VOA标准英语2010年-Jonah Hex: Comic Book Gunslinger Comes

"Jonah Hex." "Are these the boys you wanted?" "You surely have done us quite a favor." "A transaction is all it was. I'll collect my hundred dollar bounty¹ on them and be on my way."
From "Superman" and "Spider Man" to "Josie and the Pussycats," Hollywood has a long history of drawing film ideas from the pages of comic books. The latest is a scar-faced gunslinger from the wild West starring Oscar-nominee Josh Brolin and action movie siren Megan Fox.

"Jonah Hex" is a tortured soul. A veteran of the Civil War between the states, he's seen more than his share of killing²; but it is also something he does really well and that skill is in demand on the lawless frontier of the late 1800's.

Josh Brolin in Warner Bros. Pictures' Jonah Hex

One side of his face is hideously³ scarred - the result of a run-in with a Civil War veteran from the other side, the truly bad Quentin Turnbull. When Hex gets offered the chance to clear his own name by stopping Turnbull from using terror to launch a new civil war, it is an offer the bounty hunter can not turn down.

Josh Brolin, a co-star of the 2007 Academy Award winner "No Country For Old Men" and Oscar-nominated for his role in the 2008 drama "Milk," plays the title character in "Jonah Hex." Brolin says it took three hours in the make-up chair every day to give the character his disfigured look. "To be honest with you, I think that it lent to the kind of curmudgeon-like feel of the character itself," he says.

Like the comic book on which it is based, "Jonah Hex" explodes with violent outbursts; but Brolin says it is appropriate to the story and the genre⁴. "This movie, when you watch it …at least when I do …you expect it to be gratuitous⁵ and it is not. I think that is much more interesting," he says.

Also confounding expectations is the character of Lilah, a frontier prostitute who is the only person Hex feels he can really trust.

 Megan Fox in Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Jonah Hex

Megan Fox, who plays Lilah, says, "Josh and I had a conversation about what their past relationship could have been and why she would be so dedicated⁶ and so in love with someone who treated her the way that he did and was not able to love. We came up with a back story between the two of us about what things had gone on in the past and why she was so dedicated to him, so loyal and hurt for him so badly."

She admits to having trouble with some of the big guns her character has to wield⁷.  It was really difficult for me to shoot the old-style 'gunslinger' guns because I have tiny little baby hands and (the guns) are really large and heavy, so just the physicality of actually having to pull that off was really difficult. This was more action-heavy for me …the action in this movie was more intricate than in previous movies that I've done," she says.

Fox, now 24, became a pop culture phenomenon after co-starring in the first two "Transformer" action films and says she is at home in genre. "I like working on action films and I like working on movies that are comic book based or have sort of this theme because there are things that I watched or loved when I was a kid," she says.

"Jonah Hex" made its comic book debut⁸ in the 1970's and has gone through several incarnations: a history that Brolin says allowed the film to be a bit more innovative⁹ and risky¹⁰. "(It comes) from a comic book that has had three lives and wasn't necessarily successful, but I love the idea that it refused to die. So it was a 'survivalist' comic book, but it allowed us to take luxuries and do what we wanted to do as long as we had the blessing¹¹ of the comic book artists. The core of the comic book character is there, but we kind of go off on all these different tangents," he says.

Fox says she wants the comic book 'fanboys' to like the film, but adds that, to be successful, it has to reach beyond that small but loyal fan base. "I feel like it's impossible to please the hardcore comic book fans because they'll never be happy no matter what you do. You can't focus completely on pleasing them because you'll never win and then you're excluding a whole other world of people who weren't aware of the comic in the first place. So I think you have to take some liberties to make it into a live-action film or it wouldn't work," she says.

"Jonah Hex" co-stars John Malkovich as the villain¹², Turnbull. The cast also features Michael Shannon, Michael Fassbender and Will Arnett. After achieving success as an animator, Canadian-born Jimmy Hayward makes his live-action directing debut with "Jonah Hex."

 

1 bounty   

n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与

参考例句：

• He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
• We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。

2 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。

3 hideously   

adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地

参考例句：

• The witch was hideously ugly. 那个女巫丑得吓人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pitt's smile returned, and it was hideously diabolic. 皮特的脸上重新浮现出笑容，但却狰狞可怕。 来自辞典例句

4 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。

5 gratuitous   

adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的

参考例句：

• His criticism is quite gratuitous.他的批评完全没有根据。
• There's too much crime and gratuitous violence on TV.电视里充斥着犯罪和无端的暴力。

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 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。

8 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

9 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

10 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

11 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

12 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。