百年50部英文烧脑电影赏析:[29]Nothing But the Truth 真相至上

Rachel Armstrong（Kate Beckinsale）is an ambitious reporter for the Capital Sun-Times. When she discovers fellow soccer mom Erica Van Doren（Vera Farmiga）is working as a covert operative for the CIA and recently returned from Venezuela, where she was investigating an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, she confronts her and requests confirmation. Erica refuses to cooperate, but Rachel has no doubts about the veracity of the report, and her story becomes front-page news with the support of editor Bonnie Benjamin（Angela Bassett）and Avril Aaronson（Noah Wyle）, who serves as the newspaper's legal counselor. Rachel-Armstrong.
Because revealing a covert operative's identity is a treasonous offence and because the individual who leaked the information to Rachel is a potential threat to national security, special Federal prosecutor Patton Dubois（Matt Dillon）convenes a grand jury and demands to know who her source is, information she refuses to divulge. High profile attorney Albert Burnside（Alan Alda）, hired by the newspaper to defend Rachel, is certain his personal friendship with Judge Hall will facilitate matters and is shocked when his client is jailed for contempt of court.
Days become weeks, and then months, but Rachel steadfastly defends the principle of confidentiality, a position that eventually estranges her husband Ray（David Schwimmer）, alienates her young son Timmy（Preston Bailey）, and costs her embattled newspaper hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees. She is stricken when a member of an extremist right-wing group assassinates Van Doren in her own driveway, as he perceives Van Doren's report on Venezuela's innocence to be unpatriotic, but she remains silent. Eventually, the President's Chief of Staff comes forward and admits that he corroborated Armstrong's investigation into Van Doren's identity. However, Dubois is only interested in Armstrong's original source. Armstrong pleas to Dubois that she could never give up her source as they would have to deal with the consequential ramifications of the death of Van Doren. Burnside even argues her case before the Supreme Court, but they decide against him 5-4, citing the overriding concern of national security. Eventually, Judge Hall decides to release Armstrong from jail, as he is convinced she will never divulge her source and, therefore, cannot be pressured through continued incarceration. On the day she is released, Dubois has the U.S. Marshals arrest her for obstruction of justice and convinces her to take a deal for a shortened sentence rather than go to trial. She agrees to two years in prison, with the possibility of early parole for good behavior. As Armstrong is taken to the facility, she reminisces about her time as a volunteer at Timmy's school, and when she spoke to Van Doren's daughter, Alison, who revealed to her on a school field trip that her mother worked for the government and recently went to Venezuela on “business” thus revealing Alison as the original source.
瑞秋·阿姆斯特朗（凯特·贝金赛尔饰）是一个有抱负的《资本太阳时报》的记者。当她发现线人足球妈妈艾丽卡·范·多伦（维拉·法米加饰）是中情局的秘密特工时——她最近刚从委内瑞拉回来，正在调查企图暗杀美国总统的事——她和她当面对质，请求确认。艾丽卡拒绝合作，但是瑞秋毫不怀疑报道的真实性。在新闻编辑邦妮·本杰明（安吉拉·贝塞特饰）和报纸的法律顾问艾微儿·阿伦森（诺西·怀尔饰）的支持下，她的故事成为头版新闻。
因为揭露秘密特工的身份是叛逆罪行，也因为向瑞秋泄露信息的人是国家安全的潜在威胁，联邦特别检察官巴顿·杜波依斯（马特·狄龙饰）召集了一个大陪审团，要求知道她的信息来源是谁，但她拒绝透露。高级律师艾伯特·伯恩赛德（艾伦·阿尔达饰）被报纸聘请，为瑞秋辩护。他确信自己和法官霍尔的个人交情将有助于相关事宜。当他的当事人因藐视法庭被判入狱时，他震惊了。
时光荏苒，过去了几个月，但瑞秋仍坚定不移地捍卫着保密的原则，最终疏远了她的丈夫瑞恩（大卫·修蒙饰），也疏远了她年幼的儿子蒂米（普雷斯顿·贝利饰），罚款和律师费用花费了这份打官司的报纸成千上万美元。一名极端右翼组织成员认为范·多伦关于委内瑞拉是清白的报告显示她不爱国。当范·多伦行驶在自己的车道时将其暗杀了。当瑞秋听说此事后受到了重创，但她保持了沉默。最终，总统的办公室主任站出来，承认他证实阿姆斯特朗调查了范·多伦的身份。然而，杜波依斯只对阿姆斯特朗的信息源有兴趣。阿姆斯特朗请求杜波依斯，她永远不会放弃她的信息来源，因为他们必须处理范·多伦死亡的相应后果。伯恩赛德甚至在最高法院面前为她的案子辩护，但他们以5票反对4票赞成的结果否决了他，理由是国家安全压倒一切。

最终，霍尔法官决定从监狱中释放阿姆斯特朗，因为他相信她永远也不会泄露信息源，因此，不能通过继续监禁施加压力。她被释放那天，杜波依斯让美国法警以妨碍司法公正的名义逮捕她，用缩短刑期说服她做个交易，而不是接受审判。她同意两年刑期，有可能因为表现良好而提前假释。当阿姆斯特朗被采取措施时，她开始回首自己在蒂米学校作志愿者的时光，在一次露营时，她跟范·多伦的女儿阿伦森聊天，阿伦森向她透露，她的母亲为政府工作，最近去了委内瑞拉公干，这显示出，阿伦森是信息来源。

veracity［və'ræsəti］n. 诚实；精确性；老实；说真实话
counselor［'kaunsələ］n. 顾问；法律顾问；参事
treasonous［'tri:zənəs］adj. 叛逆的；谋反的；犯叛国罪的
prosecutor［'prɔsikju:tə］n. 检察官；公诉人；［法］起诉人；实行者
divulge［dai'vʌlʤ］vt. 泄露；暴露
confidentiality［ˌkɔnfi,denʃi'æliti］n. 机密，机密性
alienate［'eiljəneit］vt. 使疏远，离间；让与
corroborate［kə'rɔbəˌreit］vt. 证实；使坚固
incarceration［inˌkɑ:sə'reiʃən］n. 监禁；下狱；禁闭
obstruction［əb'strʌkʃən］n. 障碍；阻碍；妨碍
重点掌握
■ and costs her embattled newspaper hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees.
在英语中，fee作为名词解时，有“费用；酬金”的意思，所以文中legal fees是“律师费（向当事人收取的法律咨询费或诉讼费）”的意思，相当于legal expense。比如：In practice, much of it was to go on legal fees. 实际上，大部分钱将用于诉讼费。

Rod Lurie Interviewed by Anne Brodie
Your films are often set in the political world in which an heroic protagonist struggles against outside forces to do the right thing ... why does that interest you?
I think your question speaks for itself. The very concept of heroic protagonists struggling against outside forces to do the right thing... isn't that sort of a classic dramatic struggle that we often see in great literature or in films? In fact I would take it one step further and say that Nothing But the Truth and several of my other films deal with a person's struggle against themselves...in other words: fighting for their principles even if it means adversely affecting their own self interest.
Nothing But the Truth has had a tough time of it — a victim of the financial meltdown. How hard was that for you personally?
Nothing But the Truth never got into theaters because its distributor went into Chapter 11 the very week we were supposed to hit the screens. What is most upsetting is that the reviews had been so fantastic and Kate and Vera Farmiga started to get attention from the critics groups. It was sudden and unexpected. In mid-December we found out our film was victim of a drive-by shooting...and the shooter was the economy. We didn't even get a poster printed. If I hadn't been through tougher things in my life, this might have been reason to get out the arsenic. However the DVD is absolutely first rate and people are going to discover it that way. 你的电影往往立足于政界，英勇的主角进行斗争、反对外部势力，做正确的事……为什么你对这些感兴趣？
我认为你的问题已经道出了答案。英勇的主角进行斗争，反对外部势力，做正确的事，这个概念……这不是我们经常在伟大的文学或电影中看到的那种经典戏剧的斗争吗？事实上我想进一步说，《真相至上》和我的其他几部都是针对人们如何与他们自己做斗争的……换言之：是为了他们的原则而斗争，甚至这意味着影响了他们的自身利益。
《真相至上》遭遇了困难的时期，是金融危机的受害者。对你个人来说有多难？
《真相至上》从来没有走进影院，因为就在我们本该在荧屏露面的那周，它的发行商正赶上根据《破产法》第11章申请破产保护。最苦恼的事情是，评论是那么精彩。凯特和维拉·法米加开始得到评论群体的关注。这是突然的、意外的。12月中旬，我们发现我们的电影是飞车射杀的受害者，而凶手就是经济。我们甚至没有印刷一张海报。如果不是我曾经经历过更艰难的事，这可能会是喝砒霜的理由。不过DVD绝对一流，通过这种方式人们会发现它的。

《真相至上》原定于2008年10月进行公映，但由于拍摄进度一再拖延，影片无法按时完成拍摄，最终影片只能延期到2009年1月初。
影片最初在挑选女主角的时候，制片公司给出了几个女演员作为参考，但导演一下就选定了凯特·贝金赛尔，并没有安排其他演员进行洽谈和试镜。