Bruce Conner: Crossroads

Bruce Conner: Crossroads

A striking film about the explosive force of power

布魯斯 · 康納：《十字路口》

一部關於爆炸性力量的震撼影片

Crossroads - Bruce Conner -5 min version—在線播放—優酷網，視頻高清在線觀看 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY0OTI1NDE1Mg==.html

Bruce Conner』s 『Crossroads』 is one of the most beautiful, most mesmerizing films you』re ever likely to see – not to mention one of the most terrifying, as well as one of the most banal. Made in 1976, it consists of archival footage of a nuclear explosion conducted by the US military 30 years earlier – part of their famous tests, codenamed Operation Crossroads, at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean – in which an atomic weapon, equivalent to 23,000 tons of TNT (identical to the bomb dropped the previous year on Nagasaki), was detonated 90 feet below the ocean』s surface.

布魯斯·康納的《十字路口》會是你能看過的最美的，最催眠的影片之一——也是最可怕，和最陳舊的影片之一。這部電影在1976年製作，由30年前一場核武器爆炸的視頻檔案組成——這其中最有名的試驗，代號就是「十字路口行動」，在太平洋上的比基尼環礁海平面90英尺下引爆了當量相當於23000噸TNT炸藥的核武器（和多年前在長崎落下的炸彈當量相同）。

Edited together by the late American artist, the black-and-white footage depicts the gargantuan eruption from different angles – at eye level from the lagoon』s surrounding islands, or looking down from planes circling high above – with the repetitions both emphasizing the sense of violent spectacle, yet also creating an atmosphere of disturbing, almost listless, monotony.

這部電影由很多晚期美國藝術家共同編輯，黑白的視頻從不同的角度描繪了這場巨大的爆炸——從地面上環礁的視覺高度，到從高空中的飛機視角——伴隨著不斷地重複，強調了這種巨大暴力感，同時也創造了一種令人不安的氛圍，單調而無趣。

In this sense, the film reveals how the atomic tests of the 1940s marked a true 『crossroads』 in human consciousness – not just in terms of the new, destructive age they heralded, but also how quickly this threat of nuclear annihilation became commonplace, how chillingly mundane it had come to seem by the end of the Cold War-shadowed 1970s.

在這重意義上，這部電影體現出了1940年代的核武器試驗是如何在人類的意識中標記了一個真正的「十字路口」——不僅僅是預示了新的破壞性的時代，也昭示了核打擊的威脅變得稀鬆平常是多麼的迅速，表現出冷戰陰影下的1970年代末期的冷漠與麻木。

At the same time, the film reignites feelings of awe and power that the original tests must have inspired. With cameras recording the event in super-slow-motion, the etiology of an atomic blast is documented in captivating detail, progressing from submarine shockwave to vast, ballooning dome of water vapor, to the raggedly churning mushroom cloud of popular iconography. Accompanied by a woozy, hypnotic electronic score, the footage becomes increasingly abstract, with long stretches devoted to the explosion』s dispersion among the surrounding clouds, like some receding force of nature. It』s uncomfortably, horribly, magnificent.

與此同時，電影重新引燃了當時試驗中所啟發的敬畏感和力量感。 通過使用超慢動作攝像機，原子爆炸的細緻脈絡記錄在迷人的細節中，從海底衝擊波發展到廣闊膨脹的水蒸氣，到流行符號中常見的流離破碎的蘑菇雲。 伴隨著嘈雜而催眠的電子樂，鏡頭變得越來越抽象，爆炸導致了周圍雲層之間的分散疏離，像一些自然的力量在退卻。 這種壯麗令人感到不舒服和可怕。

Gabriel Coxhead

POSTED: WEDNESDAY JUNE 17 2015

附上的視頻為5分鐘剪輯版，原版影片為51分鐘長片。
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