美国国家公共电台 NPR Hollywood Shoots The Moon: 117 Years Of Lunar Landings At The Movies

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Fifty years ago this week, NASA sent a man to the moon. Critic Bob Mondello reminds us that Hollywood got there first.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE¹: College sophomore² me knew exactly what the Apollo astronauts would find when they arrived on the moon - desolate³ rockscape, craters⁴ shining white in reflected Earth glow and a big, black monolith.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY⁵")

MONDELLO: Stanley Kubrick showed us all of that in the most popular movie of 1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey," a full 14 months before Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind. And even Kubrick was late to the party. Moviegoers had been heading moonward from pretty much the moment there were filmmakers to lead the way. In 1902, George Melies led an expedition in the 13-minute "Trip To The Moon," one of the first films with an actual plot. It was not long on science. French astronauts climbed into a bullet-shaped capsule, got loaded into a cannon⁶ by a line of bathing beauties and got shot into space landing smack⁷ in the eye of the man in the moon.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A TRIP TO THE MOON")

MONDELLO: But it didn't take long for moviemakers to start getting things right. As early as 1929, Fritz Lang, after consulting with scientists, was depicting⁸ not a moon cannon, but what would actually be needed, a multi-stage rocket in his film "Frau Im Mond." German scientists were so pleased that in World War II they painted the film's logo on their first V-2 rocket. And then H.G. Wells got into the act with his script for "Things To Come."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THINGS TO COME")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Why did you let your daughter dream of going on this man moon journey?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Because I love her.

MONDELLO: Note that it's a woman going into space in 1936. The real world wouldn't catch up with that notion for decades.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THINGS TO COME")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Will they come back?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yes, and go again and again till the landing is made and the moon is conquered. This is only a beginning.

MONDELLO: Indeed, it was. And it was quickly clear that it was the beginning of something expensive. Happily, with a little prodding¹¹, postwar industrialists¹² could be persuaded to finance it in 1950's "Destination Moon."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESTINATION MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Can you imagine me going before a meeting to my stockholders and reporting that I'd put millions into a trip to the moon? Why, son, they'd lynch me.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) If we want to stay in business, we have to build this ship.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) If it's that important a project, why doesn't the government undertake it?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) The vast amount of brains, talents, special skills and research facilities necessary for this project are not in the government.

MONDELLO: Ouch.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESTINATION MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Only American industry can do this job. And American industry must get to work now, just as we did in the last war.

MONDELLO: This was the McCarthy era, and capitalism¹³ was the answer to a Red Scare question no one needed to ask.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESTINATION MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) The race is on, and we'd better win it. Because there is absolutely no way to stop an attack from outer space. The first country that can use the moon for the launching of missiles will control the Earth. That gentleman is the most important military fact of this century.

MONDELLO: Quite a few of the film's other facts were also fanciful, but "Destination Moon" had its feet planted a lot more firmly on the ground than most of that era's science fiction epics¹⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) How does it feel, gentlemen, to behold¹⁵ a sight no human eyes have ever seen before?

MONDELLO: Audiences didn't actually get an answer to that question in Jules Verne's "From The Earth To The Moon" because the studio ran out of money before they could film the lunar scenes. But with the Soviets¹⁶ launching Sputnik in the 1950s, audiences were certainly thinking about what might be up there. And Hollywood was giving them everything from Bugs¹⁷ Bunny...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAREDEVIL HARE")

MEL BLANC: (As Bugs Bunny) I'm alone on the moon.

MONDELLO: ...To an immortal¹⁸ classic about...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As narrator) A lost moon city of alluring¹⁹, ferocious²⁰ cat-women.

MONDELLO: "Cat-Women Of The Moon."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As narrator) Theirs is the fevered fury of life without love, goading²¹ them to lure²² men into the den¹⁰ of bloodthirsty moon monsters.

MONDELLO: This sort of silliness is what prompted Stanley Kubrick to say a decade later that he wanted to make the first science fiction film that isn't considered trash. He went to great lengths in "2001: A Space Odyssey" to explain the physics of space travel. And because his film was so popular, the public knew what to expect...

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "MOONWALK ONE")

NEIL ARMSTRONG: OK. I'm going to step off the LM now.

MONDELLO: ...When NASA got to the moon's surface.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "MOONWALK ONE")

ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

MONDELLO: That footage is in "Moonwalk One," a documentary completed just months after the lunar landing, and when it premiered at the Cannes Film Fest in 1971, it was pretty clear that Hollywood had been outflanked. Hard to top the real thing, especially when the whole world had seen it on TV. Before we'd landed on the moon, movies speculated about what we'd find. Now that we knew what we'd find, movies made jokes. In "Diamonds Are Forever," Sean Connery's 007...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: (As character) There he is. Come on.

MONDELLO: ...Stumbled on a facility in the desert that was faking a moonwalk.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #10: (As character) What the hell is this? Stop him, Harry²³.

MONDELLO: Bond had no trouble evading²⁴ actor astronauts, who were bouncing in slow motion around a studio moonscape. Kid flicks²⁶, like "Space Camp" and "Stowaway²⁷ To The Moon," traded on children's enthusiasm for NASA, and a couple of animated²⁸ cheese fans, Wallace and Gromit, decided²⁹ in "A Grand Day Out" they wanted a taste of the landscape.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A GRAND DAY OUT")

PETER SALLIS: (As Wallace) Mmm. I don't know, lad. It's like no cheese I've ever tasted.

MONDELLO: But these were all goofs³⁰. It wasn't until more than 20 years - a full generation had gone by - that filmmakers began to deal realistically again with moon missions, never more effectively than in an award-winning thriller³¹ about the real-life mission that had given the world a new catchphrase.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "APOLLO 13")

TOM HANKS: (As Jim Lovell) Houston, we have a problem.

MONDELLO: The film "Apollo 13" came out in 1995 and was hugely popular. But by that time, the last moonwalk was decades old and there was no new material for other true-life films to play with. Besides, realism about the moon with fictional³² stories taking audiences to galaxies³³ far, far away? No. What Hollywood served up was fantasy.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME")

MIKE MYERS: (As Austin Powers) Mission control, the swinger has landed. Yeah.

MONDELLO: Austin Powers, and despicable Gru and his minions³⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DESPICABLE ME")

STEVE CARELL: (As Gru) The plan is simple. I fly to the moon. I shrink the moon. I sit on the toilet with - what?

(LAUGHTER)

MONDELLO: And the moon as bad-guy playground became a thing in movies as varied³⁵ as "Transformers III," the horror flick²⁵ "Apollo 18" - there were 17 Apollo missions - and an evil corporation thriller, simply titled, "Moon." And someone thought it was worth spending a hundred-million dollars to make this little epic⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE TRAILER, "THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO³⁶ NASH")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As narrator) There is a giant rock called the moon...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As narrator) And in the year 2087, its future will be in the hands of one man.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

EDDIE MURPHY: (As Pluto Nash, laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF C AND C MUSIC FACTORY SONG, "GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT (EVERYBODY DANCE NOW)")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As narrator) Eddie Murphy is...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #12: (As character) Pluto Nash?

MONDELLO: For the money they invested in "The Adventures Of Pluto Nash," they could nearly have sent Eddie Murphy into space. Might have been smarter, since almost no one saw the movie. By then though, a pattern had developed. Just as it had taken a full generation before Hollywood recreated a real lunar mission in "Apollo 13," it took another generation before the film industry came around again. This one was called "First Man," and last year, in tracing Neil Armstrong's path to that giant leap, particularly in the Gemini missions that preceded Apollo, it found plenty of drama.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FIRST MAN")

RYAN GOSLING: (As Neil Armstrong) Meter 200 and rising.

MONDELLO: Ryan Gosling's Neil Armstrong confronting a capsule that was pinwheeling in space...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FIRST MAN")

GOSLING: (As Neil Armstrong, breathing heavily).

MONDELLO: ...Claire Foy, as Armstrong's wife, confronting NASA officials who'd cut off public access to communications.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FIRST MAN")

KYLE CHANDLER: (As Deke) Jan, the ship is stable. They're going to be all right.

CLAIRE FOY: (As Jan Armstrong) Fine. Turn the box back on.

CHANDLER: (As Deke) On their security protocol³⁷...

FOY: (As Jan Armstrong) Well, I don't give a damn. I've got a dozen cameras on my front lawn, Deke. Do you want me telling them what's going on?

CHANDLER: (As Deke) Jan, you have to trust us. We've got this under control.

FOY: (As Jan Armstrong) No, you don't. All these protocols³⁸ and procedures to make it seem like you have it under control - but you're a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood. You don't have anything under control.

MONDELLO: And that summed up, better than the film's thundering Saturn³⁹ rockets and state-of-the-art of the art effects, what all of these movies had been about, humankind looking up at the moon with childlike wonder and dreaming of traveling there. Now we could, which was filled with possibility and risk, and in Hollywood's telling, vivid cinematic thrills. But the real drama of going to the moon was and remains⁴⁰ the human drama.

I'm Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLY ME TO THE MOON")

FRANK SINATRA: (Singing) Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars.

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 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

3 desolate   

adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂

参考例句：

• The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
• We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后，我们都觉得万分孤寂。

4 craters   

n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• Small meteorites have left impact craters all over the planet's surface. 这个行星的表面布满了小块陨石留下的撞击坑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The battlefield was full of craters made by exploding shells. 战场上布满弹坑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

6 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

7 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

8 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

9 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

10 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

11 prodding   

v.刺，戳( prod的现在分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳

参考例句：

• He needed no prodding. 他不用督促。
• The boy is prodding the animal with a needle. 那男孩正用一根针刺那动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 industrialists   

n.工业家，实业家( industrialist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This deal will offer major benefits to industrialists and investors. 这笔交易将会让实业家和投资者受益匪浅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has set up a committee of industrialists and academics to advise it. 政府已成立了一个实业家和学者的委员会来为其提供建议。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

14 epics   

n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 )；壮举；惊人之举；史诗般的电影（或书籍）

参考例句：

• one of the great Hindu epics 伟大的印度教史诗之一
• Homer Iliad and Milton's Paradise Lost are epics. 荷马的《伊利亚特》和弥尔顿的《失乐园》是史诗。 来自互联网

15 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

16 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

17 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

19 alluring   

adj.吸引人的，迷人的

参考例句：

• The life in a big city is alluring for the young people. 大都市的生活对年轻人颇具诱惑力。
• Lisette's large red mouth broke into a most alluring smile. 莉莎特的鲜红的大嘴露出了一副极为诱人的微笑。

20 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

21 goading   

v.刺激( goad的现在分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人

参考例句：

• Charles was always goading me. 查尔斯总是招惹我。 来自辞典例句
• He kept goading me to fight. 他不断煽动我去打架。 来自辞典例句

22 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

23 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

24 evading   

逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出

参考例句：

• Segmentation of a project is one means of evading NEPA. 把某一工程进行分割，是回避《国家环境政策法》的一种手段。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Too many companies, she says, are evading the issue. 她说太多公司都在回避这个问题。

25 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

26 flicks   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的第三人称单数 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• 'I shall see it on the flicks, I suppose.' “电影上总归看得见。” 来自英汉文学
• Last night to the flicks. 昨晚看了场电影。 来自英汉文学

27 stowaway   

n.（藏于轮船，飞机中的）偷乘者

参考例句：

• The stowaway masqueraded as a crew member.偷渡者假扮成乘务员。
• The crew discovered the stowaway about two days into their voyage.船员在开船约两天后发现了那名偷乘者。

28 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

29 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。

30 goofs   

n.呆瓜( goof的名词复数 )v.弄糟( goof的第三人称单数 )；混；打发时间；出大错

参考例句：

• Red always goofs off, or thinks of a smart crack instead of working. 雷德不好好干，总是吊儿郎当，要不就想出些俏皮话来挖苦人。 来自辞典例句
• Other than the above ideas, I have also considered making movie goofs. 除了自创的桥段外，还可以玩电影恶搞。 来自互联网

31 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

32 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

33 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

34 minions   

n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者

参考例句：

• She delegated the job to one of her minions. 她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。 来自辞典例句
• I have been a slave to the vicious-those whom I served were his minions. 我当过那帮坏人的奴隶，我伺候的都是他的爪牙。 来自辞典例句

35 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

36 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

37 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。

38 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

39 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

40 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。