CARS AND CHOREOGRAPHY飆車狂舞
Baby Driver is a serious action movie that’s also a musical. By KEVIN MA
《寶貝神車手》是一齣貨真價實的動作片，但同時也是音樂片。撰文：馬樂民
Like Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright has spent his career paying homage to cinematic conventions, copying common narratives and directorial styles easily recognisable by audiences (slow-motion shooting with a gun in each hand? So John Woo). It’s not that Wright lacks originality; he’s just a voracious consumer of pop culture, and this passion comes through in every film he makes.
Hot Fuzz, the second part of his socalled Cornetto trilogy ( The World’s End and Shaun of the Dead being the other two films), is a perfect example. Aping films like The Wicker Man and the styles of action directors Michael Bay and Hong Kong’s John Woo, Hot Fuzz is a bombastic, over-the-top buddy cop film that honours modern action cinema. Unlike spoofs such as Hot Shots! or Scary Movie, Hot Fuzz lovingly embraces the genre’s most absurd clichés, and it’s funny because it pretends to take itself so seriously.
Baby Driver, Wright’s sixth film, is a different being altogether. Named after the Simon & Garfunkel song, the action thriller tells the story of a getaway driver (Ansel Elgort, main image) who must constantly have music in his ears to drown out ringing noises caused by tinnitus. There are traces of The Driver, Vanishing Point, Bullitt and The Italian Job in the film ( Wright even curated a programme of his favourite car films at the British Film Institute earlier this year), but Wright’s primary influence here is music.
Wright designed Baby Driver like a 110-minute music video, writing and editing to a very specific set of songs. Every movement in the action sequences, from the opening of car doors to gunfire, synchronises perfectly with the beat of the music and the length of the songs; and they are even timed to take place during specific song lyrics. If that seems complicated to film, it was, as one of its stars Jon Hamm has attested. As someone who needs the perfect music in my earphones for every moment of the day, I spent most of Baby Driver with a grin on my face.
The musical dimension has resulted in Wright’s most innovative film yet.
As an exhilarating mix of the action and musical genres – imagine dancers replaced with gun-toting thieves and fast cars – Baby Driver isn’t just a homage but a breathtaking update of traditional film techniques. It’s not a game changer like Man with a Movie Camera or Citizen Kane, but savvy action fans will recognise Baby Driver as the most original action film of the year. Be sure to watch it loud.
跟Quentin Tarantino一樣， Edgar Wright 執導的作品充斥電向影傳致的統 敬 場面、熟口熟面的故事橋段與某些導演的特色風格，讓觀眾一眼就認得出來（主雙角 手各持一槍開火的慢動作鏡頭，非常吳宇森）。這並非由於他缺乏原創的，能力 而是因為他實在太熱愛流行文化，所以他拍的每一部電影都迸發出這熱股。情
他的Cornetto（一種甜筒雪糕）三部曲的第二部《爆辣刑警》（另外兩部是《The World’sEnd》與《Shaun of the Dead》）就是個非常好的例子。本片同時模仿電影如《The Wicker Man》以及動作片導演Michael Bay 與香港的吳宇森的，風格 是一部誇張得過了頭的雙出警 更電影，向現代的動作片致意。不過，跟其他以滑稽戲仿來調侃類型電的影 作品如《反斗神鷹》或《搞乜鬼奪命雜作》不同，爆《 辣刑警》巧妙地擁抱類型中最荒謬的陳腔濫，調令 人捧腹之處就於從在 它 頭到尾都煞有介事地一本正經。
《寶貝神車手》是 Wright 的第六部電影，跟以往的作品可說截然不同。英文片名《Baby Driver》來自 Simon & Garfunkel的一首歌，是如假換的動作片；故事講述專門駕駛賊車的車手（ Ansel Elgort 飾，主圖）由於患上耳鳴，整天都會戴著耳機聽音樂，藉掩此 蓋耳內的鳴聲。片中可以見到《膽大生、毛》《Vanishing Point》《渾身是膽》、與《奇謀妙計劫金磚》等影片蹤的 影（ Wright今年較早時更為英國電影學院策劃了一個電影節目，主題就是最他 喜歡的汽車電影） ，不過 Wright 在本片主要是受音樂的。影響
Wright將《寶貝神車手》設計成有如110分鐘長的音樂錄像，劇本與剪接都是按照一組特定的歌曲來做。在所有動作場面裡，從開車門到槍戰，每一個動作都與歌曲的節拍配合得天衣無縫。聽來是否有點複雜？本片其中一位演員Jon Hamm承認確是如此。即使仍是在寫劇本的階段， Wright已經按歌曲的長度來決每定 場戲的時間，並且在歌詞特定的部分加入動作。我是個整天無論何時都會用耳機聆聽音樂的，人 因此看《寶貝神車手》時大部分時間都在會心微笑。善用音樂令片為本 成 Wright 至今最具創意的作品。本片情盡 地將動作片與歌舞片這兩個類型混合在一起，只要想像一下片中經常開槍的大賊與橫衝直撞的汽車換成一群舞蹈藝員，就會發現《寶貝神車手》絕不只是一部致，敬作 而是將傳統電影技巧更的新 現代作品。雖然本未片於至 如《帶攝影機的人》或《大國民》那樣，劃屬於 時代電，影 然而見多識廣的動作片迷一定會同意《寶貝神車手》是本年度最具原創性的動作片。扭記得 大聲量觀看。