Rather than respond to a post and have my point get bogged down in the responses, I'm putting it here. I'm so sick and tired of people from other countries claiming that Americans are too lazy to read subtitles, illiterate, etc. I watch foreign movies all the time and they all have subtitles. I actually hate dubbed movies or remakes. So get over it! Not ALL Americans are the same. Get a brain!
shareI know not all Americans are the same, but a lot of Americans do not like to read subtitles. I'm also an American.
I'm glad Obama won, but I will not jump on the Pro-Choice bandwagon
Anyone who is getting bent out of shape about Americans not liking subtitles thing is completely glossing over the reality of the proliferation of films throughout the world.
Look, 80% of movies that people watch the world over are American movies. Now, most of that population is not going to know English, or know it fluently enough to keep up with an American movie in English.
In America we are spoiled because those movies are our own, and thus in English. Non-Americans are so used to watching movies with subtitles because, well, they have to.
If the lion's share of the movie industry were based in, say, France. Americans would most certainly watch films with subtitles because a majority of the movies would be in french.
The American aversion to subtitles is really just a symptom of the disease that America makes most of the movies that people in the world watch. Not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'm just saying it's true.
Hear, hear, ryanne_32!
Elphaba lives!
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I'm American and I have no problem with subtitles. I can't watch dubbed movies though. I tried to watch a dubbed version of Oldboy the other day and I couldn't even get through it.
shareI think the idea that most American movies won't watch movies with subtitles hasn't really been tested that well. As insulting as it is that people around the world think this as an American that is perfectly fine with watching films with subtitles, I know anecdotally there is evidence for this, but not any widespread proof. The truth is American distributors rarely release subtitled films wide, but some that were have been very successful like Crouching Tiger, Pan's Labyrinth, Life is Beautiful. I also don't see many people complain about subtitles for portions of English-language films spoken in a foreign language, even if they go on for a long period of time, hell most of Inglourious Basterds is in French and German and that was very well received here in the United States.
A lot of the times the only distributors willing to release a subtitled movie here are small independent companies incapable of a wide release, and these companies also typically only chose acclaimed art house films, rarely do they bother bringing over the commercial films that are in the style of proven American blockbusters, typically we only see those in DVD.
In any case, with the exception of old Kung Fu movies, films don't get released dubbed here like they do in Europe all the time, which is where we often get the hypocritical comments that Americans can't take subtitles from, go figure.
So this prevailing attitude about Americans is untrue, portions of other populations are just as prone to disliking subtitles as we are but the majority of Americans don't even live near a theater that isn't tied to the Hollywood release pattern.
I'm sorry if you're being subjected to rampant anti-Americanism but perhaps your time would be better spent lobbying your country's cinemas and film producers instead of us.
They're the ones that have decided you're too stupid to appreciate foreign movies.
They're the ones that offer an anaemic exhibition of the cream of foreign filmmaking on that basis.
And they're the ones that piss all over those filmmakers' works by swallowing up the rights to their movies, bastardising them into a dumbed down remake, embedded in the public consciousness with $100 million dollar marketing budgets that should've been spent on the superior originals' US release in the first place.
PS : What an insult remaking Let the Right One In. I suppose Mr. Cloverfield is going to fix all the problems with it, the way only Hollywood can.
"And no regrets?"
I agree that subtitles are appreciated by a large portion of the viewers. Like so many of my boomer compadres, my sense of hearing is greatly compromised, and I shy away from movies that aren't subtitled.
For those that don't need them, subtitles are easily ignored.
This American isn't afraid of subtitles, in fact, I invite them. My love of foreign films began when i saw Kurosawa's Ran some 20 yrs ago. When my son was having trouble reading in school, i thought, what a great way to boost his ability to read, and it worked! He was able to keep up, and had a glimpse into other cultures. My daughter as well is a big fan of foreign films, and one of our favorite directors is Mr. Del Toro.
That being said, my daughter and I saw The Orphanage at the local cineplex the day it came out. There were, sadly, only 6 people in the audience. Besides us, there was a Hispanic couple and their 2 children. Before the film started, in walked a group of 6 teenagers, my girl's age, and as the movie started, one of the girls started to whine very loudly "I gotta read?! Wtf??" and out they walked, like 5 min. after the opening credits. Their loss, as it was a beautiful film. I wont sat anything more about the movie, except that by the time it was over, we were both sobbing like babies.
So it's not a cultural thing in general, it's just individual ignorance.
"RAY!! ya take that diaper off yer head and ya put it back onto yer sister!"
I agree. I find subtitles to be far superior to dubs.
That said, most Americans I know are opposed to seeing even great films if they have subtitles.
Also, most Americans are monoglots, whereas the average European knows three languages.
As someone who speaks three languages myself, I get a kick out of some subtitles that are overly simplified, taken literally when meant figuratively, or just plain wrong.
i think its a tad unfair to target the yanks on this one alone. I reckon its the same percentage of people here in england. actually probably every country is the same.
in peru they dub a lot of english speaking movies, well its about half of whats showing in the cinema is dubbed the other is subtitled.
i dont know how they decide which though...
for me its orginal language all the way, subs dont bother me, in fact when watching english movies i put spanish subs on as a little way of learning spanish for a beginner :)
I think it also depends where you are in the U.S that depends on how many people would watch a film with subs. I've lived in a lot of places in the countryn i could tell you that places like the northeast would be more acceptable to watching a foreign movie with subs than say someone from the south.
And as far as this Anti-American ranting happening.... where do you think ALOT of hollywoods profit from these crappy movies they make come from? There international intake. So all of you are just as guilty as us "yanks" in feeding money to the hollywood machine and letting them continue to make crap.
Why do you think that is? like the north east rather than the south?
its an interesting debate actually. But here i just think it depends on how open the persons mind is to watching a foreign language movie.
Most people i know where i am from, are generally narrow minded, culturally and therefore would not even be interested in a foreign movie, whether they were bothered by subtitles or not.
But actually I suppose it better for those of us that do enjoy foreign language and independent movies, that it stays the minority, and doesn't become the mainstream.
I think it may have something to do with big cities. I've lived in the Tri-State area my whole life until i moved to cali last year. With new york city being so close i think wayyy more foreigners live in the north east rather the south or somewhere else. That's just my theory though
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