2006年VOA标准英语-University Town Rises from Tragedy in "We Are M

23 December 2006

Matthew McConaughey stars in an emotional film that dramatizes the true story of how a football team helped a West Virginia university town rise from tragedy three decades ago. Alan Silverman has a look at "We Are Marshall."

Matthew McConaughey in the movie, "We Are Marshall"

The time is 1971, the place is Huntington, West Virginia, home of Marshall University. Just a year earlier, a chartered plane packed with almost every member of the school's football team, the entire coaching staff and many local supporters crashed while landing, killing¹ everyone on board. The entire town grieved for the loss and Marshall officials decided² it would be too painful to continue the school's football program; but that was before the handful of players who were not on that plane stepped forward.

From the meeting room windows they could see thousands of students standing³ silently to protest the decision; and then the silence gave way to the cheer that had echoed from the stands during games of the 'Thundering Herd⁴' team:

"We Are Marshall" tells how an unorthodox coach, Jack⁵ Lengyel, built a new 'Thundering Herd' and, in the process helped the town honor those lost in the tragic⁶ crash.

Much of the film was shot on location in Huntington, West Virginia and Matthew McConaughey, who stars as Jack Lengyel, says - like his character 35 years earlier - the production had a struggle to win local support. "They were basically saying 'Here you are, coming down to put a mirror on a time in our lives which is not enjoyable for this town to look back to ...either me or my father or someone else went through it ...I lost a father or an aunt or something in that crash and here you are coming down to shine a light on it.' But, after a couple of weeks, the townspeople would come to the set, we would show them script pages and they would see how we were working the scenes ...and they began to trust us and we became like a teammate. That was, not a turning point, but a really nice rhythm that happened early in the film: they saw that we were bringing justice to the story," he says.

Anthony Mackie plays Nate Ruffin, a varsity team member who was not on the ill-fated plane because an injury kept him sidelined. Ruffin becomes a keystone of the re-born 'Thundering Herd' and Mackie believes shooting the film in the place where the real events occurred helped him and the whole cast find the story's true emotions. "Because I connected so much with the surrounding area and the character, it was hard for me not to become emotional; so a lot of the movie it was me fighting emotion instead of trying to rev⁷ up emotion," says Mackie.

The director is McG, whose previous work ranges from music videos to popcorn⁸ hits like "Charlie's Angels." He says he knew from the start that this film would be different and required honesty in the portrayals⁹ of the characters and the events. "Every single element of the story we told is true. We didn't have to say 'based on' or 'inspired by.' This is a true story and I wanted to keep Hollywood out of it, to the best of my ability. I just wanted the story to speak for itself. It is a story that belongs to the citizens of Huntington, West Virginia and I didn't want ugly Hollywood coming in and messing up; and I certainly didn't want any of my old habits coming in either, because this picture, for me, is 180-degrees removed from anything I've ever been affiliated¹⁰ with. This felt like a great story and I really wanted to stay out of the way of it and let the fundamentally compelling nature of the story rise to the top," he says.

Although most of the characters in the film are drawn¹¹ from real people, English actor Ian McShane plays a composite: the father of a young player who died in the crash, meant to personify the lingering grief that pervaded¹² the town of Huntington. "We Are Marshall" also features Matthew Fox as Red Dawson, a coach who gave up his seat on the plane to a colleague and then overcomes survivor¹³ guilt¹⁴ to help create the new team. David Strathairn plays Marshall University president Donald Dedmon. Many of the extras who fill the stands for the re-created football games are from Huntington families whose lives were touched by the 1970 tragedy.

1 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。

2 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。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

7 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

8 popcorn   

n.爆米花

参考例句：

• I like to eat popcorn when I am watching TV play at home.当我在家观看电视剧时，喜欢吃爆米花。
• He still stood behind his cash register stuffing his mouth with popcorn.他仍站在收银机后，嘴里塞满了爆米花。

9 portrayals   

n.画像( portrayal的名词复数 )；描述；描写；描摹

参考例句：

• And painters alluded to her eroticism in their bare breasted portrayals of the dying queen. 画家们把她描绘为裸胸垂死的贪欲的女王。 来自互联网

10 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

11 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

12 pervaded   

v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A retrospective influence pervaded the whole performance. 怀旧的影响弥漫了整个演出。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The air is pervaded by a smell [smoking]. 空气中弥散着一种气味[烟味]。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

14 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。