阳光下的决斗

近来对电影制片业很感兴趣。说到制片业和制片人，塞尔兹尼克是一个无法回避的名字。金牌制片人、传奇制片人、最强势的制片人……一部《乱世佳人》就足以让塞尔兹尼克名留影史。据说，塞尔兹尼克为该片前后一共动用了18位编剧，拍摄过程中又三易导筒，而海选女主角的把戏更是为后人频频效法。

《乱世佳人》我念中学的时候就看过，但后来一直没有重看。那时候，我的历史老师买了一系列的好莱坞老电影VCD，像《魂断蓝桥》、《音乐之声》之类。那时候他还是单身汉，周末的时候我就到他的房间去，看这些好莱坞老电影。我看了大概有十部好莱坞老电影，觉得《乱世佳人》是最好看的一部，至少3个多小时下来一点都不觉得累。至于该片的好处，我实在没有什么概念。

《太阳浴血记》是关于爱情的，“西部片”只是它的外衣。毕竟是塞尔兹尼克的手笔，该片显得非常大气，尤其是万马奔腾的那场戏，可谓气势恢宏。我一开始以为作为好莱坞最强势的制片人，塞尔兹尼克是一个烧钱专家，他的片子是靠烧钱烧出来的。看完片子之后，我才明白所谓“最强势”不是那么简单的。《太阳浴血记》中的爱情是非常细腻动人的，其悲剧性足以赚取每一位女观众的眼泪，而我这位男观众也为之“动容”。

其实，《乱世佳人》也是伟大的爱情片。塞尔兹尼克可能是好莱坞黄金时代最伟大的爱情片制片人。

这就是巴赞所言的西部小说式的西部片。扎克施耐德啊施耐德，没这金刚钻非揽瓷器活儿，看看什么是真正的古典主义画幅的精华，金薇多告诉你，这绝伦的光影。实际上这不只是一步西部言情剧，只是借用道格拉斯薛克的面纱，琼瑶故事背后仍然是西进矛盾，铁路危机。西部就像女人，铁路公司就是男丁。这部片里对应琼斯和派克，我不喜欢你...你粗鲁好色...但是你有高大威猛...我喜欢你的哥哥科顿。就是这样，西部人喜欢铁路（此片中科顿的角色）这不能取代半游牧的生活方式但可以提高效率，他们不喜欢伴随铁路而来的人群（此片中派克的角色）因为他们踏破了西部的既定规则与现成秩序...这明显是dos审美的集大成，不使用宽荧幕的情况下，史诗感仍然蓬勃而出...中间琼斯将蓝莓派扣到了派克脸上，hhh这不是国民公敌反着来嘛。

这是在搜索者之前的一部伏笔是的影片，一部原-搜索者。一个印第安混血女人（被白人父亲教化为白人南方女性的思维习性）进入白人社群，福特那里是白人男深入敌后寻找印第安同化的白人女。一个反社群，一个构建社群。白人这一族群符号上，或许dos是那个比福特还要固执保守的真正的白人分子。

1946年太阳浴血赶走了律师，1962年双虎屠龙然后律师归来，讲述西部神话。影片中段的舞会调度，教父、猎鹿人、马尔科姆x...这些相比都不是什么了。色彩绝佳，可与蓬门红菱相比

派克与科顿之间的决斗，科顿至终不愿拿起西部法律-枪支来反击。最后的山间决斗竟然发生在琼斯与派克之间。可惜可惜，琼斯就是西部，最后却亲手杀死了西部人。可怜那一帮最坚硬的美利坚精神的导演，男子汉大丈夫的金薇多，着实不忍西部与buddy就此别过，只能让他们携手死在一起。胜利的还是科顿，仍是一个亚博与该隐的故事。

Hollywood mogul David O. Selznick’s artistic follow-up ofGONE WITH THE WIND, DUEL IN THE SUN is a lush western drama with King Vidor ostensibly at the helm, alas, in the wake of the creative difference between him and Selznick, the latter had to hire no less than six directors (himself included) to finish the shooting when the former reneged, so it is accountable that the final product is somewhat a curate’s egg.

After herher Caucasian father Scott Chavez (Marshall) is hung for killing her“trash” two-timing Indian mother (Losch), abeleaguered mestiza Pearl Chavez (Jones) enters the foster family of Laura Belle (Gish), Scott’s second cousin and quondam squeeze, who has been married to Senator Jackson McCanles (Barrymore), the landowner of a vast cattle ranch called Spanish Bit, and borne him two sons, the genteel, open-minded Jesse (Cotten) and the younger, louche Lewt (Peck).

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, a brotherly rivalry is fomented when there is such a nymphet in the household, to Pearl, although the two candidates' Manichaean disparity is clear as day, it is her own conflict between a tamed good girl (being educated like a lady by Jesse) and a wild bad girl (the trash like her mother, pining for Lewt’s obsessive libido) that afflicts her profoundly, like her mixed parentage, these two congenital forces are constantly at loggerheads, and are not helped by Jesse’s overtly lofty moral compass and Lewt’s toxic masculinity and megalomania (who reckons her as his exclusive property, but cannot marry her due to her dark skin), she seesaws between them, to a point it is too bathetic and abject for one’s palate, but when the crunches comes, under that broiling sun against the rugged man-face mountain, she knows the price to pay for being enamored with a hardened rascal, here is the most torrid and sensual love/hate self-destruction that takes two to tango, credits must be given to its morally incorrect dare that circumvents the Hays Code censors of its time.

To today’s eyes, DUEL IN THE SUN is roundly tarnished by its culturally insensitive casting, the unmasked racism (Barrymore’s Senator is too intractable and bombastic to merit a feel-good reconciliation), and some wide inconsistency in the narrative (e.g. a gratuitous train wrecking scene has no import or whatsoever in the context other than to create some action and noise), but as for its visual grandeur and horseback bravado, the film is for shizzle a gas for oater-philes, not to mention a young Peck is furnished with a rare opportunity to play up his villainous side, laced with his drop dead gorgeousness and a mischievous self-consciousness, completely outstrips Joseph Cotten’s meek benevolence; Jennifer Jones, under her ethnicity-altering warpaint, emulatesa feral posturing to a slightly hokey impression but totally earns her stripes in the coda when all her emotions well up affectingly, mixed with dirt, tears and blood.

Among its bankable supporting players, a delicately amiable Lillian Gish is vouchsafed with her one and only Oscar nomination through her extraordinary career; Lionel Barrymore has an overbearing presence too big to ignore but it isHerbert Marshall who bowls audience over with his brief but poignant appearance in the beginning, ire and contrition is alternately checked inside or oozing outside; lastly, Butterfly McQueen evokes sharp compassion as a barmy maid who can never finish her sentence more because her status doesn’t deserve no one’s time than her apparent prolixity. In toto, this far-off Hollywood epic is passé in its configuration and ideology, but effuses a sizable magnitude of spectacular whether to accommodate one’s eyes or stir one’s sentiments.

referential films: King Vidor’s STELLA DALLAS (1937, 7.2/10); Victor Fleming’s GONE WITH THE WIND (1939, 8.4/10)