美国国家公共电台 NPR 'When Time Was New': 'Wonder Woman' Brings Sunlight To The DC Universe

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

"Wonder Woman" opens this weekend. It's the first superhero film headed by women both in front of and behind the camera. In a moment, NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the director's lifelong affection for the character, but first, Bob Mondello has this review.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE¹: The camera zooms² in on an island formed long ago when time was new, a phrase that suggests both sharp writing and a fresh start to the DC cinematic universe. Batman and Superman may be dark and dreary³, but Wonder Woman's story begins in bright sunlight on an isle⁴ of warrior⁵ Amazons. A tyke named Diana sees a sword and wants to join them.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

LILLY ASPELL: (As Diana) It's beautiful. Who would wield⁶ it?

ROBIN⁷ WRIGHT: (As Antiope) Only the fiercest among us even could, and that is not you, Diana.

MONDELLO: Oh, but it will be. She grows up to be quite the warrior, played by Gal⁸ Gadot and trained by the best.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

WRIGHT: (As Antiope) Never let your guard down. You expect the battle to be fair?

MONDELLO: At about the moment she is ready, a man falls from the sky. Wouldn't you know? Chris Pine in a biplane, bringing with him flashing blue eyes, double entendres and World War I. After determining with a Lasso of Truth that mankind needs help, Diana and old blue eyes zip off on a screwball comedy-ish (ph) trip to London where she's told she can't go to the front, being a woman and all.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

GAL GADOT: (As Diana) They will die.

CHRIS PINE: (As Steve Trevor) We're going anyway.

GADOT: (As Diana) You mean you were lying?

PINE: (As Steve Trevor) I'm a spy. That's what I do.

GADOT: (As Diana) How do I know you're not lying to me right now?

MONDELLO: He grabs the Lasso of Truth...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

PINE: (As Steve Trevor) I'm taking you to the front.

MONDELLO: ...Which makes him say more than he means to.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

PINE: (As Steve Trevor) We are probably going to die. This is a terrible idea.

MONDELLO: He's a charmer whose mom clearly brought him up right, butting⁹ heads with Gadot's righteous Diana. And Jenkins has their old-school movie chemistry pretty much combust when they hit the Belgian trenches¹⁰. There in an aptly named no-man's land, the movie reaches for the stars, machine guns blazing almost as brightly as Diana's eyes.

Given that there will be lots of sequels, the film should have ended there. Alas¹¹, DC Comics movies apparently¹² have superhero bloat written into their contracts. Until the last few scenes, though, "Wonder Woman" is pretty wonderful. I'm Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

GADOT: (As Diana) I am Diana of Themyscira.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: And I'm Mandalit del Barco. That onscreen chemistry Bob referred to was also a force between Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins. The star gushes¹³ about her director.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GADOT: For me, it was just an amazing experience working with such a talented, smart, brilliant, magnificent woman.

DEL BARCO: Gadot says they worked together to make Diana Prince Wonder Woman relatable - a powerful warrior who is also vulnerable and naive¹⁴ to the world beyond her island.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GADOT: I was worried that Diana's going to read dumb because there's a fine line between playing naive to play dumb. And Patty always made me trust her that what we're doing here is the right thing. She's not dumb because she is not dumb. You know what you're doing. You have a bigger mission here.

DEL BARCO: Jenkins says, for years, her mission was to get Wonder Woman on screen. She's a longtime fan girl.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PATTY JENKINS: There's the 7-year-old me that pretended to be Wonder Woman running around the schoolyard. Like, what an incredible thing to imagine that when the bully¹⁵ shows up or the villain¹⁶, you would be strong enough to do something about it. But, also, you look like Lynda Carter while you're doing it like, oh, my God.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WONDER WOMAN THEME")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Wonder woman, wonder woman...

DEL BARCO: Jenkins says she grew up watching Lynda Carter play Wonder Woman on TV. And in high school, in Kansas, she was even nicknamed after the superhero.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JENKINS: It was because I had, like, tripped really spectacularly on my way in. And it was like some sarcastic¹⁷, hey, Wonder Woman.

DEL BARCO: Jenkins says she was also influenced by another DC hero, Superman, specifically Richard Donner's 1978 version.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUPERMAN THEME")

JENKINS: The themes are very serious - love and death and sex and hope and, you know, horror - all of those things. And it rocks my world completely. As a seven-year-old, like, I was him. I believed that I could fly. I thought, wow, to do that one day - to make people feel something like that one day. What an incredible experience.

DEL BARCO: Every superhero has an origin story. Here's Patty Jenkins. She was born in 1971 on an air force base in Victorville, Calif. Her father had been an F4 fighter pilot during Vietnam. And the family moved around a lot - Cambodia, Thailand and Kansas after he died. In Lawrence, Jenkins' mother worked as an environmental scientist, raising two daughters as a single mom. Elaine Roth remembers her little sister Patty was a dynamo.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ELAINE ROTH: She was a powerhouse even as a very small child.

DEL BARCO: Roth is now a film studies professor at Indiana University South Bend. She says, in junior high, Patty stole the show singing and dancing in the school version of "The Pajama Game." But even more than acting¹⁸, Roth says, Patty always loved directing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROTH: I remember when she was a little kid. We've got pictures of her in the backyard training our dog, who was kind of a lazy, fat golden retriever, to jump through a hula hoop¹⁹. She looks like a little miniature lion tamer in the backyard. It was adorable.

DEL BARCO: Jenkins landed her first film job at 14, assisting on a documentary about beat poets. At New York's prestigious²⁰ Cooper Union, she studied painting but fell in love with moving images and designed herself a major in film directing.

For years, she was a camera assistant on hundreds of commercials and music videos. Then while getting her masters at the American Film Institute, she wrote and directed a short film called "Velocity²¹ Rules." Roth says it foreshadowed her sister's latest film.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROTH: It was about a woman who's a superhero on the down low. Her husband doesn't know (laughter). And it's just - it really suggests that she's always been interested in superheroes and female superheroes and female power.

DEL BARCO: A few years later, Jenkins decided²² to make a low-budget movie about serial²³ killer²⁴ Aileen Wuornos.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JENKINS: If I was being calculating, that's not how I would start my career - to start with something so dark. But I think there's a great genre²⁵ of films of that style. So, OK, let me try.

DEL BARCO: The result was the 2003 film "Monster" starring Charlize Theron as a troubled prostitute. In this scene, she makes a confession²⁶ to her girlfriend played by Christina Ricci.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MONSTER")

CHARLIZE THERON: (As Aileen) And I didn't want to die thinking that maybe - maybe he could love me. So I killed him. I shot him, all right?

DEL BARCO: For her performance, Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

THERON: I have to thank my incredible director, Patty Jenkins. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

DEL BARCO: Theron and Jenkins researched Wuornos' story, pouring over hundreds of letters she'd written while on death row. On Charlie Rose's TV show, Theron again thanked Jenkins for giving her the role of a lifetime.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CHARLIE ROSE")

THERON: From the first time that I met Patty, the two of us, for some reason - call it chemistry. Call it two tough-ass chicks in a room. I don't know. Call it whatever - I felt that we were definitely on the same page. This woman's fazed by nothing, absolutely nothing. And I'm tough.

DEL BARCO: After "Monster," Jenkins spent a decade directing commercials and television shows, including AMC's "The Killing²⁷" and HBO's "Entourage." She almost became the first woman to direct a male superhero movie - "Thor: The Dark World." That didn't pan out. But now she's making history by directing "Wonder Woman."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WONDER WOMAN")

GADOT: (As Diana Prince) If no one else will defend the world, then I must.

DEL BARCO: Jenkins says she believes in the power of mythical²⁸ stories to inspire. Still, she was taken aback at first by the overwhelming emotional response from people who've seen the movie.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JENKINS: You know, there must be something that we're all craving²⁹. Certainly, we were expressing something that's been truthful³⁰ to us our whole lives. Oh, I'm a little strong. And I'm a little not strong. And I'm all of those things. And maybe it's not something that people have seen much of.

DEL BARCO: This weekend, the feminist³¹ superhero finally gets her own movie. And for those craving even more, Wonder Woman will be back this fall in "Justice League." Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HANS ZIMMER AND JUNKIE XL SONG, "IS SHE WITH YOU?")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 zooms   

n.嗡嗡声( zoom的名词复数 )；隆隆声；（车辆等）疾驰的声音；变焦

参考例句：

• A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h. 从你口中打出的喷嚏速度可达每小时600里。 来自互联网
• When the camera zooms in, the whole world watches out. 当镜头对准（汶川），全世界都在关注。 来自互联网

3 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。

4 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

5 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

6 wield   

vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等)

参考例句：

• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。
• People may wield the power in a democracy.在民主国家里，人民可以行使权力。

7 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

8 gal   

n.姑娘，少女

参考例句：

• We decided to go with the gal from Merrill.我们决定和那个从梅里尔来的女孩合作。
• What's the name of the gal? 这个妞叫什么？

9 butting   

用头撞人（犯规动作）

参考例句：

• When they were talking Mary kept butting in. 当他们在谈话时，玛丽老是插嘴。
• A couple of goats are butting each other. 两只山羊在用角互相顶撞。

10 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

11 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 gushes   

n.涌出，迸发( gush的名词复数 )v.喷，涌( gush的第三人称单数 )；滔滔不绝地说话

参考例句：

• The stream gushes forth from the rock. 一股小溪从岩石中涌出来。 来自辞典例句
• Fuel gushes into the combustion chamber. 燃料喷进燃烧室。 来自辞典例句

14 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

15 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

16 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

17 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

18 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

19 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

20 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

21 velocity   

n.速度，速率

参考例句：

• Einstein's theory links energy with mass and velocity of light.爱因斯坦的理论把能量同质量和光速联系起来。
• The velocity of light is about 300000 kilometres per second.光速约为每秒300000公里。

22 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

23 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

24 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

25 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

26 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

27 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

28 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。

29 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

30 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

31 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。