一切已成定局：美国西部时间2月22日下午5点，电影艺术与科学学院会员们已投出了最终的奥斯卡奖选票。这些选票决定了在2月27日的奥斯卡颁奖礼上，万众瞩目的《国王的演讲》能否加冕。不过，即使这部席卷大量提名的影片无有斩获也无关紧要。本片可以不需要这项好莱坞的最高嘉奖，它已经成为了一个传奇。2
Even now, the die is being cast. By 5pm today Pacific Time (1am tomorrow GMT), academicians will have lodged the last of their Oscar votes. On Sunday, these may or may not provide The King's Speech with the coronation so many expect. Yet even if, in spite of that avalanche of nominations, this doesn't happen, perhaps it won't matter all that much. This film can manage without Hollywood's ultimate accolade. It's built its own legend already.
本片不止获得了盛赞的影评、无数的奖项和惊人的票房收入。它让人们在街道上排队等待观影、在播放演职员表时起立鼓掌。本片是英国人热衷于拍摄的那种低成本历史剧，没有什么特效。因此其成功颠覆了许多传统看法。
It's not just the ecstatic reviews, the sackload of awards and the startling box office takings. This is a film that's had people queuing around the block to see it and standing up to applaud as the credits roll. Yet it's a low-budget costume piece of the kind the Brits have delivered so often before to no particular effect. Its triumph has therefore shattered much conventional wisdom.
普遍看法是，如今不再有观众在大银幕上观看小成本戏剧。老影迷已经灭绝。英国电影别指望赚大钱：本土市场不够广阔；需要资金雄厚的投资商，但无从觅得；公共资助不足，而且投资者不知如何挑选优胜者；同时即便有优秀影片诞生，它们也进不了本土影院，遑论出口海外了。2
We were told that these days, there's no longer a big-screen audience for small-scale drama. That older cinemagoers have become extinct. That Britflicks shouldn't expect to hit the jackpot: our home market's not large enough; deep-pocketed investors are needed but can't be found; there isn't enough public funding, and those who disburse what there is don't know how to pick winners; while even if the right films were to get made, they couldn't get into our own cinemas, let alone the rest of the world's.
现在英国人打开了眼界，但为了从此经验中受益，英国人还需要知道：为什么《国王的演讲》如此成功？
We've now learned different, but to benefit from this lesson, there's something we need to know. Just why has The King's Speech been such a success?
业内专家并不知道答案，因为他们并没有预料到本片的胜利。现在，他们会推崇Prescience公司和英国电影协会等投资方的远见、四象限受众选择法、针对评奖季的定位、Momentum公司和英国分销商的卓越营销，以及美国同行温斯坦兄弟机智的搭桥引线。不过他们也承认除此以外还有更多原因。
We've now learned different, but to benefit from this lesson, there's something we need to know. Just why has The King's Speech been such a success?
于是，和许多评论家（以及电影艺术与科学学院奖的提名者）一样，这些专家表示他们相信本片有杰出的表演、精致的剧本、优秀的美术指导以及动人的摄影、服装、剪辑、作曲和混音。然而，即使你相信所有这些好评都不算过誉，但从什么时候开始电影只要够出色就能被大众接受呢？我们现在不是在谈论一部经典电影（本片还不够老），我们讨论的是一部大卖电影。大卖电影往往要引发共鸣，而不仅仅是铺陈其优点。
So, like many of the critics (and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominators), they point to what they deem to be magnificent acting, a fine script, classy production design and, for that matter, impressive cinematography, costumes, editing, score and sound-mix. Yet, even if you're sure that all this esteem isn't at least a little excessive, since when was mere excellence enough to bring in the crowds? We're not talking about a classic (yet); we're discussing a hit. And those tend to strike a chord, not just parade merit.
《国王的演讲》导演汤姆·霍伯认为本片和《阿凡达》一样是在挖掘相同的跨文化理念。好吧，那到底是什么理念？
The film's director, Tom Hooper, has opined that The King's Speech appears to be mining the same cross-cultural myths as the likes of Avatar. OK, so what myths are we talking about?
一位美国分析师以《功夫梦》为范例，在本片中准确找到10个关键元素，证明本片就是披着一线大片外皮的B级片，和其他类似电影一样受他鄙视。对于小说家米歇尔·罗伯茨而言，本片就是关于性别的：“从艺术手法上讲，有缺陷的国王象征了所有普通人，当他重获话语权时，就能恢复所有力量。继而他可以领导人民去战斗。”
An American analyst has identified 10 key elements that locate the film firmly in the paradigm of The Karate Kid, thus revealing it to be a B-movie story decked out "in A-list rags", like other such exercises he disdains. For novelist Michèle Roberts, it's all about gender: "The damaged king, who by artistic sleight of hand is Everyman, can be restored to full potency when he gets his voice back. Then he can lead his people into war."
你被说服了吧？这就是麻烦所在：任何人都可以发表意见。如果你要用个人偏见来支持自己的理论，那么要如何证明你错了？询问影迷也没有多大作用，因为许多理论会臆断影迷们拥有一些潜意识反应，而且即便影迷认识到这种反应存在也可能不肯承认。不过，有一些常见的对电影的诠释好像非常合理。
Persuaded yet? That's the trouble with this game. Anyone can play. If you want to fuel your theory with your own prejudices, who's to prove you wrong? There's not even much point in asking cinemagoers, since many theories will assume subconscious responses which their owners might not own up to even if they were aware of them. Still, some frequently offered interpretations seem perfectly commonsensical.
也许这就是一个讲述克服逆境的简单故事，其情节严格遵守《热带惊雷》中深刻阐明的道理：主角要有缺陷，但不能完全是白痴。或者它就是普通的男性友情电影，捎带描绘一点阶级对立、奇迹还有“每个成功的男人背后都有一个伟大的女人”。这些主题都挺俗，本片似乎没像其他电影那样强调这些主题。
Perhaps it's a straightforward matter of triumph over adversity, with the tale adhering strictly to the rule so memorably spelt out in Tropic Thunder: "Never go full retard." Or it's a standard bromance, with a bit of class war table-turning and behind-every-successful-man-there's-a-strong-woman. All of these may be popular themes, but this film seems to deploy them less emphatically than plenty of others have done.
于是我们必须考虑故事背景，转变为更独特、更具时代精神的观念。在部分被本片激怒的左撇子人群眼中，萧条世道所诱发的怀旧情绪“使得深为复古的《国王的演讲》受到过度的赞誉”。一些人则将本片受赞赏归因于“唐顿庄园综合症”，即华美服饰对受资本主义压迫的受害者有着过度的吸引力。其实应该是皇家服饰本身（我们在观赏“电影版的皇室婚礼”）让这些观众更为敏感。而且本片本可以展示浮华得多的场面，或许其有限的预算支持拍摄出壮观得多的景象。1
Consideration must therefore turn to the more glamorous, zeitgeisty notions that have been tossed into the frame. Nostalgia generated by hard times "accounts for the excess of admiration heaped on the deeply retro The King's Speech", in the eyes of at least one of the lefties that the film has annoyed. Some such thinkers blame the "Downton Abbey syndrome", that is, the perverse attraction of the trappings of poshness for the downtrodden victims of capitalist excess. That these should actually be the accoutrements of royalty itself (we're watching "a sort of cinematic royal wedding") provokes even deeper alarm. Yet the film dwells on grandiose spectacle far less than it might have done, or perhaps than its limited budget would have allowed.
人们相信社会同一性将消亡，于是民族自豪感得到了重振。对影片的这样一种诠释让一部分人痛苦，又让另一部分人欢欣。梅尔文·布拉格说：“在该电影的最后几分钟里，和我周围许多人一样，我深深地感动了。我觉得我们或者因为失去曾经的拥有而悲痛，或者在希冀能有所保留。我们希望自己独一无二而且被独立看待，这是很正常的。”1
The revival of national pride as a reaction to the supposed dissolution of social identity is another explanation that also distresses some. Still, it much cheers others. Here's Melvyn Bragg: "It seemed to me in the final minutes of that film, when like many around me I was deeply moved, that we either mourn the loss of what we had or wish to retain a version of it. Not unusually we want to be unique and to be seen to be unique."
或许应该注意到，战时观众为出现在新闻短片里的乔治六世鼓掌，就好像当代英国人为《国王的演讲》鼓掌一样。不过，本片不止打动了英国人。它在海外赚到的票房是在本土的三倍。其中大部分来自美国，试图解释其原因的利基理论比比皆是。本片被认为“隐喻了奥巴马——又一位在艰难时期用话语感动人民，而被赞美、尊敬和崇拜的领导者”。1
It should perhaps be noted that wartime audiences applauded the real George VI's newsreel appearances just as our own applaud The King's Speech. Still, this film hasn't clicked only with the British. It's taken three times as much money overseas as it has here. Most of that's come from America, and niche theories as to why this should be so abound. The film's been considered "an allegory for the age of Barack Obama, another leader who has been celebrated, venerated, lionised for his ability, in challenging times, to move people with his words".
另一看法是，据说美国人很乐于看到区区殖民地百姓强硬对抗狂妄的英国佬（英国佬现在仍胆敢小看曾经附属国的臣民）。更重要的是，本片被认为是在颂扬来自新大陆的亲切随和、直白奔放的价值观和信仰，能治愈陈腐的欧洲人那呆板顽固的文化。 “本片讲述的不是治疗口吃，而是治疗思想，”一位专家表示， “友谊对于伯蒂而言是有待探索的未知领域。洛格使伯蒂变得完善。”一些年轻英国人出人意料地喜欢此片，他们可能也喜欢这个观点。他们可能从片中看到了对老一代人粗暴态度的反抗。
Alternatively, Americans have been said to rejoice at seeing a mere colonial socking it to the snotty Brits, who still dare to look down on their former imperial subjects. More fundamentally, the film's been seen as celebrating the new world's informal, touchy-feely values and faith in therapy at the expense of the stiff-upper-lip culture of the stuffy Europeans. "This is not about fixing a voice, but fixing a mind," notes one savant. "Friendship is a voyage into the unknown for Bertie. [Lionel] Logue is gluing him together." Some of the younger Brits who've been unexpectedly keen on the film may also have liked this angle. They may see it as a rejection of the oppressive attitudes of the older generation.
也许现在你有如下想法：《国王的演讲》显然结合了许许多多很有效的元素，一定就是这些元素单独的影响力累积起来，最后征服了观众。或者，你可能会总结认为该片有如此多吸引人之处，每个人总会为其中一处而着迷；所以本片爱好者是由多个完全不同的群体组成的。
Time, perhaps, to take a breath. Maybe by now you're thinking one of two things. The King's Speech clearly presses an impressive number of highly effective buttons. Surely it must be the cumulative effect of all these separate impacts that induces audiences to succumb. Or, you may be concluding that the film has so many attractive aspects that almost everybody will be beguiled by at least one of them; the throng of enthusiasts is therefore made up of entirely disparate sub-groups.
我们可以很容易地从这些分析中找到自己认可的一种，但也许每一种分析都有一点站不住脚。如果回顾那些伟大的电影，从《乱世佳人》到《ET》，或者从《音乐之声》到《大白鲨》，我们也很难认同它们只是各种成功元素的大杂烩。总的来看，热门电影不是知道很多事的狐狸，而是知道一件大事的刺猬。（此比喻源自古希腊诗人阿寄洛克思。）那么，既然说了这么多他人的意见，下面我也来试试解开本片成功的奥秘。
It's easy to adopt either of these analyses, but perhaps each is a bit of a cop-out. When you look back at cinema's great successes, from Gone with the Wind to ET, or The Sound of Music to Jaws, it's hard to believe that any of them can be put down to a mere ragbag of ingredients. On the whole, the big-screen hit turns out to be not a fox that knows many things, but a hedgehog that knows one big one. So, since everyone else seems to have had a go, here's my stab at the riddle inside the enigma.
本片的故事的确很有力而且讲得动听，但也并不特别。在我看来，是片中的政治内容将它提升到了现有高度。
This is indeed a robust and well-executed human story, but it's not an exceptional one. For my money, it's the political dimension that's taken it into the stratosphere.
本片塑造了一个领导人，而且其上映适逢欧美领导人令许多民众感到失望。民众已心知肚明不能指望那些领导人来解决问题，但还是希望他们至少尽其所能。然而相反的，从英国到阿拉伯，那些领导人证明了他们只为自己考虑。而伯蒂只想尽自己的职责。为了做到这一点，他愿意承受辛劳和侮辱。但他甚至不会去行使权力，因为他的命运是成为君主，但不是支配国家。
The film is about a leader, and it comes at a time when many of us feel that our leaders have let us down. We've learned that we can't expect them to solve our problems, but we'd at least like them to do their best. Yet from Westminster to the Arab world, they've been demonstrating that instead, they're in it for themselves. Bertie, on the other hand, wants only to do his duty. To achieve this, he's prepared to submit himself to both exertion and indignity. In return, he won't even get to exercise power, since he's destined to reign, not rule.
伦敦市长鲍里斯·约翰逊认为《国王的演讲》的成功，体现了对世袭制的广泛支持。从某种意义上说，他可能是正确的。英国人已经认识到，民主制需要候选的领导人作出虚假的承诺，当然，他们不可能兑现这些承诺。伯蒂没有必要承诺什么，因此也不需要抛弃他的诚信。
Boris Johnson sees the success of The King's Speech as demonstrating popular support for the hereditary principle. In one sense, he could be right. We've come to realise that democracy requires potential leaders to make us false promises; naturally they then fail to fulfil them. Bertie has no need to make promises, and thus no need to forgo his integrity.
伯蒂与我们所知的大部分领导人不同（他的对手希特勒是个典型），因为他不想要权力。人们和电影一样，更喜欢主人公有充分理由不情缘做主人公。人们常说，越贪心就越得不到。下议院议长根据仪式挪到他椅子上时不情不愿不是没有理由的。
He differs from most of the leaders we know of (archetypally Hitler, his antagonist) in that he doesn't want the job. People, like films, prefer reluctance in a hero with good reason. It's often been said that to want the top job should be enough to disqualify someone from actually getting it. Not for nothing is the speaker of the House of Commons ritually dragged unwillingly to his chair.
伯蒂的弱点使我们感到亲切，而不会有损他在隆重仪式上的魅力，当然如果上I'm a Celebrity这种电视节目时就不一样了。虽然他是贵族，但他没成为伯灵顿俱乐部的公子哥儿，他并不拥有一切天然优势。与那些公子不同，即使某事物不再吸引他，他也会坚持下去。当然他的兄弟就放弃了，就像我们也会遗憾地痴迷于个人的权利欲望。
Bertie's vulnerability shows him to be one of us without negating the pomp that lends him glamour, as might an appearance on I'm a Celebrity. Though he's blue-blooded, he's not one of our own Bullingdon toffs, already blessed with every advantage that life can bestow. And unlike them, he won't be walking away if the game ceases to appeal to him. His brother, of course, does just that, his behaviour foreshadowing our own unfortunate obsession with personal rights and cravings.
总之，我认为《国王的演讲》代替了现实生活中将令我们卖力鼓掌的演讲。当然这是一家之言。
In short, The King's Speech stands in for the real-life speech that we're all desperate to applaud. But what do I know?