重温一下老版《新概念英语》中关于好莱坞电影的一篇文章_风闻

What characterizes almost all Hollywood pictures is their inner emptiness. This is compensated for by an outer impressiveness. Such impressiveness usually takes the form of truly grandiose realism. Nothing is spared to make the setting, the costumes, all of the surface details correct. These efforts help to mask the essential emptiness of the characterization, and the absurdities and trivialities of the plots. The houses look like houses, the streets look like streets; the people look and talk like people; but they are empty of humanity, credibility, and motivation. Needless to say, the disgraceful censorship code is an important factor in predetermining the content of these pictures. But the code does not disturb the profits, nor the entertainment value of the films; it merely helps to prevent them from being credible. It isn’t too heavy a burden for the industry to bear. In addition to the impressiveness of the settings, there is a use of the camera, which at times seems magical. But of what human import is all this skill, all this effort, all this energy in the production of effects, when the story, the representation of life is hollow, stupid, banal, childish?

—James T. Farrell The Language of Hollywood

几乎所有好莱坞电影都有个共同的特点，那就是内容的空洞，而要补偿这种空洞，就必须让电影的外在给人留下深刻印象。这种深刻印象通常是由宏大的“真实性”来实现的。我们不遗余力地让布景、服装和所有细节都表现得正确无误，以掩盖人物本质之空虚、情节之荒谬和琐碎。电影里的房子看起来像真房子，街道看起来像真街道，人们的言行举止也都像真的，但他们缺乏人性、可信性和动机。影片这种空空如也的内容是如何被预先设定的呢？不用说，审查制度是一个重要因素。但审查制度并没有影响电影的利润和娱乐价值，只是影响了电影的可信性。然而对于这个行业来说，这个负担并不太重。除了令人印象深刻的布景外，有时还使用了貌似很神奇的镜头。但是，当故事（即对生活的再现）变得空洞、愚蠢、平庸和幼稚时，所有这些技术、努力以及为了产生特效所花费的功夫，对人类又有什么意义呢？

文章的作者是美国小说家法雷尔。多年前就学过这篇文章，但印象不深。90年代好莱坞“大片”刚刚进入中国时，每每在中国校园里引起狂欢，人人趋之若鹜。当时看到那种大场面，不禁为之惊叹。可是现在，却变成了一看就烦的状态。几年前和儿子看《变形金刚》，他看得全神贯注，我却在中途睡着了，是被影片后面“轰隆隆”的爆炸声给惊醒的。

偶然又看到了多年前读过的法雷尔写的这篇文章，才慢慢有了些感悟，才知道好莱坞的商业片所谓的“内在的空洞”到底是咋回事。