Comments | kattahj: on Robin Hood and American accents

kattahj

on Robin Hood and American accents

Jan 18, 2005 16:01

A couple of comments on my previous post about Robing Hood - Prince of Thieves got me thinking about accents, and languages, and why we're sometimes bothered by inaccuracy and sometimes not ( Read more... )

film talk, meta, robin hood - prince of thieves, lord of the rings

Comments 26

kanjin January 20 2005, 21:18:59 UTC

Actually... I think it's that both British and American accents are modern ones - which means that if a movie plays in Britain, we expect to hear a British accent, and not someone who sounds like a transplanted American. Especially when it's taking place in a time when there was no plausible way to have an American in there. Any other place, really, people don't care. It's only when the setting matters that the accent does, too.

And I still think the "German" accents in Indiana Jones were laughable. When I first heard them in English, I did not understand what they were saying. And I am German!

kattahj January 20 2005, 21:25:35 UTC

Especially when it's taking place in a time when there was no plausible way to have an American in there.

But there's no plausible way to have an "Englishman" in there either. That wasn't people's primary way of self-identification back then, and as I said, the language as such wasn't even developed.

I mean, I'm well aware that the expectations exist, I just don't find them very logical.

kanjin January 21 2005, 07:17:45 UTC

True. But it still plays in Britain. Robin Hood is such a British thing. Pretty much the first thing kids learn about GB is that they had Robin Hood. It's become universal. Plus, I seem to recall the line "This is English courage". If the movie itself tells us about English characters...::shrug:: I get where they're coming from. I don't much care, but it is somewhat ironic.

As for logical - few things ever are. And I don't usually have the problem because movies in Germany are always dubbed and finding a original version theater is difficult.

kattahj January 21 2005, 09:51:05 UTC

Pretty much the first thing kids learn about GB is that they had Robin Hood.

I suppose that's true. For me, it's never felt specifically British, since before RHPoT, my main knowledge came from Disney (American), Howard Pyle (American) and Stig Ericsson (Swedish). Robin of Sherwood was the only British source I was familiar with, and I didn't even watch that show with any regularity until later. So for me it's a general fairy tale that just happens to be set in a real country. Sort of like mythology - and nobody expects Hercules to be played by a Greek, after all.

And I don't usually have the problem because movies in Germany are always dubbed and finding a original version theater is difficult.Movies around here are hardly ever dubbed, unless they're for children, so dubbing of real-life actors (as opposed to animation) freaks me out a bit ( ... )

Thread 6