McCarthy era and as a commentary on U.S. involve-ment in both Korea and WWII, it stands first and foremost as a fine, classic west-ern movie.

《正午》由加里·庫珀和光彩照人的格蕾絲·凱利主演，講述匪幫來到小鎮(zhèn)尋仇、現任警長盡忠職守卻被懦弱居民拋棄的故事。本片情節(jié)簡單，節(jié)奏緊張，近乎實時敘事。警長不顧朋友和熱愛和平的貴格會教徒妻子的反對，決定留下來戰(zhàn)斗的場景，濃縮了傳統(tǒng)西部片的精華。雖然有各種各樣的解讀，比如宣揚自由主義的寓言、麥卡錫時代的隱喻，以及對美國卷入朝鮮戰(zhàn)爭和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)的評價，不過本片首先是部出色的經典西部片。

Destry Rides Again, 1939

《碧血煙花》，1939 年

One of the great movies of 1939, Destry Rides Again is the story of a sheriff who doesn’t like to carry a gun. One of the first movies to spoof the western genre, it has the requisite law-less town, cheating gamblers, upright townsfolk, and rowdy cowpokes, along with the best dancehall hostess/fallen angel ever, Marlene Dietrich. (She gets three musical numbers, including “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have.”) Lanky, likable Jimmy Stewart is irresistible as Destry, the peaceable, slow-talking sheriff who tames the town.

這部1939年的電影佳作講述了不愛帶槍的警長的故事。作為最先惡搞西部片的電影之一，《碧血煙花》具備了各種經典元素：無法無天的小鎮(zhèn)、出千騙人的賭徒、品行正直的民眾和舉止粗野的牛仔，還有風情萬種的舞廳老板娘、“墮落天使”瑪琳·黛德麗。（她在片中唱了三首歌曲，包括《看看幕后英雄會怎樣》。）身材修長、討人喜歡的吉米·斯圖爾特飾演充滿魅力的戴斯屈，這位性格溫順、講話慢條斯理的警長給小鎮(zhèn)帶來了安寧。

The Searchers, 1956

《日落狂沙》，1956 年

Shot by director John Ford against the spectacular vistas of Utah’s Monu-ment Valley, The Searchers is a bleak tale of the violent struggle between settlers and Indians. John Wayne, who more often played genial cowboys and dashing soldiers, plays a darker, more complex role here as a vigilante who spends years in a single-minded, relent-less search for the Indians who killed his brother’s family and kidnapped his niece. While not all of it holds up to-day, it remains a compelling, layered story. Wayne was never better.

導演約翰·福特拍攝的《日落狂沙》以猶他州紀念碑谷的壯麗景色為背景，講述了定居者與印第安人激烈戰(zhàn)斗的悲壯故事。約翰·韋恩往往飾演親切友好的牛仔和英氣勃勃的軍人，在本片中塑造的角色卻更陰暗復雜。這位復仇勇士多年來單槍匹馬，對殺害哥嫂、擄走侄女的印第安人窮追不舍。雖然本片放在今天未必成功，不過故事情節(jié)依然引人入勝、層次分明。約翰·韋恩在本片中的表演達到了巔峰。

Blazing Saddles, 1974

《灼熱的馬鞍》，1974 年

Mel Brooks’ beloved, laugh-out-loud western spoof Blazing Saddles was mar-keted with the tagline: “Never give a saga an even break.” Silly, crude and so politically incorrect no one would dare film it today, it features a noble black sheriff trying to win over the locals with the help of a laid-back drunken gun-fighter, a dancehall floozy (Madeleine Kahn in a hilarious take on Marlene Dietrich) and former NFL great Alex Karas as a simple-minded frontier thug. It’s famous for the beans-around-the-campfire flatulence scene alone. (Watch it anyway.)

《灼熱的馬鞍》由梅爾·布魯克斯執(zhí)導，這部深受觀眾喜愛、令人捧腹的西部惡搞片還有句宣傳口號：“永遠不要給傳奇機會?！北酒奶瓶尚?，情節(jié)粗俗，毫無政治正確性可言，放在今天沒人敢拍這樣的電影。該片講述品格高尚的黑人警長在懶散的醉鬼槍手、舞廳妖姬（馬德琳·卡恩的滑稽表演借鑒了瑪琳·黛德麗的形象）和頭腦簡單的邊野莽漢（前橄欖球聯盟明星亞歷克斯·卡拉斯飾演）的幫助下，努力贏得了當地民眾的擁護。僅憑人們圍著篝火吃豆子放屁的場景，這部電影就足以名留影史。（推薦觀看。）

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969

《虎豹小霸王》，1969 年

Something of a counterculture west-ern, this beguiling film pairs two of Hollywood’s most watchable stars—Paul Newman and Robert Redford—as peaceable, old-school bandits trying to make it on the increasingly civilized frontier. With a warm, clever script by William Goldman, the movies fol-lows Butch and Sundance as they seek adventure farther and farther south. Loosely based on the lives of real out-laws, the movie also features a stand-out[2] performance by Strother Martin.

這部反傳統(tǒng)的西部片拍得引人入勝，由好萊塢最英俊迷人的兩位電影明星——保羅·紐曼和羅伯特·雷德福——飾演性情溫和的舊式匪徒，講述他們設法在日益文明的邊疆謀生的故事。影片根據威廉·戈德曼活潑俏皮的劇本，拍攝了布奇和圣丹斯一路向南闖蕩的傳奇經歷。本片大致參照真實強盜的生活改編而成。斯特羅瑟·馬丁在片中也有出色的表演。

[2] stand-out 突出的。