MovieChat Forums > Amores perros (2001) Discussion > Some Poor Translations In The English Su...

Some Poor Translations In The English Subtitles


Here are some errors I picked up in the VHS version's subtitles. I'd love it if some of you bilingual folks could let me know if you noticed any others or have a better explination. Some of these seem pretty important.

-Gustavo calls Luis his "partner" when he explains the situation to El Chivo, and says "He's cheating." In Spanish, the word he uses clearly means business partner and implies financial cheating, but in English it sounds ambiguously like a reference to an unfaithful lover. (Couldn't they at least have said "he's cheating me?")

-El Chivo jokingly says "Some blue-collar guy!" in reference to the picture of Luis, but in Spanish the word is like "Some proletariat!" which is sort of the same meaning, but the latter would have been a more interesting translation, because without it one of the very few connections we have to El Chivo's revolutionary past is lost.

-In an earlier scene in the kitchen, Octavio's mother tells him Ramiro and Sussana are gone, Octavio says "What?" and then she says something else (different) that they didn't subtitle at all. It seems like an important line but the Spanish went too fast for me to catch. What does she say?

reply

[deleted]