鲍比

2012-11-13

真正的主角是RFK，也就是被称作Bobby的准总统，在电影中“真人出镜”。美国人始终对他的死耿耿于怀，或许，希望这个跟他哥一样的理想主义者能够成就一番更伟大的事业。也或许，这哥俩的命运实在太过悲惨，激发了大家的恻隐之心。可惜历史不能重来，肯尼迪家族以后也几乎没有在政界出现过。

一众明星，在背后演绎了一个国家对准总统的期待，也演绎了希望的泡沫破碎的时刻。一系列的冲突在画面中展现，无论是国家大义还是P民的偷情，这个世界本来就没有大同的时候，用什么来规范人类的行为？所谓的普世价值观还是法律？开枪打死RFK的人自然是美国人心中的暴徒，但是在其他人的心中呢？自然会有些人会把他当成英雄。人的不同，只在于信念的不同，有没有办法做到和而不同、而又不要彼此伤害？Bobby的哥哥在古巴导弹危机中用了最柔和的办法，顺利地解决了冲突，但是他自己的结局却很悲剧，Bobby留下的演讲同样精彩，但最终甚至没有机会施展，理想主义者的宿命就是如此？

I've heard that in America when strangers meet, sometimes they would ask one another a question about Kennedy - "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?"

Of course, the Kennedy in the question ususally refers to Bobby's big brother, JFK. At first, I did not understand. I don't see how people could use someone else's death as a topic to socialize with each other. As I grew older and had some life stories of my own, things began to dawn on me. I think that the reason people ask this question is to reminisce. On that day, the day that Kennedy was shot, an era ended. People ask the question because they want to remember the time when they were young, the time when they still believed, and the time when they still had the courage to dream of a world different from the one they were told to live in and accept without question. That was when a nation vibrated with the energy of youth and oozed with the confidence and resolution that they could and would build a better life, a better country, and a better world. That was the time when the nation was in motion. That was before the gun shot and killed in cold blood the best the nation has to offer .

If they thought that the people would be subdued by an assassination and that the movement would die down once JFK was gone, they were wrong. Robert Kennedy carried on the fight. The people followed. But just when the people were ready to rise up again and stand with the man who would lead them to the promised land, the gun shot was heard again. This time, the bullet not only killed the messiah of the nation but also broke the spirit of a generation. The zeitgeist of the 60s, the daring to change and the audacity to challenge the establishment, had disappeared since and is yet to be seen again.

You may have a different agenda than what the people want. It may be right and it may be wrong. However, if the price you paid for the people to take your agenda was to terrorize the nation into silence with violence and to subject the nation to oppression and fear, then it was never the right price to pay. Never. The people could only be cheated so many times. They could only be failed so many times. They could only place their faith in you so many times. Once that limit is reached, you would never make them believe again, and that is when a nation is robbed of her belief. That is when you would discover that a nation without belief is a nation going nowhere.

The movie pieced together various people's lives at that fateful day. Divergent their lives are, at that moment, they converged and became one. No matter how different they look, behave, or think, deep in their heart, they share a common longing. Deep in their heart, they share a common set of values. Deep in their heart, they share a common faith. When they saw Kennedy, all of their faces lighted up. It was just like the effect Jesus had on the suffering, the poor, and the oppressed, when he traveled the land of Palenstine.

Just when the elation peaked, the shots were fired and people were sent into turmoil, panic, disbelief, anger, grief, and dispair. Then Bobby's voice rose. It was a speech he recorded months before his death. He spoke, in his usual composure, of why violence could have been used by man against his own brothers, so calmly as if he had already forgiven his own killer, and of how man should try to see himself in each other and tear down the walls of hate, prejudice, intolerance, and fear, and be brothers and countrymen again, so surely as if he had seen the future and tried to tell us - "Have faith, and you will be one people again." . He had given his testimony of the heritage that he left us. Hopefully, one day, people will find the conviction, the courage, and the strength in themselves to dare to dream again, to dare to hope again, to dare to act again, and to dare to fight again, for the world that the ones went before us envisioned and sacrificed their lives for.

Next time, when someone asks you about where you were when Kennedy was shot, you would know what the real meaning of that question is. Let us hope that the question would not be taken away along with them, when the generation, who had so many dreams, so many triumphs, so many defeats, and so many stories to tell, should've faded away in the theater of time. Let us hope that the question would live on and that the torch be passed to a new generation of men from all lands. Let us hope that, one day, we would make the world that had been dreamed for, fought for, and died for, by the giants like Robert Francis Kennedy, come true.

Finally, I quote Edward M. Kennedy's tribute to his beloved brother:

 "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

 "As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

      " 'Some men see things as they are and say why.
       I dream things that never were and say why not.' "

奥斯卡提名影片《鲍比》，好片，并不一定好玩，现在很少有那些煽情成分的好片了，我挺需要的！这片也是平淡得很，是个很好的电影，可是并不一定所有人都很喜欢，怎么说，就象毕加索的东西，不是随时都是能喜欢得来的。

言归正传：故事围绕1968年6月6日美国参议员罗伯特·F·肯尼迪的遇刺展开，那颗致命的子弹不但要了鲍比的性命，也令当时身处"大使酒店"的22个人的命运发生了转变，更进一步说，这颗子弹消灭了整个美国的纯真…… 在由埃米里奥·埃丝泰威兹导演并担纲主演的这部戏中，22个人成为了二十世纪六十年代悲剧性、决定性的一幕的不知情的见证人。推荐30以上的男人看看！

《Bobby》，一部看似记述Rober F.Kennedy在1968年竞选中遇刺的记录性质的电影，本以为充满了悬疑，紧张，暴力的电影，不曾想竟是如此的"平淡"，几乎写意而模糊的RFK的镜头，只是在不断提醒观众，这将是一个重要时刻的重演。但充斥整个情节的，确实普通或者不普通的22个局外人在短短三天中的生活，对于洛杉矶大使饭店来说寻常但不平静的三天。

是的，吸引我走进影院的并不是政治噱头和预想紧张而精彩的情节，而是这长长的闪烁着无比璀璨星光的演员名单，华丽到可以遮挡住任何类似题材记录性电影的光芒。

Antoony Hopkins 安东尼.霍普金斯 (《沉默的羔羊》)， William H. Macy 威廉姆.H.梅西 (冰血暴，不羁夜，木兰花，美国丽人，空军一号，侏罗纪公园，太多)，Emilio Estevez 艾米利奥，艾斯特维兹 (本片导演，编剧)， Demi Moore 黛米。摩尔（也许你曾经为当年的人鬼情未了感动过）， Sharon Stone 莎朗.斯通(不介绍)， Elijah Wood 伊利亚.伍德 （指环王，是的，就是Frodo），Hellen Hunt 海伦.亨特 (龙卷风的女主)，Shia Labeouf (哦，如果你在看变3，那么这张和主角一样的脸一定很熟悉)， Laurence Fishburne 劳伦斯.菲什伯恩 (The Matrix中的Neo的拯救者，决胜21点的赌场专家)，Martin Sheen 马丁.辛 (电视剧The West Wing的主角，经典).

如此阵容，在两个小时的影片中却丝丝入扣，每个人的表演到位而精准。群戏虽然必定从一开始的独立的世界，走到大事件中突然的人生轨迹的碰撞，但人生就是在被看不见得丝线拉扯，有时冥冥中际会于一处又匆匆别离，不同的人生，不同的理解，不同的方向，突然的碰撞下仍会保持自己独特的轨迹。而影片中穿插着RFK模糊的身影，真实纪录片中的影像，演讲的旁白，以及那个时代的动荡和不安，JFK, 马丁路德.金被刺杀，一个曾经的黄金时代坠入黑暗，取而代之的是战争，颓废，暴力和混乱。"The make a desert and call it peace", 影片开首引用了塔西佗的话来描述当时的美国，而一部典型意义上美式的憧憬中，光明和正义总是存在并引领着人们，但没有人会预见到一个纯真信仰的时代最终的一去不返。

当The Sound Of Silence响起，一首曾经在《毕业生》中挑起多少人对青春懵懂无限回忆的舒缓歌曲，在这里似乎预示着纯真年代的惆怅。在RFK即兄长遇刺后遭受了同样的命运，似乎一种不可名状的诅咒萦绕在肯尼迪家族，鲜血，慌乱的人群，悲伤，失望，不仅仅是对一个人，而是对于命运和未来。但不管怎样，人们都会坚强的活下去，以这样或者那样，光荣或者卑微的方式，也总有人会再次激起沉默人们的希望...

影片最后RFK的演讲词，将影片的情节和观众的情感推向高潮，简短的旧记录片镜头中，RFK的随和，理想化，对贫穷者的同情，和对社会问题的正视，是人们对他热爱的佐证。这不是一种简单的煽情，而是在人们心中或多或少存在的纯真火焰，在风中闪耀出更明亮的火光。

一齣眾星雲集的美國電影, 數一數明星之多: Lawrence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutchner, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Martin Sheen, Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under), Christian Slater...
 
通常多星的電影, 劇本都未必夠好, 但"Bobby"卻又是一齣不可錯過的電影.
 
一齣有紀錄片精神, 講述1968年JFK弟弟兼美國參議員Robert F. Kennedy遇刺身亡的事件. 電影藉著Bobby(RFK的別名)於選舉結果公佈的campaign headquarters所在地: Ambassador Hotel及身處該酒店廿多個人物的故事道出這段甘迺迪家族又一悲劇的歷史片段.
 
電影劇情緊湊, 有紀錄片感, 用了許多明星但又不鬆散, 很有震撼感.
 
廿多個人物角色, 劇情多線發展, 均發展得很好.
 
電影用了不少真實歷史新聞片段, 加強了真實感和感染力.
 
雖然演員眾多, 但都有發揮機會, 演技較突出的有Martin Sheen, Lawrence Fishburne, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Freddy Rodriguez, Heather Graham和Lindsay Lohan. Anthony Hopkins戲份少, 沒有發揮機會.
 
特別喜歡電影末段的槍擊一幕及加插當年的真實新聞片段, 就是給人澎湃的震撼, 還有Simon & Garfunkel的Sound of Silence, 正正把觀眾帶到那個年代見證這段歷史.
 
導演Emilio Estevez原來是Martin Sheen的兒子(Sheen的姓氏是後來改的), 多年來都是演員, 導演經驗有兩集CSI:New York. 這回他自己又導又演, 飾Tim Fallon一角.