新概念美音版第四冊 Lesson 21 William S. Hart and the early \'Western\' f

Lesson 21 William S. Hart and the early 'Western' film 威廉.S. 哈特和早期限的‘西部’影片

William S. Hart was, perhaps, the greatest of all Western stars, for unlike Gary
Cooper and John Wayne he appeared in nothing but Westerns. From 1914 to
1924 he was supreme and unchallenged. It was Hart who created the basic
formula of the Western film, and devised the protagonist he played in every film
he made, the good-bad man, the accidental, noble outlaw, or the honest but
framed cowboy, or the sheriff made suspect by vicious gossip; in short, the individual
in conflict with himself and his frontier environment.

Unlike most of his contemporaries in Hollywood, Hart actually 'knew something
of the old West. He had lived in it as a child when it was already disappearing,
and his hero was firmly rooted in his memories and experiences, and in both
the history and the mythology of the vanished frontier. And although no period
or place in American history has been more absurdly romanticized, myth and
reality did join hands in at least one arena, the conflict between the individual
and encroaching civilization.

Men accustomed to struggling for survival against the elements and Indian
were bewildered by politicians, bankers and business-men, and unhorsed by
fences, laws and alien taboos. Hart's good-bad man was always an outsider,
always one of the disinherited, and if he found it necessary to shoot a sheriff or
rob a bank along the way, his early audiences found it easy to understand and
forgive, especially when it was Hart who, in the end, overcame the attacking
Indians.

Audiences in the second decade of the twentieth century found it pleasant to
escape to a time when life, though hard, was relatively simple. We still do; living
in a world in which undeclared aggression, war, hypocrisy, chicanery, anarchy
and impending immolation are part of our daily lives, we all want a code to
live by.

New words and expressions 生詞和短語

Supreme
adj. 首屈一指
protagonist
n. 主角
outlaw
n. 逃犯，亡命之徒
framed
adj. 遭到陷害的
vicious
adj. 惡毒的
mythology
n. 神話
vanished
adj. 消失了的
absurdly
adv. 荒誕地
arena
n. 競技場在
encroaching
adj. 漸漸滲入的
Indian
n. 印第安人
bewilder
v. 使手足無措
alien
adj. 外來的
taboo
n. 戒律
disinherit
v. 剝奪...繼承權
undeclared
adj. 未經宣布的
hypocrisy
n. 偽善
chicanery
n. 詐騙
impending
adj. 迫近的，近在眉睫的
immolation
n. 殺戮
code
n. 準則

參考譯文

威廉.S.哈特大概是美國西部電影明星中的佼佼者。他和加裏.古柏、約翰.韋恩不同，他隻在西部電影中扮演角色。在1914年至1924年期間，他首屈一指，獨霸影壇。正是他創造了西部電影的基調，即在他自己的拍攝的影片中他所塑造的主人公形象：被認為是壞人的好人，出人意料的高尚的逃犯，誠實卻遭陷害的牛仔或因流言蜚語蒙受嫌疑的司法官。總之，主人公是一個自相矛盾，又與他的拓荒環境相矛盾的人物。

哈特與大部分同時代在好萊塢的演員不同，他確實了解西部早期拓荒生活的一些情況。作為一個孩子他曾在西部生活過，當時西部拓荒生活正在消失。他塑造的英雄人物深深地紮根於他本人的記憶和經曆之中，也紮根於有關已經消失的拓荒生活的曆史和神話之中。雖然在美國曆史上沒有任何時期或地區像西部拓荒時期那樣被荒謬地浪漫主義化了，但神話和事實至少在某一個舞台上共存，也就是存在於個人與漸漸闖入的文明這兩者的衝突之中。

習慣與大自然和印第安人作鬥爭以求生存的拓荒者被政客、銀行家和商人搞得暈頭轉向，最後被圈地、尖律我外來的清規戒律所擊敗。哈特扮演的被誤為壞人的好人總是一個局外人，總是一個被剝奪繼承權的人。如果他認為在進行過程中有必要槍擊一個司法官或搶劫一個銀行，他的早期觀眾很容易接受，覺得應該原諒他，特別是當哈特最後戰勝了前來進攻的印第安人時，觀眾更能原諒他。
生活在20世紀20年代的觀眾認為，逃到一個即使艱苦但比較簡樸的時代中去是件愉快的事，我們今天仍有這種感覺。如今，不宣而戰的侵略、戰爭、虛偽、詐騙、無政府狀態以及即將臨頭的毀滅成了我們日常生活的一部分，我們都希望有一個賴以生存的行為準則。