塘鹅暗杀令

老美好像都很喜欢这种题材的片子。内容基本上是石油大亨和政府高官勾结，不顾环保就开采石油。其中有几个研究的学者准备提出上述的意见，奸商（暂时先这么称呼）发现了后，决定先把几个可能会对自己判决不利的最高大法官给干掉了，接着把几个起草起诉状的人一个个都干掉了，让看起来都是自然死亡的样子。其中一个是大学教授，他和一个女学生有恋爱关系，先说明，这个女学生的扮演者是茱莉亚罗伯茨。教授就把自己的文件给了她。结果是，她开始了漫漫的逃避追杀的道路。最后拿到了真正的证据，并且在一个记者的帮助下将真相进行了公布。那个记者好像是丹泽华盛顿。当然，相关的人员也都得到了处理。

就这么一个故事吧。感觉美帝还是挺强大的，能让报纸上刊登对高层人物不利的消息。说到人心，其实大家都有阴暗和险恶的一面，问题是，有没有建立一种可以跟他们对抗可以反抗到底的机制，这才是强大的原因吧。

故事内容很一般，凑合看吧。

Two Supreme Court justices, the liberal Justice Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn) and conservative Justice Jensen are assassinated. A terrorist named Khamel (Stanley Tucci), who works as a hired assassin, shoots one of the justices as he lies in his sickbed. He strangles the other in a gay porn film theater. As the nation learns the shocking news, the authorities including the FBI (charged with protecting the lives of the Supreme Court Justices), do not seem to have any clear indications of who may have been behind the assassinations.

Tulane University Law School student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) theorizes that there may be some similarity in their otherwise-different voting patterns that may provide a motive for their assassinations. She decides to research the two justices' records and cases pending before the Court, suspecting the real motive might be simple greed, not politics. She discovers that both were protective of the environment in their votes. She writes her theories into a legal brief, which she shows to her law professor, mentor and lover Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). Callahan, a recovering alcoholic, is grieving for Rosenberg, whom he interned for. He finds Darby's work interesting, but fails to recognize the high stakes involved. Nevertheless, he gives a copy of the paper (which becomes known as the "Pelican Brief") to Gavin Verheek (John Heard), a friend of his who works as a lawyer with the FBI.

Not long after this, Callahan is killed by a car bomb as the couple is leaving a bar in New Orleans; Darby escapes the attack because she holds back from getting into the car with her drunk lover. She soon realizes she is under surveillance, and is subsequently attacked by an unknown assailant. Realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out cautiously to Verheek for help.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., political reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) is contacted by an anonymous informant who calls himself "Garcia" and claims to have information about the assassinations which he had apparently seen inadvertently at his place of employment. Grantham manages to take a photograph of "Garcia" but is unable to identify him. "Garcia" subsequently disappears. Darby then makes contact by telephone with Grantham and mentions the Pelican Brief; although initially skeptical, Grantham discovers that the limited information Darby discloses has validity.

Darby finds out from fellow classmate Alice (Cynthia Nixon) that her apartment has been ransacked and her computer, disks and files are gone. Soon after, the man who had attacked her previously finds her again and gives chase, but Darby evades him a second time. She contacts Verheek and arranges to meet him the next day in a crowded public place. Prior to their meeting, Verheek is murdered in his hotel room by Khamel, who then goes to meet Darby dressed as Verheek. Just before Khamel can kill her, however, he is shot and killed by an unknown agent, and Darby flees.

Darby contacts Grantham again and agrees to meet him in New York City. There, she gives him the details of her brief.

The legal brief speculates that the assassinations were committed on behalf of Victor Mattiece, an oil tycoon who wants to drill for oil on a Louisiana marshland which is a major habitat of an endangered species of pelicans. A court case on appeal, filed on his behalf to gain access to the land, is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court. The two slain justices had a history of environmentalism — their only common view — and thus Darby surmised that Mattiece, who has a pre-existing business relationship with the President, hoped to turn the case in his favor by eliminating the two justices, thus leaving his friend, the President, in a position to appoint new justices more likely to rule in his favor.

Grantham tells her about "Garcia", and together they discover that "Garcia" is Curtis Morgan (Jake Weber), a lawyer in the oil and gas division of White & Blazevich in Washington.

Darby visits White & Blazevich, pretending to have an appointment with Curtis Morgan. When she is told that Morgan had been killed by muggers just a week ago, she suspects that his discovery of incriminating evidence was the real reason for his murder, and Darby hurries out of the office. She and Grantham visit his widow, who gives them a key to a safe deposit box he owned.

While Darby visits the bank to retrieve the contents of the box, she is followed and a bomb is planted in her car. When she and Grantham return to their vehicle, Grantham has difficulty starting the car, and Darby recognizes the faltering sound as what she heard just before Callahan was killed. She stops him and they flee the vehicle. They are instantly pursued on foot and by a car, which finally crashes into their parked vehicle, detonating the bomb and killing one of their pursuers.

They escape to the Washington Herald building, where they review the documents and a videotape from Morgan's box. The tape contains testimony from Morgan that confirms his discovery that Mattiece ordered the assassination of the Justices and the documents are memos that confirm these accusations. With the evidence that he needs, Grantham writes his story. He gives the FBI a chance to comment, and Director Voyles (James B. Sikking) comes to meet with him personally. On the record, Voyles confirms that the Pelican Brief was delivered to the White House; off the record, he reveals that the President ordered the FBI to "back off". He tells Darby that CIA agents were investigating Mattiece, and that one of them killed Khamel to save her life. Voyles arranges for a plane to fly Darby, accompanied by Grantham, to an undisclosed foreign location. Upon arrival, they are given a copy of the day's Herald with their story, which credits both Grantham and Darby in the byline. After embracing, Darby departs in a waiting van and Grantham returns to the plane.

The movie ends with Darby in her foreign hideaway, watching Grantham being interviewed on TV, where it is revealed that Mattiece and two of his lawyers have been indicted in federal court, the President's chief of staff has resigned, and the President himself will not run for office again. Grantham deflects speculation that Darby is fictional, a composite of sources, but does agree that she is "almost" too good to be true. Her life having been saved, Darby smiles as the screen cuts to black.

   看这部片子完全是因为对大嘴美女的喜爱，故事里机智与果敢被演的恰到好处。
   当权利过分集中，只手遮天就是必然，即使在三权分立的美国，也不过如此。可喜的是在美国权利还是可以争取到的。

    记得悬疑电影大师希区柯克曾经说过：“悬疑电影和普通电影的普别在于：在普通电影里，观众不知道桌下藏有一颗炸弹，然后炸弹会突然爆炸；而在悬疑电影里，观众知道桌下藏有一颗炸弹，而且看着炸弹上的表在倒计时，但不到最后一刻永远不知道这颗炸弹是否会爆炸。只有这样，观众的心才会跟着电影里人物的处境一起颤动。”
    大师的思想多次出现于《塘鹅暗杀令》中，无论是躲在橱柜里的杀手，还是掩在衣服下的手枪，或是藏在车下的炸弹，都跟桌下的炸弹一样，不到最后一刻你永远不会知道结果是什么。如果这种情节多次出现，聪明的观众可能会推测出结果，但却依然要紧张电影里身处险境人物的命运。

约翰·格里森姆的作品改编的比较早的一部片子了，估计是在电视上重温的，被删减了一些，中间有些跳跃，没有书里讲的那么连贯。
两位大明星当时还不太出名吧，大嘴美女还是很迷人的，华盛顿就显得很生嫩了。
故事没的说，作者的当家作品之一，当年的译林杂志恨不得一年都是他的作品了，不过现在的80后知道的不多吧？