984
Immersion-breaking (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/historymemes@lemmy.world
225 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 35 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Something I dislike in movies is when a movie is set in a non-English-speaking country, but all the characters are speaking English. I would rather have the characters speak the proper language for the country, with English subtitles. But I guess the movie execs have calculated that subtitles will make the movie less profitable.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 16 child comments
    •
  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Even worse in my opinion is when they use a generic British accent as a stand-in for literally any time and place in history. Ancient Rome? British accent. Ancient Greece? Also British accent. Ancient Persia? British accent again! Ancient Egypt? You guessed it! British accent! Even when the actors aren't even British, the accent is. It makes no sense. It's lazy and arrogant.

    If I had a billion dollars, I'd make the most painstakingly realistic movie about Samurai in feudal Japan, and have all Japanese actors using a SoCal Chicano accent. Or maybe a hyper realistic Viking epic with a full Nordic cast, but they all talk like surfer bros.

    The audience needs to be forced to see how insulting that shit is.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    a hyper realistic Viking epic with a full Nordic cast, but they all talk like surfer bros

    Jarl! My dude! We totally viking'd the shit out of that Irish monastery! It was fucking rad!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    "Duuuuude… King Ælla’s a total boner. We gotta roll up on Northumbria and fully hack these posers to bits, brah. Then maybe, y’know, hit the mead hall and get wasted with some totally rad shield maidens."

    I swear to Odin, I would make this movie and only release a few short trailers with no dialog in them. Just brilliant cinematic shots of action, scenery, all the super authentic costumes and customs, and get some historians to endorse it (I know a few who would love the joke and the chaos). Then BAM, hit the audience with the most ridiculous shit ever.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah! You gotta lull them into suspension of disbelief.

    I'd invest some money into this. Someone has to be brave enough to write the script.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    I would partner with a historian friend of mine to write it. I'm good with dialog, and he could keep it authentic. Write a rough draft like a normal script, then go back and fine tune all the dialog to surfer bro without changing anything else.

    All the Nordic women would speak in Valley Girl.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Yeah I can understand speaking English and avoiding subtitles, but there are basically three options for accent:

    • American, with some allowance for "urban" vs "country"
    • Not American - English
    • Evil - Russian or German, depending
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    The English accent is often used for evil empires too, eg Star Wars.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Also lots of evil mastermind types in spy movies and whatnot. They also like to eat while being evil, which I have a whole theory about.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    There are a lot of interesting discussions around the use of food in movies. Even ones that aren't directly about food.

    Regular food intake is critical for our survival so it makes sense that it takes a large social role.

    As a general rule, making and sharing food is considered "good".

    • "Everybody eats when they come to my house." - Cab Calloway
    • "You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant." - Arlo Guthrie

    Taking and consuming food is "bad".

    • "Get in my belly!" - Fat Bastard
    • "Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?" - Jules

    The exception is when food is offered. In that case, graciously accepting the food is also good.

    • ET and Sloth (from Goonies) accept the candy.
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    How does Valentine serving Sir Galahad McDonalds on a silver platter in Kingman Secret Service fit into that?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'll take a stab at it but I don't remember that movie well so I had to re-watch the clip.

    I'll start by reiterating that the above stuff is generalizations. Some authors ignore them and some intentionally break them. I thin Kingsmen falls into the latter category.

    The movie is full of class shibboleths and makes a point of dissociating etiquette from kindness or morality.

    To start with, it's rude of Valentine to offer McCdonalds. There's an expectation of generosity towards guests and McDonalds certainly doesn't meet that expectation in that sort of setting.

    Sir Galahad's response is that of a perfect guest. He doesn't argue with his host or call him out. Instead he accepts what is offered and humbly supports Valentines implication that it's the height of epicurean delight.

    The larger context is to set up a contrast between Valentine and Eggsy. While booth violate high-class etiquette rules, Valentine does it out of aggression and selfishness and Eggsy does it to save the world.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Evil - Russian or German, depending

    Or just vaguely Eastern European. Basically, do your hammiest Bela Lugosi impression, and you'll have a bright future as Human Trafficker #1 in all the best shaky-cam action schlock Hollywood has to offer.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It doesn't fit a lot of movies, but some movies start in the foreign language and then switch to English

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I don't mind this. I also don't mind watching a movie in a non-English language so long as there are subtitles (Pan's Labyrinth was awesome).

    What I dislike are movies/series that decide to include a conversation in a different language without providing subtitles.

    I hate this. Spending the next 5-10 minutes searching the internet to find a complete script of a show just so I have a complete understanding of what's going on is annoying, not fun.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    They're made for an American audience, who are generally afraid of non-English languages

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I disagree. I think that sometimes it is good to have a language that is correct to the setting of the movie but also it does make it harder to follow if you don't speak that language and it does reduce from the visual aspect if you have to focus your eyes on the subtitles so it's not always the best option.

    I would say that for slow-paced movies or documentaries it makes sense use the correct local language

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    When I was a kid I saw The Longest Day and loved that all the Germans spoke German.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    German in US movies has a wild array of quality levels.

    The best ones are all from native German speaking actors. Movie actors don't need native proficiency since the script is written out for them. The accents are really hard to nail down though and native speakers often have some regional dialect that second language learners almost never pick up.

    Mac Steinmeir nails it in Saving Private Ryan and he's Bavarian. Christopher Walz speaks flawless German. His French and Italian sound perfect to me but native speakers consider him "pretty good for a foreigner". He's Austrian.

    Christian Slater has a very clear accent in Heathers but he's not supposed to be a native German speaker.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent