看电影学英语Seven《七宗罪》精讲之6

影片对白

Mills: I've been trying to figure something in my head. Maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you're insane? Maybe you're just sitting around, reading "Guns & Ammo...", masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go "Wow, it is amazing how fucking crazy I really am"? Yeah? Do you guys do that?

John: It's more comfortable for you to label me insane.

Mills: It's very comfortable.

John: It's not something I would expect you to accept but I did not choose. I was chosen.

Somerset: Whatever. I don't doubt that you believe that but seems to me you're overlooking a glaring contradiction.

John: Meaning what?

Somerset: Glad you asked. If you were chosen, that is, by a higher power, and if your hand was forced, seems strange to me you would get such enjoyment out of it. You enjoyed torturing those people. Just doesn't seem in keeping with martyrdom, does it?

Mills: John.

John: I doubt I enjoyed it any more than Detective Mills would enjoy time alone with me in a room without windows. Isn't that true? How happy would it make you to hurt me with impunity?

Mills: That hurts my feelings. I would never-

John: You wouldn't only because there's consequences. It's in those eyes of yours, though. Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won't deny my own personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner.

Mills: Wait a minute. I thought all you did was killin’ innocent people.

John: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man if you saw him on the street, you'd point out to your friends so they could join you in mocking him. A man if you saw him while you were eating you wouldn't be able to finish your meal. And after him, I picked the lawyer and you both must have secretly been thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!

Mills: Murderers.

John: A woman!

Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself.

John: A woman so ugly on the inside that she couldn't barely go on living if she couldn't be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug-dealing pederast, actually. And let's not forget the disease-spreading whore. Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that's the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner in every home and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's... it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I'm setting the example and what I've done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed forever.

Mills: Yep. Delusions of grandeur.

妙语佳句:

1. dedicate to

这个短语大家应该都不陌生，就是“献身于，致力于”的意思，比如：He dedicated his life to the service of his country. 他将毕生献给了祖国。

需要注意的是，当用dedicate to时，dedicate 是作动词的，to 的后面要接名词，名词性短语和动名词。

2. on the street

这里的意思可不是“流落在外，无家可归”，而是“out of prison or police custody; at liberty在监狱外，不进监狱”，比如：Thanks to the lawyer, he finally was on the street. 多亏了律师，他最终没进监狱。

3. keep a straight face

这个片语的意思是“面无表情don't show one's feelings, especially refrain from laughing”，比如：The school orchestra played so many wrong notes that I had trouble keeping a straight face. 学校乐队的表演演奏错了那么多音符，我无法保持面无表情的状态。

4. Delusions of grandeur

A delusion in which one believes oneself possessed of great importance, power, wealth, intellect, or ability. 可以解释为“幻想自大症”，“自以为了不起” 等等。比如：He has delusions of grandeur. 他自以为很了不起。

影片点评：

电影的名字是Seven，“七”在基督教中是个神秘的数字：上帝用7天创造世界，用亚当的第7根肋骨造了夏娃。撒旦的原身是有7个头的火龙，世界共有7名堕落天使被称为撒旦。16世纪后，天主教更直接用撒旦的7个恶魔的形象来代表7种罪恶，即本片中的七宗罪——1. Pride 2. Envy 3. Wrath 4. Sloth 5. Greed 6. Gluttony 7. Lust。与之相对应的七种美德是——1. Humility 2. Contentment 3. Patience 4. Fortitude 5. Mercy 6. Moderation 7. Chastity。

在电影里，故事的时间设定为七天，7罪、7罚、7次下雨，甚至结局也由罪犯定在第7天的下午7时（佩服一下罪犯的高智商高能力，连气象都预测的这么准确），看起来一切都像是宿命的罪与罚。分开来看七宗罪的罪行，每一宗并不构成死罪（上帝只告诉我们，犯下这七宗罪者，必下地狱，强调的是死后而非现世的惩罚）。所以电影中由杀手施行的7罚，仔细分析看来也是很遵守规则的：他并不直接动手杀人。胖子被迫进食过多撑破血管而死；律师割下自己的肉——只是1磅，不多也不少；毒贩在被发现时一息尚存；妓女是被嫖客所杀；模特只被割下鼻子，因为她太过骄傲，不肯打电话报警，所以流血过多而死。凶手自称犯下“嫉妒”的罪行，但嫉妒本身是不构成罪行的，只是当他因此杀害了无辜者Tracy，才成为Mills狂怒的报复对象。

照这样的思路，罪犯完全是照“主”的指引在匡正人世，他自己的话也是这么说的“I’m setting an example…”，但是，且住，《圣经•旧约•十诫》中说：“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.不可妄称耶和华——你上帝的名。”就是说，圣主只有一个，凡人不能假借他的名字传道。只要抓准了这一条，凶手的立场就完全不成立，宿命一说也就烟消云散。Somerset其实已经找到了这个漏洞。在第7天（放晴的星期日），3个人在警车上时，Somerset问John是否认为自己在替上帝做事，而他无法正面回答，只说“上帝的行事是玄妙的”。这一点足以说明一切不过是他这个愤世嫉俗者自大狂妄到了极点，自认为可以代替主来传道——在他认为存在的宗教世界里。这和希特勒认为日耳曼民族是最优秀的民族、只有自己才能带领人类创建美好世界，以及日本军国主义认为只有自己才能拯救亚洲有什么不同呢？

话说回来，天国、地狱都是人类的想象，宗教不过是当时人为了最大限度的保存群体而制定的社会法则，从《十诫》中我们就可以看出：在1—4条中，上帝宣布自己对人类的绝对统治权，他不过是个独裁者而已；而5—10条则是群体生活法则。归根到底，哪里有什么宿命的罪？全是人的想象罢了。不过，犯了罪必须要受到惩罚，所以建议罪犯应该承受一下自己制定的惩罚，好实现“功德圆满”。