两部电影诊查战争伤痛

Two New Films Examine Trauma¹ of War

两部电影诊查战争伤痛

 

War, it has often been said, is hell. Less often noted² are the ways that hell can continue for soldiers and civilians³ long after the guns of war have been silenced. A new documentary film, Voices in Wartime, focuses on the firsthand experience of war and its aftermath. It was produced in tandem⁴ with another short film, Beyond Wartime, designed to help communities understand and heal the traumas⁵ caused by war.

 

That is the opening music of Voices in Wartime which plays over a horrific montage of battle scenes culled⁶ from the world's many wars. The uniforms on the soldiers and the rationale for sending them into battle might differs from war to war, but the looks of fear and grief on their young faces are uncannily similar.

 

"These are emotions that anyone can relate to, regardless of one's politics. That is exactly the point." says Andrew Himes, the films' producer.

 

Andrew Himes: I did not want to make a film about politics. I think all of us have had too much of politics. I wanted to make a film about the core human experience; the values that we all share and we all have together. A crucial question that both of these films raises is how do we heal the trauma of war, and how do we heal the societies and the individuals who are damaged by war in order to diminish the chances of war's reoccurring?

 

Through simple truthful⁷ storytelling according to Mr. Himes, unlike traditional documentaries, there is no outside narrator in Voices in Wartime. It consists mostly of personal accounts and poetry about the horrors of war spanning the millennia⁸ from ancient Greece up to the present. Mr. Himes says he hopes soldiers and veterans and others affected¹⁰ by war can find in those narratives¹¹ a path to healing.

 

Andrew Himes: If you are able to tell the story of what happened to you and say 'let me tell you what happened. I was at this place. This thing happened to me. Here is how I felt about it,' suddenly you are enabled to move through and past the trauma. You don't have to just flick¹² that switch of anger and resentment¹³ and hyper-vigilance.

 

Writing poems about his wartime experiences and sharing those poems has helped David Connolly, a veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder¹⁴.

 

(poem)

 

He lifts his head just a little, but just enough, for the bullet to go in one brown eye.

And I swear to Christ out the other.

And he starts thrashing, bleeding and screaming and trying to get the top of his head to stay on.

And we have to keep shooting.

 

That sort of battlefield carnage can be difficult for non-combatants to comprehend, and returning veterans often feel misunderstood. But the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are keenly perceived in the community. That is why a short companion film, Beyond Wartime, is being shown in living rooms, community centers and veterans halls nationally to promote awareness¹⁵, dialog and empathy.

 

Eric G. Glaude, is a readjustment counselor¹⁶ at the Harlem Vet⁹ Center in New York City. He was wounded in the Korean War. Mr. Glaude supports the film's message.

 

Eric G. Glaude: The community that I know of, that I am from could benefit from knowing that there are people who really have been affected by war. Not only hurt -- but damaged! The smell of fear, the smell of death. When it gets in your nose, you can never get rid of it. People at home won't know that.

 

The two films also focus on veterans' families and friends, many of whom experienced the pain of war indirectly¹⁷ through its effects on their loved ones. Poet Emily Warn’s dad was a U.S. paratrooper during D-Day in World War Two.

 

Emily Warn: He was a war hero and the rest of his life he suffered from being a war hero. He drank a lot. He fought a lot. He was unable to hold down a job, and the marriage ended when I was quite young. He died at the age of 53 walking home from a tavern¹⁸ and he was found in a snowdrift the following day.

 

Producer Andrew Himes says that ultimately, wars hurt everyone - including soldiers and those they return to but that opening our hearts to those who fight can help heal us all.

 

Andrew Himes: When you hear that they have the same thing inside of them that you have. That kind of terrified soul, that piece of them that can be so awfully¹⁹ sad, so terribly desolated²⁰, you can identify with them …you can really understand what their pain is all about. And I think that is what is required for us to have compassion²¹ for another person.

 

注释：

documentary film 记录片

trauma [5trC:mE] n. 损伤，伤痛

horrific [hC5rifik] adj. 令人毛骨悚然的，恐怖的

montage [mCn5tB:V] n. 蒙太奇，文学音乐或美术的组合体

uncannily [Qn5kAnili] adv. 惊异地

regardless of 不管，不顾

narrator [nE5reitE(r)] n. 讲述者，叙述者

millennia [mi5leniE] 几千年，millennium²²的复数

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 简称PTSD，创伤后症候疾患

thrash [WrAF] v. 打，敲击

carnage [5kB:nidV] n. (尤指在战场上的)残杀，大屠杀

paratrooper [5pArEtru:pE(r)] n. 伞兵

D-Day 指二战时的诺曼底登陆日

1 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 tandem   

n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的

参考例句：

• Malcolm's contract will run in tandem with his existing one.马尔科姆的合同将与他手头的合同同时生效。
• He is working in tandem with officials of the Serious Fraud Office.他正配合欺诈重案办公室的官员工作。

5 traumas   

n.心灵创伤( trauma的名词复数 )；损伤；痛苦经历；挫折

参考例句：

• She felt exhausted after the traumas of recent weeks. 她经受了最近几个星期的痛苦之后感到精疲力竭。
• Conclusion: Safety lens of spectacles can protect the occurrence of ocular traumas. 结论：安全镜片可以预防眼镜碎片所致的眼外伤。 来自互联网

6 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

7 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

8 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

9 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 narratives   

记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分

参考例句：

• Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning. 结婚一向是许多小说的终点，然而也是一个伟大的开始。
• This is one of the narratives that children are fond of. 这是孩子们喜欢的故事之一。

12 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

13 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

14 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

15 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

16 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

17 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

18 tavern   

n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店

参考例句：

• There is a tavern at the corner of the street.街道的拐角处有一家酒馆。
• Philip always went to the tavern,with a sense of pleasure.菲利浦总是心情愉快地来到这家酒菜馆。

19 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

20 desolated   

adj.荒凉的，荒废的

参考例句：

• Her death desolated him. 她的死使他很痛苦。
• War has desolated that city. 战争毁坏了那个城市。

21 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

22 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。