塘鹅暗杀令

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.

    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。

选修课上看的，因为时间关系，只看了一半，前部分节奏缓慢，好多同学都睡了……后半部分更惊险刺激。Stanley Tucci演的杀手一开始特别厉害，后半部分对男女主的追杀更凶猛可怕，完全对得起这个中文片名。一直很喜欢政治犯罪题材的电影，可能和纪录片接近吧，我迷恋那种接近真实的质感。Julia Roberts那时应该才25左右，与角色年龄也符合，但是她看起来比较成熟。据说Denzel Washington被评为最性感男星，电影他第一次出场的确很……太晚了不说了

       看了以上几部电影我对丹泽尔·华盛顿这个人的表演风格是越来越欣赏，他的那种走路时候的所散发出的自信，潇洒至极。加上这个时候的我随着年龄的增长，观影的类型也随之转变。不再一味的去观看动作影片，而是开始选择一些情节比较复杂、曲折的电影，我开始专门去搜索他的好作品，这一点这真得感谢现在网络的便利，靠着网络的强大功能我找到了这个电影——《塘鹅暗杀令》。

         这算是他比较早期的作品了，海报上的丹泽尔·华盛顿和大美女朱莉娅·罗伯茨当时显得非常的年轻。简单的来说就是：职业杀手卡米接到通知后杀死了高等法院法官罗森堡和约翰逊，然后引发了朱莉娅·罗伯茨扮演的法学院教授加拉汉的女友兼得意门生“黛比”发布了关于该案的《塘鹅报告》，同时丹泽尔·华盛顿扮演的黑人记者格蓝也觉得该案有重大疑点，于是两人合作调查案情并引发了一连穿的血案。这是最典型的官商勾结并妄图只手遮天的案例，影片情节紧张曲折，悬念丛生，幕后黑手被逐渐揭露出来。在该片中丹泽尔·华盛顿就表现出了他独特的表演风格以及逐渐成熟的演技，是他早期比较精彩的电影之一。