【导航信标#142】向前传之路挑战

August

（Braving the Prequel Path）

Risks in telling the downward spiral of Vader and the Republic
冒险讲述维达与共和国的浮沉

With the successful release of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, filmmaker George Lucas says that he hopes this extensive backstory of Anakin Skywalker's transformation to the iconic figure of Darth Vader will influence fans' future viewings of the original trilogy.
随着《星战3：西斯的复仇》的成功上映，电影制作人乔治·卢卡斯说，他希望这个新延展出来的阿纳金·天行者向达斯·维达转变的背景故事，能够影响影迷们未来对原三部曲的看法。

"When I finished with Return of the Jedi I thought that was the end of it," Lucas confesses. "I thought I was going to go and raise my kids, then I'll come back and direct little artsy movies that I always wanted to do. So by the time my kids were old enough where I could go back and direct, I realized that I could tell the story the way I wanted to. And I thought it might be interesting to tell a story that changes and influences the way the first three films are viewed because it really is about Darth Vader, and not about Luke and Leia. And that would be more apparent when you see what the backstory really was."
“当我完成《绝地归来》的时候，我想这就是结局了。”卢卡斯坦承，“我想我要去抚养我的孩子，然后我会回来执导一些我一直都想拍的小成本艺术电影。于是等我的孩子们大到足够可以让我回来重新开始导演工作的时候，我意识到，我可以用我想要的方式去讲述这个故事。而且如果我讲述的这个故事会改变并影响人们观看第一个三部曲的方式，那我想这也许会很有趣，因为事实上这是一个关于达斯·维达的故事，而不是关于卢克和莱娅的。而当你看到背景故事的真实面貌以后，这情况会变得更加明显。”

However, in telling the backstory the way he felt was best, Lucas had to take what he regards as risks with the prequels.
但无论如何，用他自己觉得最好的方式来讲述这个背景故事，卢卡斯知道拍摄前传就必须承担风险。

"The first trilogy -- Book One -- is about the father, while the second trilogy -- Book Two -- is about the children," Lucas says. "When you combine them together they become one big piece. When I told people that Episode I was about a ten-year-old boy, people panicked, and they said it wasn't going to work because everyone wanted to see Darth Vader going around and killing people. But I really wanted to be thorough about telling the story about where Darth Vader came from. When I did the second film, people were mortified that it was going to be a love story. But we got through both of those films, and people were excited for Episode III to see the rest of the story."
“第一个三部曲——第一卷——是关于父亲的，而第二个三部曲——第二卷——是关于孩子们的。”卢卡斯说，“当你把他们合二为一时，他们就变成了一个长篇。当我告诉人们前传I的主角是一个10岁小男孩的时候，人们惊慌失措，他们说这不会成功，因为每个人想看的都是达斯·维达到处杀人。不过我真的想从达斯·维达的出身开始彻底地讲述这个故事。当我拍摄第二集时，人们又苦恼于这将是一个爱情故事。不过这两部电影我们都完成了，而人们兴奋地期待EP3，想了解故事剩余的部分。”

One of the larger issues that surfaced in the telling of Anakin's fall to the dark side and his rise to becoming a corrupt figure was that of the fall of democracy at the hands of the very people who initially fought oppression.
在讲述阿纳金堕入黑暗面以及他崛起为一个腐败形象的过程中浮现出的较大问题之一就在于，毁灭民主政治的，恰恰就是那些最初反抗压迫的人。

"You have the personal issue of Anakin and his turn to the dark side, but then the children later bring him back to being a human being," Lucas says. "But the larger issue is that you've given up your democracy, and that the bad guys never took it -- it was handed to them. That theme was there 30 years ago which came out of the Vietnam War and Nixon wanting to change the rules so he could get a third term."
“你对阿纳金以及他向黑暗面的堕落有着个人见解，但后来孩子们让他重新回复了人性，”卢卡斯说，“不过更大的问题是你放弃了你的民主主义，而坏人从来不曾夺取过它——是人民拱手奉送的。这个主题在30年前就存在了，当时越南战争刚结束，而尼克松想要修改法律以使自己能获得第三任任期。”

"I'm a big history buff and I was really into Caesar at the time," Lucas recalls. "I always wanted to know why the Roman Senate gave Caesar's nephew a dictatorship after they had gotten rid of Caesar. Why after the revolution in France did they create an Emperor? Why did the Germans after they had a Democracy after World War I, turn it into a dictatorship? Those were my initial questions 30 years ago."
“我是个超级历史爱好者，那个时候我真的对恺撒非常着迷，”卢卡斯回忆说，“我总是想知道，为什么罗马参议院在摆脱了恺撒以后，却给了恺撒的侄子专政的权力。为什么法国人在革命后却创造出了一个皇帝？为什么德国人在一战结束建立民主制度后，却将这个制度转变成了一个专制制度？这些就是我在30年前最初的疑问。”

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感谢Pusher的校对