塘鹅暗杀令

一次在酒吧听到Scorpions的always somewhere，深深的沉迷进去，而且竟然能听得懂大部分的歌词。。
后来知道这是《鹅塘暗杀令》的主题曲，直到很久之后才拾起这部两个多小时的电影。所以对我来说这是一部因歌而识的电影。
至于电影的名字，《鹅塘暗杀令》或者《鹈鹕报告》都比《绝对机密》要来的吸引人，听起来就像是一个童话，不是么？

故事讲得不错，更何况当年的茱莉亚罗伯茨和丹泽尔华盛顿让我怦然心动。大嘴美女不必说，我对华盛顿的最深印象来自当年在辩论队时集体看《伟大的辩手》。
93年的鹅塘暗杀令放到今天感觉算不得多么新奇的电影，即便剧情最紧张的时候，我心中依然波澜不惊——而这正是我最喜欢的状态。。

就如同《美国往事》，那种浓郁的旧时光的情调密密的包裹住你，渗透进皮肤，渗透进呼吸，渗透进你的一举一动，感觉到自己变得优雅起来，深邃起来。
某个寒冬的夜晚，你也许会吹起美国往事中的那段口哨；某个陌生的旅馆中，你也许会想起always somewhere的旋律……像黛比那般套着松松垮垮的衬衣，感受着那丝让人上瘾的忧郁。

这部电影已经很古老,上映许多年后,第一次看这部电影,虽然感觉情节有些老套,可能也是后人模仿太多.但是仍情不自禁的为媒体的独立自由之精神而喝彩.
现代社会最重要的基石是权利的分散制衡,只有互相监督的机制,才能保证权利得到公正的实施.现代西方社会在三权分立的基础上,又多加了一条媒体监管.新闻媒体独立于权利架构中,而不是受权利控制,才能真正还人民于真相.而媒体赖以生存的基石,也是民众对其的信赖.
民众之所以不明真相,是因为没有明真相的渠道.媒体的灵魂在于其自身的独立自由之精神.

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？

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。