晚上跑到附近Mall看了No Country for Old Men(《老无所依》)这部电影,出来已经是凌晨一点多,空荡荡的停车场,横七竖八地摆着几辆车子。我捏紧钥匙,匆匆上去,还不忘朝后座看一看,看杀手杀手有没有藏在后头,拎着那个氧气瓶…
这部电影的对白,尤其是老警长的部分,十分俗俚,听来似懂非懂,而杀手的话慢条斯理,却让人不寒而栗。这部电影有点像品特(Harold Pinter) 的胁迫剧(theater of menace)。品特的胁迫剧营造氛围的办法很简单,一个房间,两个人,一段对话,对话有时候甚至显得无厘头。其实仔细去听,却又是心理战一场,比如杀手在小店,让店主抛硬币的那场对白(来自wikiquotes):
杀手: What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss? 店主: Sir? 杀手: The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss. 店主: I don't know. I couldn't say. 杀手: Call it. 店主: Call it? 杀手: Just call it. 店主: Well - we need to know what it is we're callin for here. 杀手: You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't even be right 店主: I didn't put nothin up. 杀手: Yes you did. You been putting it up your whole life. You just didn't know it. You know what date is on this coin? 店主: No. 杀手: Nineteen fifty-eight. It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it's here. And it's either heads or tails, and you have to say. Call it. 店主: Look... I got to know what I stand to win. 杀手: Everything. 店主: How's that? 杀手: You stand to win everything. Call it. 店主: All right. Heads then. 杀手: Well done. Don't put it in your pocket. 店主: Sir? 杀手: Don't put it in your pocket. It's your lucky quarter. 店主: Where you want me to put it? 杀手: Anywhere not in your pocket. Or it'll get mixed in with the others and become just a coin. Which it is.
女房东: Yessir? 杀手: I'm looking for Llewelyn Moss. 女房东: Did you go up to his trailer? 杀手: Yes I did. 女房东: Well I'd say he's at work. Do you want to leave a message? 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: I can't say. 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: Sir, I ain't at liberty to give out no information about our residents. 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: Did you not hear me? We can't give out no information.
杀手不管里头的女子怎么说,都充耳不闻,只是一个劲地问:Where does he work? 不管对方怎么说,不达目的不罢休。重复三遍,其实言外之意已经很清楚:我不管你说什么,你是在玩我的游戏。电影Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)里也曾有过一些似曾相识的场面。在一个个高官被绳之以法的时候,他们一个个摆出千姿百态的骄横,而将他们拉下马的审判者始终只是一句话:姓名,年龄。就这么一句话,把他们一个个全部放倒。因为这样一句话,背后是一句更猛的话:现在不是我听你说,是你听我说了。就是这话外之话,突破了一道道心理防线。电影的语言其实不应该至于达意,而还有传情(emotive)的功能,甚至能成为一种戏剧行动。
这个片子里的杀手,就如同警长所言的那样,甚至有自己的原则。比如他的原则之一是有时候靠抛硬币来决定对方生死,输了他决不食言,虽然这会把对方吓个半死。片子前面的店主就这么活下来了。后来的牛仔老婆就挑战了他这个规则,说决定生死的不是硬币,而是他自己,可这也无济于事。用抛硬币来决定生死,杀手说这是一种公平,你不玩就不公平: “You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't even be right.”这种游戏当然是个反讽,因为双方根本就不是平等参与,势均力敌,说到底还是一种滥杀,就如同《冰雪暴》里因为碍事杀掉停车场管理员里的那个杀手一样。一些无辜者之所以被杀,就是因为倒霉,在不恰当的时候出现在不该出现的地方,碍了一个杀手的手脚。