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 love this movie and think it's great. I love lots of foreign language films, another one of my favorites is Pan's Labrynth. I do get annoyed with subtitles because sometimes I'm too distracted reading the subtitles that I don't notice certain things in the movie. I do understand Spanish, but a my parents and siblings do not (I'm the biggest gringa perhaps ever and learned Spanish in high school/college), so when we watched this together we did need the subtitles. Even though I could understand what they were saying, my eyes still drifted down to the subtitles, so it was annoying. My complaint with subtitles isn't that I don't want to read or that I'm illiterate, it's just that I'd rather be paying attention to what's happening than reading subtitles. My sister did miss a couple of things because her eyes were reading the subtitles. I just think they're distracting the same way I would be distracted if someone was standing next to the TV jumping up and down. It doesn't make me lazy or stupid.
shareThe big problem is not that movies are synched. I never watch a synched movie, if I can watch it subtited instead (or if it in english in the original language). But what other people do is their problem.
By I hate movies being remade into american versions, because it is a lose-lose situation, since the movies being remade are usually very good (nobody would remake a bad movie) and the remake usually stink (The only danish movie been remade I know of is nightwatch, where the americans appearently prefere their own 6.2 rated movie to the 7.5 rated original) In Spain and Japan they have plenty of their movies remade.
The result is that not only are the americans subjected to lousy american remakes, but they never realize that the original movie might have been pretty good, so they never discover that the best horrormovies from Spain and Japan are superior to just about every american horrormovie.
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What *beep* me is when American's remake Aussie/English shows. E.g. The office/ Kath and Kim. I mean, that's IN your own language ,it should be acceptable viewing even for the laziest.
However, this is true in many countries, it's just America stands out.I've got friends who avoid films like the plague the moment I mention "subtitles". I've also heard people say "it was good - for a French film." (Amelie).
This makes me want to shoot them.
Where I live, no theater in the state shows foreign films, and the most reasonable explanation is this: Most film viewers want a popcorn film. It can be pseudo-intellectual or anything, as long as it's exciting and is a passive activity (no effort required). How else would we explain the success of Transformers 3. :D Tehehe.
I mostly agree with you, but my computer's Text to Speech app goofed on a few words so I couldn't hear your entire post.
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There's no way I'm reading through all of these replies, but I'm wondering if anyone has stated the obvious. Half the population where I live (Florida) speak Spanish, so they wouldn't even need the subtitles. Oh, but all Americans are fat, own guns, and wear cowboy hats. That part is totally true.
share"Not ALL Americans are the same. Get a brain!"
And yet you say "American's [sic] are NOT annoyed by subtitles" in a similar, generalizing vein as they do. Hypocrite.
Any type of generalization is bad, even positive ones. "Asians are good at math" becomes offensive to everyone who isn't. Hell, it's just offensive as it is; you're having expectations of a race, high or low. It's racist.
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I have to disagree. While I, like you, enjoy foreign movies and don't even notice that I'm reading subtitles anymore, most of my friends won't watch these movies with me because they are in a different language. It's really sad because when you broaden your horizons and look for movies in any language, you are more likely to find great films like this one.
shareI think I enjoy subtitled films more tbh. Most likely because I have to actually concentrate and watch it, rather than farting around with other things, mismatched speech/subbing I think is much more distracting than subtitles, because I am constantly watching the mouth/aware that it's a dub.
shareok i didn't understand ANY of this film....could someone please explain?
by OOjoanneOO (Mon Mar 28 2011 12:05:22)
Yeah I think for some it won't make any difference but they certainly need to get a brain that's for sure.
I'm British and have no problem with foreign films and readin subtitles. When I was studying film, we watched many subtitled films and I discovered many great films. I just watched this film today and as it was so long since I'd seen a subtitled film it did take me a little bit to get into it but less than half way through I forgot I was even reading and enjoyed the film full.
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