The alternate U.S. ending is an absolute insult to the authors. And the mutilated names in the U.S. credits are an absolute outrage. I mean what the hell is wrong with Jindrich Polak that they have to change him to Jack Pollack?
sharesadly, because many americans are racists.
share[deleted]
Racists? Oh, that explains it. I foolishly thought that it was because
we were unfamiliar with surnames and accent marks from Middle European slavic
lands!
What the hell? You don't have to be familiar with Eastern European accent marks. Why would you need to change the name to something that sounds English? It's like taking your name and changing it to some foreign name. Would you be happy with that?
shareeh, its common practice in Hollywood. Though not so much now as it was back then. If you look through IMBd you'll find a surprising number of actors and actresses had their names changed by their agents or the execs. Some quite drastically.
shareYou are a racist.
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=12180629
Hey look, it was 1963 and the movie company tried to “Americanize” the thing. From that, you figure Americans are racists? Americans of all stripes get along pretty good, thank you very much. I live in Los Angeles, and I’ll tell you: we don’t care what or who you worship, what color you are, or where you’re from. Most of us have long ago lost track of our respective heritage. Check out the middle east or Northern Ireland and the like for some first class, kick ass, heart full of hate types-not here. Stick a beer in our hands, a good game on the tube, and leave us to our shallow pursuits. As a whole, working class Americans are live and let live people trying to carve out a piece of the rock in a clearly declining civilization. As far as the movie in question, I prefer the original version, as the director intended (I own both), but having a choice is not a bad thing.
shareYes, I agree that using the word "racist" was too strong and offensive.
And it must be admitted that Americans really don't care where do people come from, who are their ancestors, they don't care about other people's heritage.
As long as they live in USA.
But if not, they are "foreigners", and reading American comments and posts I can't imagine worse insult that they can imagine when they want to humiliate a person working on a movie, or even more often the movie itself. So, if you want to be ignored and neglected by Americans, just go and live among them. If you want to be recognized as a less worth being, stay abroad.
"I mean what the hell is wrong with Jindrich Polak that they have to change him to Jack Pollack?"
Nothing, but given that American International Pictures would have bought this only a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, they presumably thought that their target market would be less than impressed by a film so obviously from the other side of the Iron Curtain. AIP weren't in the arthouse market, to put it mildly.
It was also common practice for the time - just look at the credits for A Fistful of Dollars! (Mind you, those were apparently Americanised to fool Italian audiences rather than American ones - American westerns being considered superior to the local product).
I agree with you about the other changes, though - I've only seen the Czech original, but the DVD helpfully offers the US ending as an extra which really is an abomination (not least because it undermines the whole point of the film!).
As someone who has only see the US version, could someone clue me in on the original ending?
shareIn the original film, the crew finally arrives to their destination: a planet of the Alpha Century [stricktly speaking, Alpha Centaury is a tripple-star system, so it is probably a planet of the Proxyma Century - but it does not really matter]. The film ends with an areal view of the - apparently - highly advanced planet (cities, etc.). Very uplifting - and yes, the US version [as usual - see the fate of many other East Europen films] butchered it completely...
shareBy coincidence, I have had an email correspondence with an actor, who played one of the main parts in Ikarie XB1. Judging from this, nobody took the "American" names in titles as a real insult; in fact, this old man (being a star character actor) signed his emails concerning Ikarie by his "American" name used in the U.S. ending...:-)
I believe that the general approach of the actors was that this was just a small side project where they did not put much ambition into. The cast represents the real top of the Czech actors from that time, who then were shooting a lot of movies.
Thanks, dtomek! A very interesting tidbit there.
Speaking of Czech/Slovak science fiction/fact, what is the story these days
with the so-called Moonshaft?
The Czech DVD is 2.35:1, with eng subs, great transfer, If anyone would like to know how to get a copy let me know,
"It's too short!
We need more monkeys! "
Is it an uncut version? I already have the 75 minute dvd, what's yours? Thanks.
shareYes its uncut 2.35:1 83 mins. Subtitled.
"It's too short!
We need more monkeys! "
Do you know where I might get a copy? :)
shareHere:
http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/ikarie-xb-1-p-7362.html
Here:
http://www.dvdr.cz/index.php?lang=en&shop=vi
IMHO, i don't really like the picture quality, which is not remastered.
And it's funny to read about: is it uncut version????
Yeah, we do not cut our films....
I wait for Special Edition, which will be published soon (remastered and restored audio and video)
You do, my friend, you do. For different reasons, though. But it's not less stupid, nor less dangerous, I guess...
shareHow did the american version end?
shareBetter some name changes rather than no movie at all being seen in the US. (Even with the cuts and goofball US ending.)
Something to keep in mind is that back then is was very very common to rename actors. Sometimes radical alterations, sometimes just something simmilar sounding. Compared to what went on elsewhere. The name changes here were for the most part pretty close to the original.
And do remember that this was during the heights of the Cold War era and its amazing *any* even vaugly Russian movies ever made it to the US.
Because the Czechs definitely don't ever do that?
Czech movie poster for barbarella reads 'Jane Fonderova' for example.
That is because of a grammatical convention in the Czech Language. If you go to the book store and look at any book from a female author which has been translated into the Czech/Slovak language you will see that the suffix -ova has been added to their last name. It has nothing to do with advertising/publishers.
Truly the wolves have an easy prey.
Fair enough, but then how come references to a pop star like Dara rolins doesn't follow that convention despite her actually being from Slovakia.
shareBecause Dara Rolins is a silly beech ashamed of her East-European descent, thus giving herself a posh pseudonym. Her original name is Darina Rolincova ("c" pronounced as "ts", not "k"), there's the proof http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqaInf9j_hA (beware, cannot be unseen). Funny thing is, she even didn't bother to anglicize her name properly. The original form of "Rolinc" is apparently "Rollins" or "Rowlins". Yes, one of her ancestors might've been an English mercenary during 30-Year War, or something. ;-)
It's an idiotic local trend of last 25 years, really: third-grade artists giving themselves westernized names to look more important than they really are.