新版《全面回憶》:不如回憶美好

As you may recall, or even Rekall, the troubled hero of the original 'Total Recall,' played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, goes to a brain-bending establishment called Rekall Inc. to buy a virtual vacation, one that's all in the mind. Now it's Colin Farrell who goes to the same company, where he's told, in the same spirit of dangerously genial salesmanship: 'We'll provide you with a complete set of memories all your own.' For those of us who saw the original, the problem with watching this totally dehumanized remake, which was directed by Len Wiseman, is that we, too, have a set of memories all our own: specific memories of the 1990 movie - which was clever and playful, as well as exciting and hugely impactful - and general memories of a time when going to see an action adventure could be giddy fun.

也許你還記得，在老版的《全面回憶》(Total Recall)中，阿諾•施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)飾演的身陷困境的男主角來到一家名爲“Rekall”的公司，購買一次全程都在大腦中展開的虛擬旅行。如今在由倫•維斯曼(Len Wiseman)執導的新版影片中，來到這家公司的變成了柯林•法瑞爾(Colin Farrell)，同樣也得到了親切到危險程度的推銷：“我們將爲你提供一整套你自己的完整記憶。”對於看過老版的觀衆而言，觀看這部毫無生氣的翻拍片的問題在於，我們也擁有一套自己的記憶：我們對上世紀90年代那部老版影片的特定記憶，它新潁獨到、好玩有趣、令人激動且極具衝擊力，還有對那個時代的整體記憶，當時去看一部動作冒險片也是一件讓人心馳神迷的趣事。

The first question posed by the new production is why. The original, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was a sci-fi classic, and a terrific piece of filmmaking for its time, so why try to top it? That's easy. Remakes aren't supposed to top originals, or even to match them. They're meant to draw new revenues from new audiences; most of the people who'll pay to see this film weren't born when the first one came out, or if they were they didn't know Arnold from Elmo. Another question is harder, but maybe more instructive to answer: What does this film say about the state of the movie business?

這部新影片引發的第一個問題是爲什麼要翻拍。老版《全面回憶》由保羅•範霍文(Paul Verhoeven)執導，是一部經典科幻片，在當時算得上是一部製作非常精良的電影，那麼爲什麼還要翻拍它呢？這個問題很簡單。翻拍片不一定要超過老版，甚至也不一定要跟老版旗鼓相當。它們的目的是吸引新的觀影人羣，從而產生新的票房收入；大多數會花錢去看這部新片的人在老版上映時都還沒有出生。就算已經出生，他們當時看的也還是兒童電視節目“芝麻街”中的埃爾莫(Elmo)，根本不知道施瓦辛格。另一個問題則更難回答，但是或許更有啓發意義：這部影片體現出電影業的哪些現狀？

The basic plot has been retained. (So has the hooker who flashes her three breasts, in case you were wondering.) After something goes horribly wrong during the memory-implant session, the hero, Douglas Quaid, finds himself caught up in an epic battle he doesn't understand at first, and struggles to figure out who he really is. Unlike the original, which was set in the future both on Earth and on a Mars that's either real or a dream, the new one takes place entirely on an Earth that's staggering under the load of overpopulation and really bad weather - 'Blade Runner' meets Malthus. The main locales are the United Federation of Britain, where the upper classes live, and the dystopian precincts of the Colony, which could have passed in our time for Australia. The two regions are connected by a giant elevator that makes the trip - through the center of the Earth - in 17 minutes, if I'm not mistaken; if I am, it's still a big whoosh.

影片的基本情節都得到了保留。（不用猜了，老版中那個有三個乳房的妓女角色也保留了下來。）在記憶移植環節出現一些極其嚴重的差錯之後，男主角道格拉斯•奎德(Douglas Quaid)發現他被捲入了一場他起初並不明白的宏大戰鬥中，並竭力想弄清楚自己到底是誰。老版把背景設在了未來世界，在亦真亦幻的地球和火星上，新版則與此不同，故事全部在地球上展開，這時的地球在人口過剩的重壓和極其惡劣的氣候條件下不堪重負，這倒是像《銀翼殺手》(Blade Runner)與馬爾薩斯(Malthus)的論點結合在了一起。（譯者注：前者涉及了科技在未來對環境和社會的影響，後者則以人口論而知名。）故事的主要發生地爲上等階層居住生活的大英聯盟(United Federation of Britain)和與此形成反襯的殖民區，在我們的時代可能被認爲是澳大利亞。這兩個地方由一部穿過地球中心的巨型電梯連接，如果我沒搞錯的話，從一地到另一地的行程只要17分鐘；即使我搞錯了，那也仍然是一段速度飛快的行程。

To give the new version its due, the visuals are great, especially if you're partial to oppressiveness: a Londonesque megalopolis thrust skyward in a jumble of shifting platforms and seemingly infinite tiers; a spectacular - though also interminable - hover-car chase; multilevel leaps, preposterous crash landings, soulless interior spaces that make Hong Kong's malls seem warm and cozy by comparison. (The production was designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, and photographed by Paul Cameron.)

新版也有其可取之處，它的視覺效果非常棒，特別是如果你偏好看上去十分沉重壓抑的場景的話：一個倫敦風格的大都市聳入天際，由無數的移動平臺和似乎無窮無盡的層級組成；壯觀的飛行汽車追逐場面（不過也十分冗長）；片中還有一些多級跳躍和違反常理的迫降場景，了無生氣的室內空間畫面使得香港的購物中心相形之下也顯得溫馨舒適。（該片藝術指導爲帕特里克•塔託普羅斯(Patrick Tatopoulos)，攝影師爲保羅•卡梅倫(Paul Cameron)。）

Yet it's often hard to tell where the story is playing out - with one whoosh we're down in the Colony, with another we're up in ex-Britain, though all of the corridors and tunnels look the same. After a while it doesn't matter, since the action is as repetitive as it is relentless, a succession of fights and frantic chases accompanied by those drums that have come to define the genre - pacemakers for heartless thrillers.

儘管如此，我們常常還是難以分辨故事到底在哪裏發生。電影中的角色嗖地一下就到了殖民區，嗖地一下又來到了大英聯盟，但所有的走廊和隧道看上去都一樣。再過一會兒，場景問題就無關緊要了，因爲全是重複不斷的動作場面，接連不斷的打鬥、瘋狂的追逐，伴着已成爲這種標準的冷血驚險片特色的鼓點。

It's equally hard to evince any concern for the hero. 'If I'm not me then who the hell am I?' he asks anxiously, but his dilemma doesn't much matter, since he's no more a full-fleshed character than the hordes of robocops chasing after him. That's no knock on Mr. Farrell, who's a marvelous screen presence in the right circumstances - as the hapless hit man of 'In Bruges,' for example - and who invests these action sequences with formidable energy. He's simply stuck within the confines of a mechanistic script, along with Kate Beckinsale, as Quaid's wife, and Jessica Biel as the other woman in his wild adventures; both of them work hard for their salary too.

此外，我們也同樣難以對主角產生任何關心。他在影片中焦急地問道：“如果我不是我，那我到底是誰？”但他的困惑無關緊要，因爲他不再是一個血肉豐滿的角色，與那羣追殺他的機器戰警無甚差別。這並非挑剔法瑞爾的表現，遇到合適的劇本，他的表現總是令人讚歎，比如他在《殺手沒有假期》(In Bruges)中飾演的那個運氣不佳的殺手，他在這一系列動作場景中也投入了巨大精力。他只是被一個機械的劇本所困，同樣有此遭遇的還有在片中飾演他妻子的凱特•貝金賽爾(Kate Beckinsale)以及與他共同經歷狂野冒險的另一名女子的飾演者傑西卡•貝爾(Jessica Biel)。

The original 'Total Recall' was built from bottom to top as a vehicle for certified stars. Mr. Schwarzenegger filled the bill, and then some; so did Sharon Stone, in the role of the wife. Audiences cared about them going in, and the movie capitalized on their presence with sexy riffs, smart jokes (including some crude but shrewd ones about Arnold's physique), a few whiffs of silliness, a sprinkling of grace notes to punctuate the thundering action. The remake has no grace notes, or grace, no nuance, no humanity, no character quirks, no surprises in the dialogue and no humor, apart from one moment when the hero displays a very special kind of phone and an awestruck kid says 'Where do I get one of those?'

老版《全面回憶》徹頭徹尾被打造成了一部大牌明星雲集的影片。施瓦辛格的表演出類拔萃，甚至尤有過之，在影片中飾演其妻子的莎朗•斯通(Sharon Stone)也是如此。這兩人的出演吸引觀衆走進了影院，而影片也在這兩位明星身上做足了文章，聲勢浩大的動作場面之間還點綴着性感的場面、機智的玩笑（包括一些有關施瓦辛格身材的粗俗但機敏的玩笑）、一些冒傻氣的逗樂橋段以及不時出現的優美配樂。翻拍的新版沒有優美配樂，沒有優雅可言，沒有細膩的表演，沒有關於人性的東西，片中人物沒有令人會心一笑的臺詞，對話也毫無驚喜或幽默之處。其中只有一個場景例外，當男主角拿出一部非常特別的電話時，一個驚歎不已的小孩問道：“在哪兒能買到這樣的？”

Yet these deficits don't matter either, at least not to the movie's intended audience, because - getting back to that earlier question - the state of the movie business has been transformed by globalization. Foreign sales are now where the main action is. We may wonder why so many studio movies these days seem to have been struck from the same crude mold, but in many cases, including this one, they weren't made for us as much as for an international market where moviegoers respond more reliably to action, and the bedazzlements of production design, than to character or dialogue, let alone to humor, which translates chancily, if at all, into other languages. In that context, the new 'Total Recall' is not only instructive, but possessed of a perverse purity. Almost everything but the action has been distilled out.

不過上述種種不足之處同樣無關緊要，至少對於其目標觀衆來說不重要。其中的原因又回到了前文談到的那個問題，電影業的現狀已經在全球化的影響下發生變化。如今，影片在海外的銷售成爲了重心。我們或許會奇怪，爲什麼當今有這麼多影片似乎都是依照同一個模子製作出來的，但有很多影片並非爲我們製作的，而是更多地針對國際市場，這部影片也是如此。比起角色塑造和對話，動作場面和讓人眼花繚亂的視覺設計是更篤定能吸引海外觀衆的因素，幽默就更別提了。翻譯成別的語言後，幽默效果就算尚有留存也會大打折扣。在這種背景下，新版《全面回憶》不僅具有啓發意義，而且具備一種反常的純粹性。除了動作場面之外，幾乎所有東西都被提煉出去了。