As a Polish person... - The Shrine (2010) Discussion

[–] Nightflyre9 13 years ago

This is a film set in Poland yet filmed in Canada, with fake Polish accents, and no trace of anything "Polish" about it. Why even bother setting it in Poland, when it could have been set in some backwoods American village with no difference to the story? It seems counter-intuitive to me that the film makers would make a fuss about setting this movie in a certain country, then include NOTHING of that country's real culture in the film. Why? Just to be different? If the movie had actually been good instead of just okay, I might have been able to see the justification.

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Nightflyre9 13 years ago

If it's a problem for you to deal with reading other people's thoughts and opinions about movies, then do yourself a favor and get your ass off a MOVIE FORUM. Lol. People can bitch about whatever the hell they want to and it's none of your concern. So if you have nothing relevant to add, mind your damn business. Just as no one "put a gun" to my head to watch this movie, no one put one to yours to read my comments. So STFU and move along.

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[–] animatestate 13 years ago

How could a Polish person be specifically offended by this? I didn't know that there were certain groups of people that are off-limits to innocent works of entertainment. I mean, what about all the other movies out there, do people from countries depicted in those films get to feel offended. I'm an American, a lot of movies have been made involving the United States. I don't get offended.

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[–] munroe-9 13 years ago

I think one point may be that it reinforces an idea that the US (or Canada, where this was made) is "modern" and Poland is stuck back in the middle ages or something. Yes, it's a poor(er) country, quite rural, quite religious, but that there's some remote little village with a curse in the middle of this modern, European country. One could argue that it reinforces stereotypes that the "West" has about Central/Eastern Europe.

I'm not arguing this personally, but I totally see that point. It's particularly about the American view of Poland, not Poland per se.

People could make the same argument about the movie Deliverance, for instance - it shows prejudices of northern America about Appalachia. Just as another example.

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[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

walking around warsaw for a few hours reinforce your belief in those stereotypes, and im from a country thats no better myself - lithuania.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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[–] AgPie 13 years ago

I'm not really offended and I thought the premise was actually decent. I just found the whole portrayal of Poland to be so inaccurate that I wondered what the point was. There was nothing about that movie that needed to be set in Poland but whatever. It was funny to listen to the atrocious Polish coming from the blond dude. I guess I just decided that this was some sort of Amish style village in Poland that was stuck in the 18th century. I have to say even if that was the case there was nothing about their clothing or the village architecture that was in any way Polish...even the door knobs were wrong.

Happy birthday to the ground!

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[–] nick_barton-1 13 years ago

Actually the main character talks about this village specifically when telling her boyfriend or boss. Making it sound like some type of Amish type of setting away from the modern world, which would make sense considering the whole mystic smoke thing, so it would also make sense for them to be living away from others as to not attract attention to themselves.

The setting in Poland was so that they could justify other parts of the plot like the other people who had gone missing and their luggage showing up in other parts of Europe. I guess they could have picked another Eastern European country but then we would hear complaints about someone else's country of origin not being treated fairly. I don't complain when people make fun of France or the Irish in movies. I thought it was a well thought out and different horror movie that didn't have the typical gotcha ending that every horror movie has nowadays and wasn't filled with blood and guts like the rest of the horror movies that have no plot.

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[–] OutwhereOuthere 13 years ago

Poland has a very strong Roman Catholic religious following, I think it's something like 99% of the people there, so naturally it fits to have it placed there. It didn't confuse me for a bit as to why they had it take place there, if you research the Black Madonna in Czestochowa with the blood crying Mary painting (much like the statue) you can see how the mythology is ingrained there. It was great to have the statue placed in Poland, specifically the Carpathian Forest region which I'm pretty sure the filmmakers were trying to emulate with their sets as the trees are very similiar, as that sort of thing would make it more believable there. That kind of thing wouldn't be kept much of a secret in the States or anywhere else for that matter but a truly god-fearing state like Poland, they would hide the devil from the rest of the world. Why have the burden of carrying the devil in your border made public?

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[–] SharpNickelz 13 years ago

I'm not Polish or understand the language, so I don't care, but on the other hand, knowing that this is fantasy, made on a low budget, I really wouldn't want the filmmakers to focus too much of their efforts on trying to make an accurate portrayal of a Polish village or spend too much time making sure the actors were fluent in the language. I'd much rather them spend their time, money and efforts on making a creepy horror movie, and that is exactly what they did. You want to watch a historically accurate movie? Watch a biopic or historical film. If you really cared about the HORROR in this movie, the details wouldn't matter so much. Granted, it would probably be hilarious if the Polish dialogue was horrid to a Polish viewer, but I'm thinking this movie was made for North American audiences mostly? As messed up as that sounds, that is probably why the Polish dialog wasn't subtitled, because the filmmakers made the movie thinking that the majority of the audience wouldn't understand it and it served as a way of putting yourself into the foreigners shoes (immersion).

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[–] guciodog 13 years ago

it wasn't that bad...the main guy was either a native polish speaker or very well trained....although the "henchmen" were terrible, there's no reason to take offense

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] elkainos-340-8287 13 years ago

Jeez, Im a "Polish person" and I do live in Poland... and I didnt a f@#k about the location or the use of our language at all.Polish language is hard to say, so Im amazed that some dude from Canada said what he said in our language at all..., and about "nationality pride"... Yeah,IT IS JUST A MOVIE! For example, I go to Slovakia often and I dont expect to be tortured or eaten alive in some hostel s@!thouse just becouse a two part horror movie which was placed there! So anyhow, STFU and go troll on some other board and leave us in peace ;-)... Cuz it was pretty cool movie and yes, I was laughing when I heard that "polish" spoken ;-D...

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[–] BouncyX 13 years ago

i can relate, i'm french and its funny when american shows or movies have french people. often they get real ones but every now and again they get actors who are obviously english speaking and their accents are just terrible. sounds like someone who just learned the language days before or are speaking it phonetically and since french has many sounds that dont exist in the english language....they just butcher it. lol

the one example i always remember is an episode of Alias, this character at a bar was supposed to be french, like from paris or around there (i'm canadian) and daaaaamn....they sounded like the english people here who can understand but barely speak it. the accent was just hilariously bad. sadly i can't remember the exact episode but yeah it stuck in my mind from the first time i saw it. lol

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[–] Danusha_Goska 13 years ago

My blog is devoted to the Brute Polak stereotype. Would love it if some who have seen this film would comment there. Here is a link:

http://bieganski-the-blog.blogspot.com/2012/06/bieganski-in-sweden-mor kt-vatten-or.html

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[–] ThatsWayHarsh-Tai 12 years ago

OMG. I had to respond b/c I just watched "Sisters"(1973) for the first time and I. Was. Dying. ((Until, of course, things became more clear))

The only thing worse than butchering the native language is when they pull a 180? 360? by having the English speaking actor speak English with an <insert language> accent.

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