大象的眼泪

电影作为一个整体来讲，摄影和剪辑上并没有什么不满意。男主女主实在是雷的⋯⋯一个cornel毕业的男一考毕业考试之前父母出车祸挂了这位亲灰心丧气对生活失去意义所以毕业考也不考了，准备去城里找工作（时逢美国depression）然后半路随便地上了一辆火车，发现是一个马戏团于是觉得马戏团也挺好，抱着兽医未完的学位开始在马戏团里面整理粪便自然就遇到了马戏团团长丰艳美丽的老婆，就是我们的女一。最初让女一对男一改变印象的是，马戏团里面的主要表演马匹腿受伤了，马戏团长认为它还可以再跑个表演，男主以一句“he's suffering”的理由，拿枪把马给枪.毙了，由此给女一一个“你好善良哟亲”的印象。枪阿！别人拿来当命根子的马阿！！一火车人的生机都靠它的马阿！！！就这么毙了阿！毙完以后还一副百莲花样子阿！好吧你爱动物你是好兽医，后来马戏团没有主要表演，缺钱只能把成员扔下火车。男主那个愤恨哟那个圣母哟怎么能不养你的成员哟??TMD是谁把赚钱的马给枪毙了阿！马没了马戏团长就去买了个大象，为此欠了一屁股债。团长让男主去训练大象，男主就走到大象面前“你走把亲”“亲你动动吧哟亲”。。。马戏团长就拿起训练动物的棍子打了大象几下大象才走了，女一立马就拿愤怒地眼神看着她老公它自己不走你劝劝他阿亲！多疏通疏通它就听话了阿亲！聊天是跟马戏团动物沟通的重要条件阿亲！不能打阿！给差评阿！然后又热爱跟动物聊天又唯唯诺诺连喂动物都不会的男主，形象在女一心目中就高大起来了有木有！两个人就搞到一起了阿，趁着马戏团长请客的时候去拿香槟的功夫就搞上了阿！事后女主一副“当作神马都没有发生”的样子拍拍屁股就去跟马戏团长滚床单了阿！宝贝儿我不怪你打大象了我原谅你了阿！后来又经过一段训练大象赚钱马戏团发展蒸蒸日上后，马戏团长终于发现自己老婆跟兽医有暧昧了阿他就把兽医打了一顿阿，不行阿！兽医打不得阿！打了就得跑阿咱不负担这个责任继续待了！跑之前还把女一带走了阿！带走得当晚还在马戏团长的势力范围，俩人不管不顾阿！就H了一晚上阿！睡觉到天亮马戏团长就找到了阿，把男主又打了一顿把自己明媒正娶的老婆带走了阿！男主的金手指就开了阿！主角光环就闪亮了阿！他徒步追上了火车又爬上去了没有人看到阿！！！！最后在一场马戏团表演期间男主的基友们把动物们都放出来了阿！表演的和观看的都给踩了扑了阿！但是这些都不重要阿，重要的是男主得把女主从她老公的魔掌里面救出来阿于是他就英勇地指使大象，把马戏团长瀑头了阿！从此姧夫和淫妇过上了美好而幸福的生活哟！还生了五个孩子阿！！！！！谁来告诉我这个三观是正确的世界是美好的只是我太瀑躁T口T！

Tony promised a surprise to me if I was able to apply for 20 new jobs within two days. While I failed to hit the goal at the end of the day, with the submission of only 15 new jobs, my sweet Mr. Hairball decided to deliver the surprise as he was convinced that I have been making a real effort in order to accomplish that difficult task.The prize came out to be a beautiful movie called "Water for Elephants" at Scotiabank Theater, starred by Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. It was not among the movies that could give you an easy and amusing time on a Sunday night, but belonged to the category of movies that would truly help you think and feel. The story was about a veterinary student, Jacob, abandoned his studies after his parents were killed and joined a traveling circus as their vet. There he met the girl of his dream, Marlena, who was also the wife of his boss August. They fell in love while taking care of the new star attraction of the circus: a smart baby elephant. With overwhelming love for each other and inconceivable courage toward better future, they were able to defeat the brutality of August and the cruelty of the times.I think the movie has chosen a very good perspective to tell the story, for the reason that a circus is always a place full of ironies. It supposed to be a place that brings out the most amounts of true joys, but it was actually with tremendous hardship and tragedies underneath. It looks like a place full of intra-species love and communication, but it was actually dominated by wildness and manipulations. After all, a circus show was just another lucrative delusion of joys, a typical bloody business as many of the others in the historical period of Mid-20-century America. While Jacob, on the other hand, who served as a representative of the scarcely existed humanities during that era, has made every effort to struggle for true love and true cares. The reward for him was a girl of his dream and an immortal life story to be shared with his deeply touched audience.I was very happy to find Tony loved the movie all the same, although I am pretty sure that he could have some unshared feelings about it from a different angle due to his previous experiences. For that, I would like to respect and protect. “What if there was a happy ending for our past tragedies?” This is always a sentimental and magical question to think about. The singularity of the chance to live and the unrepeatableness of time have left us with a limited extent of choices as well as a great legacy of many unfinished yet unable-to-be-finished stories. In my eyes, it never harms to let the stories and pities finished with the help of movies and imagine for the moment about other possibilities of our own lives.And I have my unleashed thoughts too. “Where were you when I was seventeen?”When Marlena asked Jacob, helplessly yet hopefully, at that dancing party, I could clearly remember similar words coming out of my own mouth in the far-away past. The answer to that question was nothing about where were you exactly when I was seventeen; it was everything about what I am going to do with my already changed demand and feelings for life now. However, a big problem in the real world about that is: the true courage in striving for better future could be looking very similar to the ungrateful boldness to screw up a pretty good life. People need wisdom to tell the difference between the two, otherwise there could be a costly price to pay for simply being romantic. For example, in the movie I totally understood Jacob’s affections for Marlena and I completely caught Marlena’s internal unsatisfaction in her marriage with August, yet I pretty doubt about how would Marlena immediately feel after August’s death. August was her husband. He was the right person for her to meet when she was seventeen. He was a super evil for everyone else in the world except for her. As an audience, I feel delighted for Marlena and Jacob’s living happily ever after. But did August deserve such an applauded betrayal and demise as that?Love is truly beautiful, but love is also selfish. There is hardly right-or-wrong answer in any love story. It is touchy as long as it is real. - Once again ironically, these words came from someone who was somehow hurt by the love story that I am enjoying right now. I am always trying to feel, what exactly did Jacob see in that 1939 picture of the Winnie Brothers’ Circus Show at the very beginning of the movie? Cherished memory of his passed wife, grateful appreciation toward his own life, mixed feelings for his long-dead friend and enemy August? Despite all the complexity and ambiguity in his feelings, interestingly, that feeling reaches the bottom of our hearts and became something that we are all yearning for at the end of the day. When Tony and I, hand-in-hand, came off as the last two persons who walked out of the cinema that night, I could not help thinking about one simple question: if there is ever any audience for our own life, would they enjoy the show as much as we just did?JessicaMay 16 2011

奥古斯特肯定没有看过《东郭先生和狼》的故事，如果有，他的人生也许就是另外一种结局。 奥古斯特是影片中的头号倒霉蛋，他收容了一个快要饿死的年轻人，没想到这年轻人却是个忘恩负义的白眼狼，奥古斯特是赔了夫人又折兵，最后还枉送了卿卿性命。 年轻人名叫雅各，雅各曾经有过一个幸福美满的家庭，美好的前程几乎触手可及。天有不测风云，大学毕业前夕，父母双双遭遇车祸，无忧无虑的单纯生活在他二十三岁的那年戛然而止。 雅各的父亲开了间诊所，他是个好人，怜贫济苦，遇到缴不起诊费的病人还会免费服务，但当年可没有“感动美国”的评选，做好人的结局就是他没有积蓄，死后房子被银行收回，雅各从中产阶级的公子哥变成了无家可归的穷小子。 银行职员给雅各上了人生的第一课：“在这个经济大萧条的年代，只有不择手段求生存的人才能活下来。”雅各这才发现，父亲的所作所为是多么的不合时宜，生活不是《读者文摘》，没有那么阳光灿烂温情脉脉。善良，只能让人在困境中变得更加软弱无能。

走投无路的时候，雅各遇到了“班齐尼兄弟马戏团”，很幸运地成为其中的一员，他们沿着铁路线巡回表演，亲历了美国大萧条时期最光怪陆离的一切。 雅各的职业生涯从铲马粪开始，小小的马戏团里也分三六九等，雅各做的就是最低等的杂役，比杂役高级一点的是演员和乐手，再往上是玛莲娜，她是最耀眼的明星，另一个身份是老板的夫人。 金字塔的塔尖站着奥古斯特，他是马戏团的老板，在这里说一不二，对所有的员工和动物拥有生杀大权，就象一个土皇帝。 和所有的大老粗一样，奥古斯特在骨子里对读书人存着一丝敬畏，雅各得到了他的另眼相看，世人多是趋炎附势之辈，因为老板的态度，雅各在马戏团中的地位也随之水涨船高。 温饱问题解决了之后，人就会开始想一些不该想的东西，具体到雅各身上，就是他爱上了玛莲娜，自己的老板娘，他知道不应该，可他就是忍不住。 他并不是单相思，玛莲娜对落难公子也颇有好感，她欲语还休欲拒还迎的，很快就将没见过世面的毛头小子迷的神魂颠倒。雅各穿着老板借给他的礼服，在音乐声中和玛莲娜翩翩起舞，眉目传情，奥古斯特在哪里？他醉倒在床上呼呼大睡，对这一切毫无察觉。

雅各和玛莲娜的故事总让我觉得似曾相识，后来我恍然大悟，这分明就是《水浒传》中西门庆和潘金莲的翻版！欧美男星普遍长得高大，导演却偏偏找了个五短身材来扮演奥古斯特，就已经暗示了他那好似武大郎一般悲催的命运。 有了西门庆和潘金莲，自然也少不了穿针引线玉成好事的王婆，这西洋版的王婆唤作罗茜，它是一头大象。 《大象的眼泪》指的就是罗茜，不明白它有什么可哭的，事实上，奥古斯特才是那个想哭的人。 大萧条还在继续，上百口人需要吃饭，班齐尼兄弟马戏团也只是勉力维持惨淡经营。观众是喜新厌旧的，总是老一套就会影响上座率，而新节目就意味着新投入，新投入又导致成本上升，成了一个恶性循环。 为了解决马戏团的财政危机，奥古斯特负债买下了大象，后来才发现这是一个错误的决定，这罗茜反应迟钝、好吃懒做且不听指挥。一头大象每天的伙食费简直就是天文数字，长此以往何日才能回本？马戏团里容不下消极怠工的动物，于是他很干脆地对罗茜采取了棍棒教育。 雅各和玛莲娜真是看在眼里，疼在心里，一直以来，罗茜都是两个人相会的最佳掩护，见它受苦，他们怎么能不伤心，怎么能不难过？他们结成了同盟，对奥古斯特的行为提出了强烈的谴责。

奥古斯特对此嗤之以鼻：“同情动物很高尚，但是这就意味着我们得继续遭殃”，驯兽的秘诀就是胡萝卜加大棒，跟动物讲爱心？它们肯定会饱食终日无所事事，哪只马戏团里的动物没有受过伤，如果每只动物都捧在手心里照顾得好好的，那还开什么马戏团，直接弄个动物园不是更好！ 于是玛莲娜出离愤怒了，她后悔自己嫁给了这个男人！他语言无味面目可憎对动物又毫无爱心，跟雅各相比，他简直就是一无是处。 在感情上，奥古斯特是个迟钝的男人，他爱自己的老婆，但是却不善于表达，于是腹黑的小白脸就乘虚而入，等到奥古斯特察觉不对，雅各已经带着玛莲娜私奔了。 起初奥古斯特还想着息事宁人，他抢回自己明媒正娶的老婆，派人把臭小子暴打一顿，没想到雅各越挫越勇，他跑回马戏团死缠烂打，要跟玛莲娜做一对同命鸳鸯，饱受刺激的奥古斯特抓狂了，一片混乱中罗茜终于找到了复仇的机会。 西门庆和潘金莲在动手的时候，这王婆怎么可能袖手旁观？别看这罗茜好吃懒做其蠢无比，却绝对是杀人的一把好手，只一下，奥古斯特就干脆利落地挂掉了。

为了成全男女主角的爱情，马戏团倒闭了，动物们逃的逃，卖的卖，演员们失去了饭碗，只能沦落到街头卖艺，颠沛流离，很多人都没能熬到大萧条的结束。 这个故事里没有武松，所以结局是西门庆、潘金莲带着动物版的王婆从此过着幸福快乐的生活。我相信，他们一定不会忘记顺手带上奥古斯特多年的积蓄。 有句话说得好，真正的坏人，夜晚睡得比婴儿还要香甜，因为他们坚信自己做的是好事，不会有任何良心上的负罪感。 多年后，子孙满堂的雅各对人回忆起这段往事，他抹黑对手，洗白自己，生生把谋杀亲夫小三上位包装成了一个荡气回肠的爱情故事。 说着说着连他自己都被感动了，故事中奥古斯特成了一个生性暴虐冷漠无情的邪恶小人，死有余辜，而他和玛莲娜的结合是崇高的，正义的，符合社会主流价值观的，是后人学习的榜样与楷模。 奥古斯特真是比窦娥还冤，他死不瞑目，可是有什么办法？他是人生的输家，历史，从来都是由胜利者来书写。