马丁·麦克多纳《三块广告牌》中的暴力与和解

Violence and Reconciliation in Martin Mc Donagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,Missouri

马丁·麦克多纳的电影作品充满大量似曾相识、认知度很高的类型、元素和刻板印象,具有明显的后现代特征。这些早已被类型化的符号与刻板印象为叙事提供了背景,使各地观众能获得辨识这些类型的快感。麦克多纳最新电影《三块广告牌》构思精巧,不仅体现在对影片整体节奏的掌控上,更体现在他作为严肃作家对人性的解读,在所有类型、风格、刻板印象背后,是作者如何看待暴力与和解,如何展示善恶相交,好坏并行的世界。本文以美国认知科学家、心理学家斯蒂芬·平克对暴力的分析为视角,探索影片呈现的主题。平克并不假定人性本善还是本恶,而是认为人性中有些动机会促使人施暴,但也有几种动力会促使人达成和平,如同情、公平、自控和理智,这些动力可以通过适当的环境和情境得以触发。影片正是符合心智理论模式,以人物的以暴制暴开始,在经历暴力所导致的某些"恩典时刻"后,最终走向宽容、和解。

The stylized stereotypes and cultural references help Mc Donagh’s film and theatre works to achieve recognizability by audiences across national boundaries. In his latest film,Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,Missouri,Mc Donagh demonstrates his own perspectives on violence and reconciliation beneath the playful representations of genres,styles,stereotypes and social issues. Steven Pinker’s analysis of violence provides theoretical insight into the themes in this film. For Pinker,human nature accommodates motives that impel us to violence,like predation,domination,and vengeance,but also to motives that,in the right circumstances,impel us towards peace,like compassion,fairness,self-control and reason. This movie operates isomorphically,by plotting a trajectory from an inception of extreme violence,through moments of grace induced by further sporadic episodes of violence,to its culmination in the realization of tolerance and reconciliation.