《E.T.外星人》40 年

文/斯科特·托比亞斯 譯/商裴裴

There’s a crucial domestic scene early inET the Extra-Terrestrialwhere 10-year-old Elliott (Henry Thomas) is trying desperately to convince his mother (Dee Wallace), his older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and his little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore)that he’s found an alien in the back yard of their suburban home.Nobody believes him.So he lashes out, like many children would in that situation.He claims his absent father would have believed him.And he tells his harried mother, who’s still raw from the divorce, that his dad and a woman named Sally are vacationing in Mexico.It hurts her feelings.Michael snaps at Elliott.“Why don’t you grow up? Think about other people for a change.”

2Thinking about others is whatETis

《E.T.外星人》開場沒多久，就有一場重要的家庭戲：10 歲的埃利奧特（亨利·托馬斯飾）竭力想讓媽媽（迪伊·華萊士飾）、哥哥邁克爾（羅伯特·麥克諾頓飾）和妹妹格蒂（德魯·巴里莫爾飾）相信他在郊外家里的后院發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個外星人。沒人相信他的話。就像很多孩子遇到這種情況時表現(xiàn)的一樣，他大發(fā)脾氣。他說，爸爸要在的話一定會相信他。他還對焦頭爛額的媽媽說，爸爸正和一個名叫薩莉的女人在墨西哥度假。埃利奧特的媽媽因為離婚飽經(jīng)折磨，至今創(chuàng)痛未愈，這番話傷了她的心。邁克爾生氣地沖埃利奧特說：“你怎么這么不懂事？改改吧你，為別人著想一下?！盿bout.And that’s why it’s been extracting tears from audiences so effectively for 40 years.A child of divorce himself,Spielberg is uniquely perceptive about how kids are sensitive, vulnerable, innocent creatures who feel the world intensely, but are also naturally solipsistic.They understand how events affect them, but empathy is a learned trait,part of the same slow developmental process that teaches them to walk and read and fend for themselves.(Many adults fail to learn it.) Spielberg conceived a science-fiction fantasy where a boy literally feels what another being feels, and the bond between them is overwhelmingly powerful.Elliott grows up at a breathlessly accelerated rate.

2為別人著想，這正是《E.T.外星人》的主題，也是為什么40 年來這部電影賺足了觀眾的淚水。小孩子是敏感、脆弱、天真無邪的，他們熱情洋溢地感受著這個世界，卻又天生以自我為中心，對此，再沒有誰能比自幼父母離異的斯皮爾伯格更清楚了。小孩子知道一件事對他們會產(chǎn)生怎樣的影響，但是同情心是一種后天習(xí)得的品質(zhì)，它和走路、讀書、獨自生活一樣，都需要慢慢學(xué)習(xí)。（很多大人也沒能學(xué)會。）斯皮爾伯格構(gòu)思的這部科幻作品中，小男孩真的能感應(yīng)到另一個生命的感受，他們之間有著無比強烈的聯(lián)系。埃利奧特成長了許多，速度令人驚嘆。

3這部電影有如故事書般簡單易懂，這一點至關(guān)重要。為此，斯皮爾伯格請來了梅利莎·馬西森。馬西森之前寫了另一部兒童劇《黑神駒》，劇中一個小男孩和一匹失群的野馬建立了感情。她的劇本可謂簡明扼要的典范，故事被她精簡到?jīng)]有大的跌宕起伏：外星人E.T.沒趕上宇宙飛船，在森林里迷了路，碰上埃利奧特。埃利奧特和哥哥妹妹給它住的地方，幫它重返家園。除了最后有一幫驚恐萬狀的各路大人出來阻撓，其他就沒什么了。即便對話，也是直來直去的語言占了很大分量，只是偶爾讓人摸不著頭腦。最經(jīng)典的臺詞要數(shù)這幾句：“乖——乖——的。”“E.T.要打電話回家?！薄鞍ミ?。”“留下來。”

3The storybook simplicity of the film is key.For that, Spielberg commissioned Melissa Mathison, who’d previously written The Black Stallion, another spare children’s drama about the connection between a little boy and an orphaned creature.Mathison’s script is a model of economy and clarity, pared down to serve a story that really has no big twists and turns: Elliott meets ET, an alien lost in the woods after his spaceship leaves without him.Elliott and his siblings then shelter the alien and help it get back home again.Outside of the scary, faceless adults who eventually intervene, that’s all there is to it.Even the dialogue, though whimsical at times, puts a premium on directness.A few of the most quotable lines:“Beeeeee good.” “ET phone home.”“Ouch.” “Stay.”cal at times, puts a premium on directness.A few of the most quotable lines:“Beeeeee good.” “ET phone home.”“Ouch.” “Stay.”

4Spielberg had already defied the expectation of a hostile alien invasion earlier withClose Encounters of the Third Kind, which expressed hope that such interspecies contact might bring out the best in humankind.The squat,murmuring, doe-eyed being inETis much more of a device, serving to illuminate the loneliness and stress of a latchkey kid who hasn’t settled into his new situation.Though the film never says how long Elliott’s dad has been out of the house, it seems recent enough for everyone to feel unsettled by it.The alien brings Elliott closer to his siblings, as they work together to shelter it and figure out what it needs, but they’re both trying to get back to their families.As Elliott helps ET go home, he learns to accept a newly reconstituted version of what home means to him, too.

4早在拍攝電影《第三類接觸》時，斯皮爾伯格就沒有順應(yīng)觀眾的期待。觀眾本以為會看到外星人不懷好意入侵地球，影片卻在表達(dá)希望：不同物種的交流可能會激發(fā)人類最美好的一面。對于尚未適應(yīng)新變故、得自己帶鑰匙回家的兒童來說，《E.T.外星人》里那個雙腳蹲立、說話咕咕噥噥、眼睛大大的外星人更像是一盞燈，照亮了他們的孤獨與壓力。電影沒有交代埃利奧特的爸爸離開家多少日子，不過每個人都因此心神不寧，看來是沒多久。這個外星人拉近了埃利奧特和哥哥妹妹的距離，他們一起想辦法把外星人藏起來，弄清楚它需要什么。埃利奧特和外星人其實都在努力回歸自己的家庭。在幫助E.T.回家的過程中，埃利奧特也在學(xué)習(xí)接納全新的家的概念。

5Working at the height of his powers,Spielberg gives ET a sentimental pull that would feel more manipulative if he wasn’t so strategically withholding.The John Williams score is one of his most famous and soaring, but Spielberg treats it like the shark in Jaws, doling it out in bits and pieces before allowing the audience to experience the whole thing.It’s not until the sequence where ET lifts Elliott’s bike to the sky that the orchestration hits in full, and the effect is like a dam bursting, this transcendent moment when a supernatural event is tied to a huge emotional crescendo.It’s like the kid-movie equivalent of a night at the opera.

5斯皮爾伯格在推動影片的感情線方面可謂火力全開。好在他分寸把握得當(dāng)，否則會讓人感覺太生硬。該片最知名也最振奮人心的部分包括約翰·威廉斯的配樂，但斯皮爾伯格處理配樂的方式和處理《大白鯊》中的鯊魚一樣，先零零星星地給觀眾一些片段，最后才讓他們完整欣賞。直到影片出現(xiàn)E.T.運用超能帶著埃利奧特的自行車飛上天空，管弦樂才全盤流瀉，效果如同決堤的洪水。一起超自然事件牽動著巨大的情感爆發(fā)，這一刻妙不可言。觀看這部兒童影片，就如度過了一個歌劇之夜。

6Spielberg and Mathison also back into the synchronized emotions between boy and alien, approaching it as comedy first before attacking the tear ducts.In one of the film’s most justly celebrated sequences, Spielberg harmonizes the mornings of Elliott and ET as the boy is asked to dissect a frog in science class and his new friend raids the refrigerator, passing up the potato salad in favor of guzzling a six pack.Elliott liberating the frogs foreshadows his efforts to free ET from scientists later on—again,because he’s learning to care about things other than himself—but the image of this curious, weird little creature drunkenly bumping into cabinets and channel-surfing is a comic treat in itself,as if it’s taking a crash course in becoming an American.

6斯皮爾伯格和馬西森還讓男孩和外星人產(chǎn)生了心靈感應(yīng)，一開始制造的是喜劇，而后便展開了對觀眾淚腺的攻擊。在影片最值得稱頌的一組鏡頭中，斯皮爾伯格運用平行敘事的手段講述了埃利奧特與E.T.的一個早晨：上科學(xué)課的時候埃利奧特被要求解剖一只青蛙，他的新朋友則在掃蕩冰箱——它扔掉土豆沙拉，拿起半打裝的啤酒一通猛喝。埃利奧特放生青蛙的行為預(yù)示他后來也會從科學(xué)家手中還E.T.自由，因為他在學(xué)習(xí)關(guān)心別人，而不是只關(guān)心自己。但是這個好奇、古怪的小外星人喝得醉醺醺的，它撞到柜子，不亦樂乎地?fù)Q著電視頻道，像是在上速成課，學(xué)習(xí)怎樣成為一個美國人，那樣子滑稽得很。

7斯皮爾伯格自稱擅與兒童演員合作，對此，該片是一塊試金石。經(jīng)他把關(guān)，小演員們表現(xiàn)得既沒有早熟得像個小大人，也沒有淘氣得令人生厭。巴里莫爾飾演的格蒂贏得了最多的笑聲。但在給外星人除顫時，她面對瀕死時刻的表現(xiàn)在整部影片中也是最真實的，令人痛徹心扉。同時，成年人也在影片中扮演了重要的角色，他們不是個個都身穿防護(hù)服、手拿探測儀。華萊士頃刻間便樹立起了一位職場媽媽形象，她深愛孩子，但往往拼盡全力也只能不讓事情變得更糟。彼得·科約特扮演的科學(xué)家出場很晚，卻舉足輕重，在男孩最需要的時候，他肯定了男孩的感受。

7ETis the touchstone for Spielberg’s vaunted reputation for working with child actors, who under his watch are neither too precociously adult nor gratingly obnoxious.Barrymore gets the biggest laughs as Gertie, but her reaction to a near-death moment when the alien is being defibrillated may be the most piercingly real in the film.At the same time, the adults have an important role in play inET, too, and they’re not all men with hazmat suits and probes.Wallace needs little time to establish herself as a working mother who cares immensely about her children, but often can only do her best to keep the chaos at bay.And Peter Coyote has a crucial late appearance as a scientist who validates the boy’s feeling when he needs it the most.

8There’s no irony toET, and no sense that it’s trying to reproduce the magic of a predecessor the way that future films would labor to imitate it.Spielberg approaches the material with the sincerity and openness that his characters bring to their kinship with the alien, and it still feels timeless and pure as few films do.ETis a plea for emotional growth,for people to summon their best selves when it really matters.Children can do it, and adults can relearn if necessary.■

8影片并無嘲諷之意，也絲毫沒有像后來者竭力模仿它一般企圖再現(xiàn)之前同類電影的神奇手法。斯皮爾伯格在處理這一素材的時候滿懷誠意，他塑造的人物角色對外星人很親切。時至今日，人們依然感覺這部影片純真無邪，不因時間流逝而遜色，很少有電影可以做到這一點?！禘.T.外星人》呼吁人們關(guān)注情感的成長，在重要時刻喚醒最美好的自己。孩子們可以做到，如有必要，成年人也可以從頭學(xué)習(xí)。 □