《拆弹部队》赢得了第82届奥斯卡最佳影片大奖，这多少有些令人意外，因为一来影片没有好莱坞一线明星撑场面，二来影片票房成绩惨淡，更重要的是影片所描绘的主题——中东战争——在奥斯卡一向难以讨得欢心。
It's amazing that "The Hurt Locker" won best picture at the Oscarsdespite having three strikes against it. "The Hurt Locker" didn'tfeature A-list stars. It wasn't successful at the box office. Andmaybe, worst of all: it was about the Mideast war, a topic usuallycursed at the Academy Awards.
So how did it pull off this Oscar miracle?
那么，拆弹部队是凭借什么创造奇迹的呢?
So how did it pull off this Oscar miracle?
首先，《拆弹部队》“申奥”背后的故事颇具魅力。影片的发行公司美国顶峰娱乐(Summit)的领导层颇具胆识，他们财力雄厚同时也雄心万丈。从《暮色》(Twilight)中赚够了银子的顶峰娱乐也想在好莱坞竖起一杆文艺大旗。
For starters, "The Hurt Locker"had some high-caliber oomph behind it. It was distributed by Summit, astudio with bold leaders who had deep pockets and something to prove.Flush with money from the "Twilight" movies, Summit wanted to be takenseriously as an artistic player in Hollywood.
早先，顶峰娱乐聘请了Cynthia Swartz以及她所在公关公司42 west旗下一班颇具奥斯卡营销经验的员工踏上征程。Swartz是这方面的行家里手，先后在《芝加哥》(当年在米拉麦克斯与哈维.韦恩斯坦共事时也战果累累)、《撞车》、《老无所依》等影片“申奥”战中扮演重要的角色。
Early on, Summit hired Cynthia Swartz and her Oscar soldiers at 42Westto head up its academy campaign. Swartz had been a key player in thepast blitzkriegs behind "Chicago" (and other Miramax flicks when shewas still a commander in Harvey Weinstein's army), "Crash" and "No Country for Old Men" and other successful award champs.
Swartz总是希望接受高难度的挑战。几年前，她选择了一部风格另类，关于嘻哈音乐的电影《川流熙攘》(Hustle & Flow)，试图挑战学院派的那些古板偏见。最终她得偿所愿，为泰伦斯.霍华德(Terence Howard)争得了一次最佳男演员提名，同时也斩获了最佳歌曲的小金人(It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp)。
Swartz likes to take on daredevil challenges. A few years ago, forexample, she adopted a gritty, hip-hop film called "Hustle & Flow"just to see if she could ram it past the academy's fuddy-duddy bias.Bingo. She ended up nabbing a best-actor nomination for Terence Howard and reaped a win for best song ("It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp").
《拆弹部队》最初所获得的如潮好评仅仅来自于影评人士，而其在各大评选活动中的道路颇为坎坷。第24届美国独立精神奖评选活动中也仅仅获得了最佳男主角、最佳男配角两项提名，最终颗粒无收。
The initial groundswell of support for "TheHurt Locker" came from a pure, heroic source: the film critics. Ithadn't fared well on the awards front at first. It competed last yearat the Indie Spirits, for example, and only reaped nominations foractors Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie. Nothing for picture, director or screenplay.
不过，进入2009-2010年的竞赛单元后，《拆弹部队》的境况就完全不同了。它来势汹汹，难以阻挡。在与独立精神奖旗鼓相当的2009年美国哥谭奖上一举拿下最佳影片，接下来有横扫美国三大影评人奖：洛杉矶影评人协会奖、纽约影评人协会奖、美国国家影评人协会奖。这些影评人协会是由那些最吹毛求疵的媒体记者们组成的，他们以其”古怪“的品味著称，例如不为奥斯卡所接受的《穆赫兰道》。随后《拆弹部队》居然又赢得了美国第十届评论家选择奖。说”居然“是因为这一奖项的主办方是美国广播影评人协会(BFCA)，成员与金球奖的投票者们一样多数是来自于现场记者，这两者的口味又与奥斯卡评委非常相似。
But when "The Hurt Locker" entered this year's derby, things weredifferent. It gathered momentum quickly, launching a bandwagon that washard to stop. The Indie Spirits' rival award, the Gotham, named it bestpicture. It swept the film critics' trifecta: Los Angeles, New York andNational Society. Those are critics' groups comprised of mostlyprint-based, cynical, gritty journalists who are renowned for pickingquirky stuff like "Mulholland Drive" that doesn't break through intothe Oscars. Then "The Hurt Locker" won best picture from the Critics'Choice Awards. That was odd because it's a prize bestowed by members ofthe Broadcast Film Critics Assn. They're largely part of the junketpress just like Golden Globe voters. Both groups tend to be similar intaste to Oscar voters.
最终金球奖选择了《阿凡达》(Avatar)，这也不足为奇。过去的五年里，金球奖与奥斯卡最佳影片相吻合的只有一次。但接下来令人意想不到的事情发生了。《拆弹部队》在导演工会奖和制片工会奖摘得桂冠，而这两者才大大的预示着奥斯卡的赢家。试想一下，负责创造利润的制片人居然会认可一部票房无作为的影片!这意味着《拆弹部队》不但符合了电影工业形形色色影评人的口味，而且定将能掀起一番波澜。
The Golden Globes picked "Avatar," but that wasn't too strange:they've been out of sync with Oscar voters four out of the past fiveyears. Then something extraordinary occurred. "The Hurt Locker" wonlaurels from the directors' and producers' guilds, which usuallypredict what wins best picture at the Oscars. Think about it: theproducers — people in charge of generating profit — endorsed afinancially unsuccessful movie. That meant that "The Hurt Locker" hadnot only crossed over from the film critics to the film industry, butthat it landed with nuclear force.
当《拆弹部队》杀入奥斯卡，显然它定能抓住机会最终获胜。他与《阿凡达》平分秋色，各获九项提名，其后是《无量杂种》(Inglourious Basterds)获得了八项提名。
As "The Hurt Locker" headed into the Academy Awards, it was clearthat it could beat the odds and actually win. When nominations cameout, "The Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" tied for the most: nine. Rightbehind, with eight, was "Inglourious Basterds."
《拆弹部队》明智地将自己摆放在与歌利亚(《阿凡达》)对抗的大卫的位置，因为大多数人都会支持弱者。但不同的是，大卫是个性感的女人凯瑟琳.毕格罗，刚好是歌利亚——《阿凡达》缔造者詹姆斯.卡梅隆的前妻。多具有戏剧性!更有甚者，如果评委们投上一票给毕格罗，他们自身也能有所收获。他们将因为将奥斯卡最佳导演颁发给一位女性而创造历史——事实上这早就该发生了。
"The Hurt Locker" positioned itself as little David battling Goliath("Avatar"), a shrewd move since everybody always roots for the littleguy. In this case, though, it wasn't a guy. Its filmmaker was a sexygal, Kathryn Bigelow, who just so happened to be the ex-wife of Goliath – "Avatar's" James Cameron.What irresistible drama! Even better, if Oscar voters picked sexy TeamBigelow to endorse, they got a bonus. They got to make history bygiving the Oscar for best director to a woman for the first time — abreakthrough long overdue.
回溯历史我们也会发现，《阿凡达》毫无胜算。从来没有科幻电影成为奥斯卡最佳影片，仅有《星球大战》与《E.T.》获得过提名。《无良杂种》似乎又有机会从两者之间虎口夺食。之前《无良杂种》曾笑傲美国演员工会奖，而这个曾两次命中奥斯卡最佳影片——《撞车》(Crash)、《莎翁情史》(Shakespeare in Love)。如果哈维.韦恩斯坦(Harvey Weinstein)能早点放弃《九》(Nine)转而跃上这匹“杂种”马，说不定还能骑向胜利。也只有《无良杂种》你能阻挡《拆弹部队》的步伐。
Looking back, maybe "Avatar" never had a realistic chance of beating"The Hurt Locker." No sci-fi movie has ever won best picture. Only twoever got nominated: "Star Wars" and "E.T." "Basterds" had a realisticchance of sneaking by them both considering it won best ensemble at theSAG Awards, a prize that's tattled twice before on Oscar best-pictureupsets in the works: "Crash" and "Shakespeare in Love." But its pushcame too late. If only Harvey Weinstein had given up on "Nine" andjumped aboard his "Basterds" horse earlier, he might have ridden it tovictory. Looking back, I think "Basterds" was the only film thatcould've stopped the "Hurt Locker" bandwagon.
顶峰娱乐没有披露他们在奥斯卡的竞选活动中花费几许，但一位有关的知情人士宣称花费并不多。另有竞争对手(并非《阿凡达》)则对此嗤之以鼻。一些留意奥斯看的人认为20世纪福克斯作为《阿凡达》的发行商在此次角逐奥斯卡的过程中花费最高，但是这有点说不过去。因为《阿凡达》是在奥斯卡评选前夕上映，他的“申奥”成本包含在电影发行常规的公关费用、广告费用、市场营销费用中。
Summit hasn't revealed how much it spent on its academy campaign,but a source close to the film insists that it was modest. An Oscarcampaigner behind a rival film up for best picture (not "Avatar")scoffs at that claim. Some Oscar-watchers believe that 20th Century Foxspent the most of all Oscar campaigns this year on behalf of "Avatar,"but that's hard to establish. "Avatar" was released at Oscar time. Itsexpenditures for an awards blitz were inter-mingled with regular PR,advertising and marketing.
即使《阿凡达》确实为此投入最多，他也没办法应付这颗“雷公弹”，包括其他一些提名电影多无法撼动《拆弹部队》。正如我们前面所说，《拆弹部队》一开始就面临三个问题，当奥斯卡颁奖前夕又多了三个：被(一些退役军人和士兵)指责不够准确(交代战争的实情)、被指责过于准确(一个美军军士称自己是电影主角的原型)以及因违规发送攻击性邮件给评委而险些被逐出奥斯卡颁奖仪式的尴尬。所有的这些参杂在一起活像一出好莱坞的经典剧目，前夫与妻子如同大卫在奥斯卡舞台上对阵歌利亚。
Even if "Avatar" did spend the most, it couldn't stop the "HurtLocker" juggernaut. Nothing could, not even a few suicide bombs set offby "The Hurt Locker" troop themselves. The movie that started out withthree Oscar strikes against it ended up having three more near the endof the derby: accusations that it wasn't accurate, accusations that itwas too accurate (an army sergeant claims the movie ripped off his ownstory) and the embarrassment of its producer being banned from theOscars ceremony because he broke campaign rules with offensive emails.Together, they added up to a serious plot complication -- another twistthat looked like it had been ripped from a Hollywood movie just likethe whole setup of an ex-husband and wife squaring off with David vs.Goliath movies in the Oscars coliseum.
当然，《拆弹部队》赢得奥斯卡最佳影片并不仅仅是顶峰娱乐的大喜事。对奥斯卡而言也是这样，因为在过去的整个评奖季中所有的影评人都强烈认可这部电影的质量，并觉得它应该获得最高荣誉。
In the end, the best-picture Oscar victory of "The Hurt Locker" ismore than just a great thing for Summit. It's good for the Oscarsbecause it was championed all through derby season by film critics whobelieved strongly in its quality and only had the most noble of motives.
但是，为什么包括奥斯卡在内的所有的这些评奖会认同这部关于中东战争的电影，而先前有对《决战以拉谷》、《锅盖头》之类的电影相当之不屑?也许是因为《拆弹部队》没有强迫观众对这场战争做一次政治评判，而仅仅是要观众体验一种恐惧，那种在炙热的炼狱里任何时候任何东西都有可能在你面炸得前灰飞烟灭的恐惧。
But why did all of these awards, including the Oscars, agree on thisMideast war movie after previously pooh-poohing others like "In theValley of Elah" and "Jarhead"? Probably because "The Hurt Locker"doesn't force viewers to make a political judgment about the war.Instead, it forces viewers to experience first hand the terror andhorror of what it's like to live in a sun-baked hell where everythingcould, literally, blow up in your face at any moment.
