電影《法律女王》影評：傳奇人物RBG

Ruth Bader Ginsburg，現任美國最高法庭大法官之一，非常有名。我第一次知道她是因為紐約客在2013年，她八十周歲那年，為她做得小傳，Heavyweight.那篇文章令我印象深刻的是她認為法律的健全需要循序漸進。她也是依賴這一策略在七十年代一步一步為婦女平權在高庭贏了一個又一個案子。循序漸進的反面就是一口吃個胖子，太迅速的改革會造成反彈。她認為當今為同性戀爭取平等權力的策略有點冒進。

那之後她越來越有名，SNL和新聞裡不斷有她的消息。敬仰之餘我一直沒得空去讀她的傳記。

這個假期到來之前我就聽說有一部專門講她的故事的電影聖誕節期間上映。假期最後一天也就是2019第一天我終於去看到了這片子，On the Basis of Sex (法律女王）。大愛！

尤其喜歡電影裡面的家庭線，她和少年女兒簡之間的幾場戲，特別的好。

第一場，十五歲的簡逃課去參加女權主義者 Gloria Steinem的示威演講（Rally). 被媽媽發現簡假造了媽媽寫的假條後兩人起了爭執。當時RBG在大學裡教授性別歧視案件。

JANE …You know what, Mom? You may be satisfied sitting around with your students talking about how shitty it is to be a girl– MARTIN Hey, language. JANE But don’t pretend it’s a movement. It’s not a movement if everyone’s sitting. That’s a support group. For Ruth, it stings. Martin sees it. MARTIN Jane that’s enough. RUTH (to Martin) We should get going. JANE Yeah. Go make yourself pretty for Daddy’s party.

第二場，母女倆因為簡在《殺死一隻知更鳥》的讀書報告裡面把書中的律師寫成」一個偉大的美國律師「而爭吵。RBG認為謀殺不可以被縱容，犯這種錯的律師違反了律師必須遵守的職業倫理。簡氣得罵母親冷酷沒人性，跑回自己屋裏把音樂開得山響抗議。Martin去調停。特別喜歡電影裡這段對話。表演和剪輯得比劇本要好。這是劇本。

He turns down the record. When Jane looks up at him, he’s surprised to see her eyes are welled with tears… MARTIN Come here. She sits beside him on the bed. And for a beat, lets him hug her… Then shrugs him off. JANE I’m fine. I can be as tough as she is. … She’s a bully. She needs everybody to know how smart she is. MARTIN You want Mommy to stop being smart? JANE I want her to stop rubbing it in everyone’s face all the time. (off his look) Don’t tell me she doesn’t. MARTIN Rubbing it in people’s faces is the only way she’s ever gotten anyone to notice. Jane hears him. MARTIN (CONT’D) Grandma Celia died when Mom was about your age. But right up to her dying breath, they would read together, and debate ideas, and she’d make mom question everything. … Jane, Mom isn’t bullying you. She doesn’t want you to feel small. She wants to share what her mother taught her. …. That’s how she shows her heart. Jane is touched.

下一場也特別好。既然簡要寫「一位偉大的美國律師」，RBG決定帶著簡去拜訪RBG特別崇拜的平權女律師KENYON。好讓女兒見識一下真正的偉大律師。RBG跟Kenyon說自己要接的Charles Moritz 和稅務局的案子。Kenyon認為時機未到，並以她自己的為女性爭權益的案子接連敗訴為佐證。但是離開後在街上簡和衝她們吹口哨出言不遜的建築工人公開對峙，並且教育媽媽，「Mom. You can’t just let boys talk to you like that. 「讓RBG意識到，Kenyon判斷錯誤，時代已經變了！以前的失敗不代表將來的性別平等案例也會失敗。為了女兒她要試一試。這一場很多台詞都很棒。有點長，就不引用了。有興趣的可以去讀劇本。

在女兒一步一步的推動下，RBG才走出了為女性平權抗爭的第一步，在美國第十上訴法庭上據理力爭並且勝訴。庭上辯論時，法官提問「可是美國憲法裡面‘女性’這個詞一次都沒有出現過啊！」 RBG平靜的回應，」‘自由‘這個詞也同樣沒出現過，your honor.」

紐約客上這篇小文很有意思：Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Nephew on Winning the Aunt Lottery

As he wrote the screenplay, Stiepleman made several trips to Washington, D.C., where his aunt granted him access to her files at the Library of Congress. 「Then, by night, we would sit together and have dinner and usually polish off a bottle of wine,」 he recalled.Aunt Ruthgave detailed notes on his drafts. 「I’d call her up, and she’d be, like, ‘Oh, Daniel, I’m in the middle of reading the Affordable Care Act. Can you call me back in twenty minutes?’ And then she’d be, like, ‘O.K., page 1,’ and she’d go through it like a contract. ‘Here you have me wearing high heels at Harvard, but in those days I used to walk to school, so I wouldn’t wear high heels.’」 After she saw the film for the first time, she told her nephew, 「I just love that it’s joyous.」

紐約時報的影評：How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Became ‘Notorious’

The real Justice Ginsburg has saidthat the only thing the movie gets factually wrong is that it portrays her at a momentary loss for words as she addresses the court for the first time. It’s not only the character’s self-confidence that falters there, but also the filmmakers’. Admiring as they are of their heroine’s courage and brilliance in challenging tradition and convention, they can’t help but enshroud her in biopic clichés.