晚上跑到附近Mall看了No Country for Old Men（《老无所依》）这部电影，出来已经是凌晨一点多，空荡荡的停车场，横七竖八地摆着几辆车子。我捏紧钥匙，匆匆上去，还不忘朝后座看一看，看杀手杀手有没有藏在后头，拎着那个氧气瓶… 这部电影的对白，尤其是老警长的部分，十分俗俚，听来似懂非懂，而杀手的话慢条斯理，却让人不寒而栗。这部电影有点像品特（Harold Pinter） 的胁迫剧（theater of menace）。品特的胁迫剧营造氛围的办法很简单，一个房间，两个人，一段对话，对话有时候甚至显得无厘头。其实仔细去听，却又是心理战一场，比如杀手在小店，让店主抛硬币的那场对白（来自wikiquotes）: 杀手: What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss? 店主: Sir? 杀手: The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss. 店主: I don't know. I couldn't say. 杀手: Call it. 店主: Call it? 杀手: Just call it. 店主: Well - we need to know what it is we're callin for here. 杀手: You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't even be right 店主: I didn't put nothin up. 杀手: Yes you did. You been putting it up your whole life. You just didn't know it. You know what date is on this coin? 店主: No. 杀手: Nineteen fifty-eight. It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it's here. And it's either heads or tails, and you have to say. Call it. 店主: Look... I got to know what I stand to win. 杀手: Everything. 店主: How's that? 杀手: You stand to win everything. Call it. 店主: All right. Heads then. 杀手: Well done. Don't put it in your pocket. 店主: Sir? 杀手: Don't put it in your pocket. It's your lucky quarter. 店主: Where you want me to put it? 杀手: Anywhere not in your pocket. Or it'll get mixed in with the others and become just a coin. Which it is. 这个杀手很有怪癖。他让店主玩一个游戏，店主甚至无法去质疑他为什么要去玩这个游戏，甚至无法选择自己和谁玩，怎么玩，下什么赌注，这就是这个杀手恐怖的地方。他就如同一只抓住了老鼠之后忽擒忽纵的猫。再比如下头这一段：女房东: Yessir? 杀手: I'm looking for Llewelyn Moss. 女房东: Did you go up to his trailer? 杀手: Yes I did. 女房东: Well I'd say he's at work. Do you want to leave a message? 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: I can't say. 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: Sir, I ain't at liberty to give out no information about our residents. 杀手: Where does he work? 女房东: Did you not hear me? We can't give out no information. 杀手不管里头的女子怎么说，都充耳不闻，只是一个劲地问：Where does he work? 不管对方怎么说，不达目的不罢休。重复三遍，其实言外之意已经很清楚：我不管你说什么，你是在玩我的游戏。电影Z （Costa-Gavras， 1969）里也曾有过一些似曾相识的场面。在一个个高官被绳之以法的时候，他们一个个摆出千姿百态的骄横，而将他们拉下马的审判者始终只是一句话：姓名，年龄。就这么一句话，把他们一个个全部放倒。因为这样一句话，背后是一句更猛的话：现在不是我听你说，是你听我说了。就是这话外之话，突破了一道道心理防线。电影的语言其实不应该至于达意，而还有传情（emotive）的功能，甚至能成为一种戏剧行动。这个片子里的杀手，就如同警长所言的那样，甚至有自己的原则。比如他的原则之一是有时候靠抛硬币来决定对方生死，输了他决不食言，虽然这会把对方吓个半死。片子前面的店主就这么活下来了。后来的牛仔老婆就挑战了他这个规则，说决定生死的不是硬币，而是他自己，可这也无济于事。用抛硬币来决定生死，杀手说这是一种公平，你不玩就不公平： “You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't even be right.”这种游戏当然是个反讽，因为双方根本就不是平等参与，势均力敌，说到底还是一种滥杀，就如同《冰雪暴》里因为碍事杀掉停车场管理员里的那个杀手一样。一些无辜者之所以被杀，就是因为倒霉，在不恰当的时候出现在不该出现的地方，碍了一个杀手的手脚。这种几乎一边倒的游戏，如何能造成一部戏的张力呢？冲突又从何而来呢？这戏剧冲突的另一方，其实是一群人在一起，牛仔、牛仔的一家、警长、副警长、商人、Wendell, 都想挡住这个杀手，但是我们却看看所有人都没有斗过这个家伙。说这部戏是一部胁迫戏，就是因为从头到尾，总感觉到那种威胁和恐惧的存在，特别是在收缩的空间里，比如在关起门来的室内，洗手间…另外这种恐惧感来自于表里的矛盾。片中的凶器，居然是一只平素只有老弱病残去用的氧气瓶，这和杀手表面的冷静、斯文倒是很合拍，这道具的致命，却又和斯文下的冷血一致。《冰血暴》中的大肚子女警长最终战胜了杀人狂，而这个片子里，却以杀手在一次车祸后逃走，警长无奈中退休，絮絮叨叨地说起怀旧的梦境来。这是一个很开放的结局，把观众扔到了无边的未知和无奈之中。我觉得这个片子并没有《冰血暴》好看，不过在制造气氛上，一点不输《冰血暴》。