War of the Worlds (2013)

　　The night began as any other peaceful Sunday evening, with millions of listeners tuned to their radios. Yet the outward calm hid a nation tense with apprehension: the Great Depression refused to let up, and the threat of war in Europe loomed larger every day. Then, at 8:15 p.m., there was a report on the radio that Martians had landed in New Jersey. Almost instantly, people listening in responded to the shocking news. Newspapers were flooded with calls from worried listeners; many feared that New Jersey had been laid to waste and that the Martians were heading west. In cities and towns throughout the country, people stopped a moment to pray-- then grabbed their loved ones and fled into the night. What began as a broadcast performance of H.G. Wells's fantasy, The War of the Worlds, turned into one of the biggest mass hysteria events in U.S. history. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE examines the elements that together created this frenzy, including our longtime fascination with life on Mars; the emergence of radio as a powerful new medium; and the creative wunderkind Orson Welles, the twenty-three-year-old director of the drama and mischief-maker supreme. 　　译文(2): 这个夜晚和其他平静的星期天晚上一样开始了，数百万听众收听着收音机。然而，表面上的平静掩盖了一个国家的紧张与忧虑: 大萧条拒绝停止，欧洲战争的威胁日益严重。然后，在晚上8点15分，收音机里播出了火星人在新泽西登陆的消息。几乎是瞬间，人们听到了这个令人震惊的消息。报纸上充斥着忧心忡忡的听众打来的电话; 许多人担心新泽西已经被夷为平地，火星人正在向西行进。在全国各地的城镇，人们停下来祈祷片刻，然后带着他们的亲人逃入夜色之中。一开始是 H · G · 威尔斯幻想中的广播表演《世界大战》演变成了美国历史上最大的集体歇斯底里事件之一。《美国经验》考察了这种狂热的元素，包括我们长期以来对火星生命的迷恋; 广播作为一种强大的新媒介的出现; 以及创意天才奥森 · 威尔斯(Orson Welles) ，这位23岁的戏剧和恶作剧制造者至高无上的导演。