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Whatever Ridley Scott is on, it should be added to the water. A lot has been said — not all of it kind — about the veteran director’s recent films. His work ethic, though, is unimpeachable. Between The Last Duel, House of Gucci, Napoleon and now Gladiator II, Scott has spent his 80s making back-to-back epics with the collective running time of a long-haul flight, and serious turbulence en route.
不管雷德利•斯科特(Ridley Scott)在喫什麼「能量祕方」，都應該推廣給大家。關於這位資深導演近期作品的評論紛紛雜雜，且不乏批評之聲。然而，他的職業道德無可挑剔。從《最後的決鬥》《古馳之家》《拿破崙》到如今的《角鬥士II》，斯科特在八十多歲的年紀連續拍攝了這些史詩級影片，總時長相當於一次長途飛行，且拍攝過程充滿波折。
Some of those movies have been really very bad. Yet Scott’s stubborn charm is that you still never know what is coming next, or what form he’ll be on, just that the result will have been made with belligerent swagger. “Are you not entertained?” demanded the first Gladiator back in 2000. With Ridley Scott the answer, even buried in caveats, is generally yes. So it proves again with the sequel.
其中一些電影確實很糟糕。然而，斯科特的頑強魅力在於，你永遠不知道接下來會發生什麼，或者他會以何種形式出現，只知道結果總是帶有好鬥的派頭。2000年，第一部《角鬥士》中曾問道：「你們不是被娛樂到了嗎？」對於斯科特來說，即使有許多保留，答案通常也是肯定的。這一點在續集中再次得到證明。
On form or off, power has always been a favourite theme for the director. Throw in the original film’s enduring popularity, and all roads were going to lead back to Rome eventually. Twenty-four years have passed since Gladiator, but with Scott keeping time, the sequel actually opens 16 after the first film, in which Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius went from general to rebel.
無論是在形式上還是在主題上，權力始終是導演最鍾愛的題材。再加上原版電影經久不衰的受歡迎程度，所有的道路最終都指向羅馬。自《角鬥士》上映至今已過去24年，但在斯科特的掌控下，續集的時間線設定在第一部電影事件發生的16年後，在那部影片中，羅素•克勞(Russell Crowe)飾演的馬克西姆斯•德西姆斯•梅里迪烏斯從將軍淪爲叛軍。
Here the empire is defied from the start, with Paul Mescal as a foundling star of the resisting Numidian army. (Historical sticklers are only going to upset themselves.) Roman commander Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) rains down flame on the “last free city in Africa”. By the end of the battle, the story is scaffolded. Despite his valour, our hero is now a captured slave with a genius for violence. Cue the Colosseum.
在這裏，帝國從一開始就遭到挑戰，保羅•梅斯卡爾(Paul Mescal)飾演抵抗努米底亞軍隊的棄兒明星。羅馬指揮官馬庫斯•阿卡修斯向「非洲最後的自由城市」傾瀉火焰。戰鬥結束時，故事的框架已經搭建。儘管英勇，我們的英雄現在成爲一個被俘的奴隸，擁有暴力天賦。羅馬競技場登場。
Mescal has built his career on a string of roles as sensitive young men in poignant dramas. Normal People and All of Us Strangers never asked him, as Scott does, to throttle a baboon. “It is an art, choosing gladiators,” announces Denzel Washington as Roman insider Macrinus, speaking, you sense, both for himself and a movie with a certain dry self-awareness. “Rage pours out of you like milk,” he smiles.
梅斯卡爾的職業生涯建立在一系列感人戲劇中扮演敏感年輕人的角色上。《普通人》和《我們所有的陌生人》從未像斯科特那樣要求他去扼殺一隻狒狒。「選擇角鬥士是一門藝術，」丹澤爾•華盛頓(Denzel Washington)飾演的羅馬內部人士馬克裏努斯宣佈，你會感覺到，他既是在爲自己說話，也是在爲一部具有某種乾澀自我意識的電影說話。「憤怒從你身上湧出，就像牛奶一樣，」他微笑著說。
Sorry. Milk? Self-aware only up to a point, it turns out. Writer David Scarpa tries a lot of one-liners, but the hit rate is not high. The actual drama can be choppier still. Mescal’s reinvention as action hero turns out to be relatively simple. Delivering a plausible response to the story’s clunkier plotting makes killer monkeys look like child’s play.
抱歉。牛奶？事實證明，自我意識只能達到一定程度。作家大衛•斯卡帕(David Scarpa)嘗試了很多短梗(one-liners)，但爆梗率並不高。實際的劇情可能更加波折。梅斯卡爾作爲動作英雄的重塑過程相對簡單。他對故事中笨拙的情節做出了合理的回應，這讓殺人猴子看起來像是小兒科。
Still, his presence is less puffed-up than Crowe’s, and his character’s link to the first film is neatly revealed. (Though I might have been having a bad night. Failing to see the twist coming, my notes from the screening read: “All new story unrelated to . . . oh”.)
儘管如此，他的存在感比克勞的要低調得多，他的角色與第一部電影的聯繫被巧妙地揭示出來。
Scott just keeps on trucking either way. The best of the film is its sheer bloody-minded heft, a blockbuster fuelled by an insistence on bigger, sillier, movie-r. There are crazy set-pieces and Machiavellian intrigue. Again, the film comes to mirror its characters. For twin emperors Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger), cranking up the barbarism of the Colosseum is their own survival tactic.
無論如何，斯科特都在堅持不懈地前進。這部電影最出色的地方在於其純粹頑固的龐大，一部由對更大、更荒誕、更電影化的堅持推動的大片。影片中有瘋狂的場景和馬基雅維利式的陰謀。影片再次反映了角色的性格。對於孿生皇帝蓋塔和卡拉卡拉（由約瑟夫•奎因(Joseph Quinn)和弗雷德•赫辛格飾演）來說，加劇羅馬競技場的野蠻行爲是他們的生存策略。
The same goes for Scott. The solemn pomp of the first movie is only half-restored. I’d be amazed if the sequel is remembered by Christmas, let alone in 24 years. But the ideas are more pulpy and loopy, and the film more fun for it. “What we do in life echoes in eternity,” Gladiator intoned. Have some of that, says Gladiator II.
斯科特也是如此。第一部電影的莊嚴華麗只恢復了一半。如果續集能在耶誕節前被人記住，更不用說在24年後，我會感到驚訝。不過，影片的構思更加通俗和天馬行空，因此電影更有趣。《角鬥士》曾說：「我們今生所做的事情將在永恆中迴響。」《角鬥士II》則回應：「來點這種感覺吧。」
That runs to crunching violence and more zoological mayhem. Meanwhile, the queasy spirit of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus is doubled by the flouncing decadents played by Quinn and Hechinger. All is now imperial rot. “This city is diseased,” Mescal says, sounding more like the star of a sequel to Taxi Driver.
這導致了激烈的暴力和更多的動物混亂。同時，華金•菲尼克斯(Joaquin Phoenix)飾演的古莫德斯的不安靈魂被奎因和海辛格扮演的頹廢者加倍放大。現在一切都是帝國的腐朽。「這座城市已經病入膏肓，」梅斯卡爾說道，聽起來更像是《計程車司機》續集的主角。
Watching Gladiator II, you recall how long ago 2000 was — a time before 9/11, Facebook, or the financial crisis, let alone more recent convulsions. Then, an American epic could still tell a simple tale of classical heroism. Now Hollywood is all but kaput, and any story of ancient Rome feels fated, like this one, to feel loaded by the moment, filled with references to a dying “Roman Dream”.
觀看《角鬥士II》，你會想起2000年是多麼久遠的事情——那是在9/11、Facebook或金融危機之前的時代，更不用說更近期的動盪。那時，一部美國史詩仍然可以講述一個關於古典英雄主義的簡單故事。如今，好萊塢幾乎已經衰落，任何關於羅馬的故事都註定會像這部影片一樣，充滿了對一個垂死的「羅馬夢想」的追憶。
Francis Ford Coppola too recently connected the modern US with the same point of history in his barmy Megalopolis. Scott instead gives us the kind of giant B-movie only he can make, with all the attendant potholes and pleasures, and a sly last word. Beware the thrill of watching savagery, the film suggests. The show never ends well.
弗朗西斯•福特•科波拉(Francis Ford Coppola)最近也透過他瘋狂的《巨城》將現代美國與歷史上的同一時期聯繫起來。相比之下，斯科特帶給我們一部只有他才能製作的巨型B級電影，伴隨著所有相關的缺陷和樂趣，以及一個狡黠的結尾。電影暗示，當觀看野蠻行爲時要小心。這出戏永遠不會有好結局。
In UK cinemas from November 15 and US cinemas from November 22
11月15日起在英國影院上映，11月22日起在美國影院上映