MovieChat Forums > Only the Strong (1993) Discussion > Was that supposed to be a Brazilian acce...

Was that supposed to be a Brazilian accent or even Portuguese???????????


Hi, just commenting on Severio and Orlando's accent and language, the only thing that (for me) spoils this sweet film

A few times throughout the film they pop out a few words in what should be Portuguese, since when Severio and Mark D. meet for the first time he tells Mark something like "let's see if you can beat someone who was born and raised in one of the worst barrios of Rio de Janeiro" (implying that he's Brazilian). Plus, when they are playing capoeira music during the lesson, Orlando says "i got this in my blood" or something like that (= Brazilian)

Well, I'm Spanish myself but I speak Brazilian Portuguese and Severio's "RRRRRio de JaneiRRRRRo" pronunciation sounds quite Spanish to me. He's a Mexican actor, by the way, but zero effort to come up with a Brazilian accent. It should sound something like "Hio gee Janeiro" (sorry about the clumsy phonetics)

On top of that, Spanish and Portuguese are mixed up a few times, like when Mark D. gets the guys playing basketball and one of them says "Qué es, Orlando?" (Spanish). It should be "O qué acontece?" or "Quem e?" (Portuguese). A few seconds later, Orlando comes up with Portuguese words like "porra" (damn) or "viado" (queer). ???

All in all, it's a little thing, but it bugs me because:

1) I consider this film as the kind of little flick made for fans by fans (of Capoeira, in this case), and "details" like this show that the people who made it do not care that much about it, after all.

2) I'm sure that a lotta people don't know that people speak Portuguese in Brazil, not Spanish (like in the rest of South America), but when doing a film you gotta do some research for God's sake

Any Portuguese/Brazilian people noticed this in the film?


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While there are a few minor lapses, for the most part the film is quite accurate, in both the language and the Capoeira techniques. There were a number of actual Brazilians involved with the film production, including Joselito "Amein" Santos, who was born in Bahia, Brazil and was the Capoeira advisor/trainer. The biggest lapse in accuracy was showing Mark Dacascos as a uniformed American Green Beret in Brazil, when in fact there have never been American military advisors in that country (only next door, in Colombia).

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overall is quite accurate, agreed - in terms of language, I'm afraid there was not much portuguese spoken, I must say, apart from a few rudish words like 'porra' or 'viado'; it's mainly the confusion Spanish/Portuguese that bugs me, but well, I'm a linguist after all... I know people who used to think that Portuguese, Spanish and Italian were the same language, only with different accents... 0_0

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consider also this: in miami, many people are cubano or some other flavour of spanish speaking people. man also speak italiano/portugese/frances/whatever but if they are spanish bread latino to begin with, understand that this is where their accents will linger. i've lived in miami, and speak brasilian portugese, snad have seen these same kinds of mistakes severaly times in real life. it happens. it's actually fairly accurate in terms of geographical culture and lingo...

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Can I get a translation when Orlando says a phrase in Portuguese while they were in the firehouse after Dacascos kicks right in front of Orlando's face.

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For one thing, it's a movie. These are actors. I doubt any of them are from brazil. Saying that my girlfriend was born and raised in rio, and she doesn't sound like them. Her accent is very different. But I recognized a lot of the Portuguese in the film from what she's taught me

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Please...can someone tell me what Silverio calls Dianna when him and his gang are surrounding her in the school parking lot. "Cosina" or "Coseen" or something like that? What does that mean?

"I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do." T2

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The main problem with Severio is the actor playing him couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. Its no wonder you found fault with the character. He just about ruined this film for me.

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