我不看《刺殺金正恩》的理由

As an American, I have spent much of the holiday season wrestling with a difficult political question: should I download The Interview ?

作爲一個美國人，這個聖誕/新年假期的大部分時間我都糾結於一個棘手的政治問題：我該不該下載《刺殺金正恩》(The Interview)？

As most of you undoubtedly know by now, the Sony Pictures comedy about a plot to kill the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has emerged as one of the most significant films ever made — for political, rather than cinematic reasons.

大多數讀者無疑已經知道，索尼影視娛樂(Sony Pictures)這部關於刺殺朝鮮領導人金正恩(Kim Jong Un)的喜劇，已成爲有史以來最重大的電影之一——出於政治原因，而不是電影本身的水平。

Pyongyang, as is its tendency and, one must acknowledge, its right in matters of comedy, didn’t get the joke — and that has led to a series of geopolitical thrills, chills and spills worthy of an action-packed Hollywood blockbuster.

平壤方面出於它的傾向以及（我們必須承認）它在喜劇方面的權利，看不懂這一切都是搞笑，由此引發了一連串地緣政治上的緊張、恐慌和泄密事件，其情節就像一部緊張刺激的好萊塢大片。

Even before the movie was released, Sony’s computers were hacked, embarrassing company emails were leaked, and threats were levelled against theatres set to show The Interview. The studio pulled the picture, but President Barack Obama got into the act and called for greater national resolve — and before you knew it, The Interview was being released online and at a smaller group of stalwart cinemas.

甚至在影片發行前，索尼的電腦就被黑客入侵，難堪的公司郵件遭到泄露，打算上映《刺殺金正恩》的電影院也受到威脅。索尼隨後撤下這部影片，但美國總統巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)出來表態，呼籲國民展現更大決心，結果《刺殺金正恩》很快就在網上發佈，同時在一小批堅定的電影院得到上映。

This put every American on the spot: we had to decide whether we wanted to watch The Interview. As a fan of old Hollywood westerns, my first inclination was to behave as if I were Gary Cooper in High Noon and show those North Koreans exactly who they were dealing with in these parts. I imagined myself walking up the creaky stairs to my attic, turning on my trusted personal computer and downloading that film — come hell, high water or Axis-of-Evil hackers.

這令每一個美國人陷入尷尬境地：我們得決定自己是否想觀看《刺殺金正恩》。作爲好萊塢經典西部片的影迷，我的第一傾向是表現得像《正午》(High Noon)中的加里•庫柏(Gary Cooper)，讓那些朝鮮人好好見識下，在這一帶他們是在跟誰打交道。我想象自己走上搖搖欲墜的樓梯，進入我的閣樓，打開我忠心耿耿的個人電腦，開始下載這部電影——不論遇到地獄、洪水，還是“邪惡軸心”的黑客。

But I changed my mind when I remembered something my late grandmother once said in reference to the motion picture business. No one would confuse Mildred Silverman with a contributor to Cahiers du Cinéma, but she knew her way around the movie theatres of her native Brooklyn — and she was capable of pungent film criticism.

但當我想起已故的祖母對電影業的一句評價時，我改變了主意。沒人會將我的祖母米爾德麗德•西爾弗曼(Mildred Silverman)誤當作《電影手冊》(Cahiers du Cinéma)的撰稿人，但在她所居住的紐約市布魯克林區，她對各家電影院瞭如指掌，而且她能作出辛辣的影評。

The pearl of wisdom that turned me around in this case came in response to a question from her grandson about why she and two of her comrades had walked out of the 1982 Steven Spielberg film ET, hunted down the theatre manager and recouped in full the money that they had laid out for tickets.

在要不要看《刺殺金正恩》這件事上，令我的轉變觀點的是她的一句至理名言，這句話來自她對孫子提出的一個問題的答覆，問題是：她和兩個同伴爲什麼在看史蒂文•斯皮爾伯格(Steven Spielberg)1982年的電影《ET》時中途退場，找到劇院經理，索要電影票的全額退款？

“What do I care about some little guy?” she replied, in what I took to be a clear reference to the title character (I doubt she was sufficiently familiar with auteur theory to be directing her remarks at Mr Spielberg).

她答覆道：“某個小人物有什麼值得我關心的？”我認爲她明確指的是這部電影的主人公（我懷疑她是否熟悉“導演主創論”，以至於針對斯皮爾伯格發表此言）。

As a guide to movie going, it was inspirational. No matter what was going on in the show business world, my grandmother remained true to herself and her aesthetic principles. When she went to the pictures, as she called them, she was basically looking for entertainment, by which she meant something on the order of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, with words and music by Irving Berlin (“Heaven, I’m in heaven . . .”).

作爲看電影的指南，這句話是有啓迪的。無論演藝界發生了什麼事，我的祖母一直堅守自己的價值觀和美學原則。她去電影院看電影時基本是爲了娛樂，而她所指的娛樂是弗雷德•阿斯泰爾(Fred Astaire)和金吉•羅傑斯(Ginger Rogers)的歌舞劇，以及歐文•柏林(Irving Berlin)創作的詞曲，比如“天堂，我在天堂……”。

Mrs Silverman wasn’t going to allow some “little guy” who didn’t know his top hat from his tails change her mind — and her grandson has decided he isn’t going to permit some not-so-great North Korean leader to influence his. After all, what do I care about some Kim? Who made him Pauline Kael?

我的祖母是不會讓一些沒有音樂感的“小人物”改變她的想法的，而她的孫子也拿定主意，他不會允許某個不怎麼樣的朝鮮領導人影響他的喜好。畢竟，我要關心金氏什麼？難道他是寶琳•凱爾（Pauline Kael，已故美國影評家——譯者注）？

Before The Interview angered the North Koreans, I had little interest in going to see the film; at best, it was the kind of movie I would watch toward the end of a long international plane ride. It would be un-American to give in to communist influence and do otherwise.

在《刺殺金正恩》激怒朝鮮前，我對這部電影幾乎毫無興趣，它最多是我在長途國際航班快到目的地時會看的那類影片。但因某國共產黨施加影響而屈服，這種做法不符合美國精神。

I learnt my lesson in this regard a few years ago, when I tried to read The Satanic Verses after threats were made against its author, Salman Rushdie. I felt an obligation to pick up the book — but that really wasn’t the right way to approach it. I never finished the novel.

幾年前我在這方面有過教訓，那是在薩爾曼•拉什迪(Salman Rushdie)受到威脅後，我試圖閱讀他寫的《撒旦詩篇》(The Satanic Verses)。我覺得自己有義務拿起這本書，但這真的不是把握這類事情的正確方式。我從未讀完那本小說。

During the recently concluded festive season, I tried to put aside thoughts of the Kim crowd and the chaos at Sony, and returned for the first time in a while to the US film classic It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.

在剛剛結束的這個節日佳節，我試着將朝鮮那羣人的想法和索尼的混亂局面撇到一邊，重看已經很久沒看過的弗蘭克•卡普拉(Frank Capra)導演、吉米•斯圖爾特(Jimmy Stewart)和唐娜•裏德(Donna Reed)主演的美國經典影片《生活多美好》(It's a Wonderful Life)。

It was time well spent. It was nice to take a break from my day job and watch financial services intermediaries more interested in creating communities than in finding new ways to fleece them. I was also struck this time around by the Sheryl Sandberg-worthy “leaning in” displayed by Reed’s character, Mary Bailey, who twice plays a key role in saving the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan (first by parting with her honeymoon funds during a bank run and then by raising money from her neighbours during her husband’s time of need).

這段時間過得非常有價值。我很高興可以從日常工作中抽空休息一下，看看金融服務機構更熱衷於打造社區，而不是想方設法榨乾客戶。這次觀影還有一點令我觸動，裏德扮演的瑪麗•貝利(Mary Bailey)展示出了謝樂爾•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)式的“挺身而出”，瑪麗在拯救“貝利兄弟建築及貸款”時兩次起到關鍵作用，第一次是在銀行擠兌時拿出她的蜜月基金，第二次是在她丈夫需要時從鄰居處籌得資金。

Ultimately, the idea occurred to me that perhaps our country could turn to Capra for help as we deal with the latest provocations from Pyongyang. I’m getting a little above my pay grade here, but I suspect that there are folks in our intelligence community who might be able to write some computer code — or airlift some devices — that would enable us to present It’s a Wonderful Life, dubbed into Korean, for some of those poor souls who live in the north of that peninsula.

最終我產生了一個想法，或許我們國家可以向卡普拉取經，學習如何應對近期來自平壤的挑釁。我這麼說可能有點僭越，但我想我們的情報界也許有人能寫一些計算機代碼，或空運一些設備，讓我們將朝鮮語配音的《生活多美好》放給那些居住在朝鮮半島北方的一些可憐人看。

It would be good to show the people over there — and in other places — that Americans have more on their minds than assassination plots played for laughs. Sometimes we think of angels’ wings and rose petals, and one brother diving into the icy water to save another.

這將是一件好事：向那裏（以及其他地方）的人民展示，美國人的腦子裏除了專爲搞笑而設計的暗殺情節外，還有其他許多念頭。有時我們會想到天使的翅膀和玫瑰花瓣，以及一個兄弟爲了救另一個兄弟而跳入冰冷刺骨的水裏。