2006年VOA标准英语-Father, Son Filmmaking Team Tell Story of Young

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
23 August 2006

An upcoming film called the Gridiron Gang takes viewers behind the walls of a juvenile¹ prison to highlight the role of sports in providing direction for troubled youth. The movie was based on a documentary by a father and son team, Lee and Shane Stanley, who spoke² with VOA's Mike O'Sullivan about their efforts to get the story onto the Hollywood big screen.

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Dwayne Johnson   
  
Starring Dwayne Johnson, the actor known as The Rock, and the actor and rap star Xzibit, Gridiron Gang tells the story of teenaged boys in a detention³ center, and a counselor⁴ who thinks football can turn their lives around.

Johnson: "According to the teaching staff, the inmates⁵ here have trouble responding to authority, being a member of a team, and accepting criticism. One activity can improve them in all these areas. "

Supervisor⁶: "So you want to start a football team?"

Johnson: "Exactly."

Supervisor: "Your neck is way, way out on this."

Lee (r) and Shane Stanley    
  
Lee Stanley, who co-produced the new movie about the football team, says most of the inmates are gang members who are inspired by the counselor.

"And he believed that giving them a common goal, teaching them something to commit to and to fight for together, rather than opposed to each other, it would diminish the gang ties, dissolve the gang ties, and cause them to have a common goal called 'we're a team,'" said Lee Stanley

The feature film is based on a documentary that Lee Stanley and his wife Linda made in 1993. They told the story of Camp Kilpatrick, a juvenile facility near Los Angeles.

Lee Stanley's son, Shane, co-produced and helped direct the original documentary, and was an executive producer on the feature film. He says both recount the football team's miracle first season, when the once-violent gang members came within reach of the championship of a collegiate sports league.

"As you see in the documentary, as you see in the motion picture, they had three weeks to form a team with these killers⁷, and most of them had never even thrown a football," said Shane. "Most had never exercised or done drills. Their only exercise was running their own in the hood⁸ [inner-city neighborhood] and running from police. And these kids went on to play for the state championship that year."

Johnson: "Everybody listen up. The gridiron is a football field. On the gridiron, we do it my way. Not your way. Your way got you here. Whatever gang you claim, whatever hood you're from, this is your hood now."

The original documentary won an Emmy Award for Lee Stanley, and virtually every Hollywood studio wanted to turn the story into a feature film. The Stanleys hoped to keep it authentic⁹, and finally decided¹⁰ to work with Sony Pictures, under one condition.

"One of the things that Shane and I felt very strongly about was the film had to be shot at the actual prison, for two reasons," said Lee Stanley. "Number one, we didn't want Hollywood's version of a juvenile prison and number two, we wanted the ambience, if I can use that word, of our crew knowing that they and our actors were actually working in a working prison. Those kids over there in those uniforms are prisoners."

Then came another challenge, getting permission to film at the detention camp from the county probation¹¹ office, which runs the facility. Lee Stanley met with probation chief Paul Higa, who listened for 10 minutes.

"[He] didn't say a thing, which only made me nervous," he said. "And then he looked at me and he said, 'I have one question. How will the kids benefit?'"

The filmmakers promised to work with the inmates, teaching a film class to explain the production process. The Stanleys, director Phil Joanou, the stars, cast and crewmembers gave the youthful inmates an inside view of the movie business.

There were many potential pitfalls¹². Cast and crewmembers were asked not to wear gang colors - reds, for example - or the logos of sports teams, which are often used to identify gang affiliation¹³.

The studio was worried about legal liability if there was violence. A crew member might misplace a tool that could be used as a weapon. But a studio executive backed up the producers and the filming continued. The filmmakers say not a single incident marred¹⁴ the production process during six hard weeks of filming.

Lee and Shane Stanley say Gridiron Gang is intended to entertain, but like their documentary, the feature also has a purpose - making audiences aware of juvenile crime, and how adults, especially parents, can give youngsters direction.

"The problem with juvenile crime is not getting solved in this country," said Lee Stanley. "And of course juvenile crime turns into adult crime. And what I'm hoping is that people will realize, number one, that there is a kid inside these kids, these criminals. But secondly¹⁵, it begins in the home. If a kid is not parented properly, there's a lot of guys on the street that'll bring them up, and teach them how to kill, how to stab, how to rob, how to deal [drugs], whatever they need."

All of the Stanley's projects have inspirational themes. An upcoming film called Ironmen is the true story of the father-son triathletes Dick and Ricky Hoyt. Son Ricky is disabled but the father and son work together as a team in grueling contests involving swimming, biking and running. Upcoming films also include the story of NASCAR auto¹⁶ racer Kelly Sutton, who has multiple sclerosis, and the story of a young man who is living with Down syndrome¹⁷.

1 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

5 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

7 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

8 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

9 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

10 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。

11 probation   

n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期)

参考例句：

• The judge did not jail the young man,but put him on probation for a year.法官没有把那个年轻人关进监狱，而且将他缓刑察看一年。
• His salary was raised by 800 yuan after his probation.试用期满以后，他的工资增加了800元。

12 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

13 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。

14 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

15 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

16 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

17 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。