好莱坞狂想曲：汽车三巨头登上大银幕

    《亡命驾驶》（Drive）是一部关于好莱坞特技车手的电影，由瑞恩•高斯林主演。这部电影在上映之前便被炒得沸沸扬扬，这让我产生了一个念头：从《警网铁金刚》（Bullitt）到《速度与激情》（The Fast and Furious），关于汽车的电影比比皆是，但为什么关于汽车公司的电影却少之又少？

    毕竟，汽车行业风险重重，世人瞩目，这个行业里的人肯定像他们制造的产品一样“卖点多多”。这个行业充斥着冲突与和解的戏码，这些素材肯定能演绎出动人心弦的故事。而汽车之城底特律则历经兴衰，无疑为电影拍摄提供了绝佳的背景。（克林特•伊斯特伍德主演的《老爷车》（Gran Torino）就是最有利的证据。）

    好莱坞曾经尝试将汽车行业搬上荧幕，最初的想法是拍摄现实主义题材，可最终却都成了浮云。1978年，阿瑟•黑利的小说《汽车城》（Wheels）被改编成电视剧，由罗克•赫德森出任主角，饰演联邦汽车公司（National Motors）一位冷酷的高管。他一门心思想要推出“雷鹰”型汽车，但最终却成为自身罪恶的牺牲品——一部非常无聊的电视剧。在根据哈罗德•罗宾斯色情味十足的小说改编的电影《贝丝》（The Betsy）中，男主角劳伦斯•奥利弗（偏偏选中了他）饰演一家汽车巨头的创始人，剧中老态龙钟的男主人公在退休后想要造一辆安全、节能的汽车。

    结局我们自然都知道。然而，30年过去了，好莱坞的电影人还在不断尝试。

    其实制片人缺乏的是可信的人物和真实的对白。而现在，底特律资深新闻记者比尔•维拉斯克的新书《汽车往事》（Once upon a Car）的横空出世则满足了这两个条件。维拉斯克对汽车行业知根知底，几乎跟书中的主要角色都有交情。他在小说中精心刻画了人物的性格，并通过真实转述人物的对话来表现各种冲突。这是第一本关于汽车行业的纪实作品，读起来简直就像是在看剧本。

    这本书的样书已经在底特律引起了轰动。维拉斯克在书中引述了汽车公司高管们如何挖苦竞争对手，以及如何在背后互相攻击。换句话说，在他的书中，他们都是活生生的人，只不过，根据《汽车新闻》（Automotive News）的报道：“底特律汽车业三巨头长期以来一直遵守一条不成文的行为准则——避免类似的恶意诋毁。因此，它们才能在同一个城市和平共处长达数十年之久。”

    总的来说，这本书的内容并不陌生：通用汽车公司（GM）陷入破产，就像一头伤痕累累却不自知的雄象；闹腾不停的克莱斯勒两易其主，先是与戴姆勒奔驰公司（Daimler-Benz）合并，后又被卖给了私人资本运营商瑟伯勒斯（Cerberus），这种无力的易主举措使克莱斯勒举步维艰；而福特公司（Ford）经历了数年混乱不堪的管理，最终选择了一名航空业前高管作为公司领导人，以期自救。

    在书中，我们可以看到许多生动的角色。如果将本书拍成电影，通用公司CEO里克•瓦格纳可以由汤姆•威尔金森饰演。里克•瓦格纳身材魁梧，心地善良，他清楚公司出现了严重的问题，但和善的性格决定了他不会采取冷酷的手段，而要想使公司免于倒闭，却必须冷酷无情。

    而他的副手鲍勃•鲁茨高瞻远瞩，性格执拗，致力于打造更优秀的汽车，但有时也会为了自己的利益和个人的声誉转变立场。肖恩•康纳利绝对是饰演这个角色的不二人选。

    The advance buzz around Drive, the movie about a Hollywood stunt driver played by Ryan Gosling, got me to thinking: We have lots of movies featuring cars, from Bullitt to The Fast and Furious, but where are the movies about car companies?

    After all, the people in this high-stakes, high-profile business should be as interesting as the products they build. Opportunities are plentiful for the conflict and resolution that make for a compelling story. The city of Detroit, with its colorful boom-and-bust history, makes a compelling backdrop. (For proof, see Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.)

    When Hollywood has tried capturing the auto industry on film, it aimed at realistic drama but wound up with suds. In 1978, Arthur Hailey's Wheels starred Rock Hudson as a ruthless top executive of National Motors who lets nothing get in the way of launching the Hawk but falls victim to his own demons. Very daytime TV. In The Betsy, based on a steamy Harold Robbins novel, the aging founder of an auto giant, played by (of all people) Laurence Olivier, comes out of retirement to develop a safe, fuel-efficient car.

    We know how that turned out. 30 years later, they are still trying.

    What filmmakers have lacked is believable characters and realistic dialogue. Until now, that is, thanks to a new book, Once upon a Car, by veteran Detroit newspaperman Bill Vlasic. Vlasic knows the industry in and out and enjoys near-universal access to its key figures. He recounts a tale filled with shrewd insights into their characters and conflicts told through verbatim accounts of their conversations. It's the first nonfiction auto book that reads like a screenplay.

    Advance copies have already created a stir in Detroit. Vlasic quotes executives trash-talking the competition and dissing each other behind their backs. In other words, he portrays them as behaving like actual human beings, except that, according to Automotive News, "The Detroit 3 have coexisted for decades in the same city by observing an unwritten code of conduct that shuns such badmouthing."

    In broad outline, the story is a familiar one: GM (GM, Fortune 500) stumbles into bankruptcy like a wounded but not particularly self-aware bull elephant; feisty Chrysler falters under the feckless ownership of, first, Daimler-Benz and then Cerberus; and Ford (F, Fortune 500), after years of chaotic management, finds salvation in the form of a former aerospace executive.

    There are plenty of meaty roles here. In the movie version, GM CEO Rick Wagoner would be played by Tom Wilkinson. He's a big, well-intentioned man who knows he is surrounded by dysfunction but is too gentlemanly to resort to the ruthless tactics that are needed to save his company from collapse.

    His highly-visible lieutenant, Bob Lutz, is type-casting for Sean Connery: crusty and driven to build better cars, yet occasionally sidetracked by his own interests and the maintenance of his image.