The film is running in Russia now and it seems to me that there was a mistake in translation of the title. Russian title means "enter without knocking" (i.e. you are welcome), while I think that the original meaning is just the opposite - "do not knock at my door" (i.e. you are not welcome).
What is the opinion of native speakers?
I believe the original title was "Don't Come Knockin'" -- with the "g" left off the word "knocking". It is from a song "Don't come Knockin' If The Trailer's Rockin'".
I took it to mean that Howard Spence, being on movie lots, spends a lot of time in trailers. While in those trailers he is with some starlet or star-struck fan doing the horizantal mambo. That's how shallow his life is.
OR -- it could mean -- Howard Spence, Don't Come Knocking at my door after all these years. His son could be saying "I got along without you before I met you -- I'm gonna get along without you now".
The second one is more likely.
signed, native speaker from Butte
"Don't come Knockin' If The Trailer's Rockin'" does appear in this film.
There is a sign in Howard Spence's trailer saying this....
Don't come knockin at my door..
Yeah I guess you're right. But not mainstream movies like Venders or Jarmush e.t.c. are almost always shown with the original sound and russian subtitles in theatres. So it's not a big deal I guess :-)
We have too different languages :-) Something will always be wrong in translation :-) I think they just tried to keep the emotional line without keeping the absolute sence this time.
In America I'd say the most common phrase would be "Don't Come Knockin' When The Van's a-Rockin'". Translation- don't bother me, I'm having sex in here.
shareSorry, i'm not native english speaker, but anyway would like to propose another 2 versions:
1. Don't come if you are already "knocking on the heaven's door" (too late to start "family life" or redeem yourself)
2. Don't come just to make someone pregnant (Don't come knocking up)
It just opened in Argentina under the name "La Busqueda", meaning "The Search". Awful name, they always try to resum the movie with the titles here.
shareI think the fact that there are different interpretations of the title here is what the writers intended, and that they are all equally valid.
shareIt was named "Lonely Star" in Brazil. I usually dislike the retitlings done in name of translation, but this one didn't bother me much -- it was somewhat adequate.
"Don't come knockin" for me means just that: don't just reappear in my life.. the theme being isolation.
That russian translation is really interesting (and, I think, fairly apt). Howard did "enter without knocking"...just barged right back into Doreen and Earl's life; and Sky barged right into Howard's life...nobody did much knocking of any sort...and I don't think it was that these entrances were all unwelcome, but more that they were unexpected. If someone comes knocking, they announce themselves as present before they appear (it's advance warning, if you will). Howard certainly didn't announce himself before he showed up anywhere (at his mother's, in Butte, anywhere), nor did any of the other characters. They all just appeared with no warning. When I first saw the film here in Minneapolis, (after having been home in Butte while it was being filmed, of course I had to see it when it came out!!) I felt the title was both sort of an invitation (don't come knocking, but do come) and sort of a warning. Come on in, sit right down, but you may or may not get what you think you came for (and Howard certainly didn't come to try and find a daughter, and he didn't exactly get the son he expected, either)...and I mean really, if you're going to plop yourself back into the lives of people who may or may not want you there, why give them any advance notice (they might get away...and then where would you be?). But that's the beauty of film (and of Shepard's writing style)...everything can be interpreted in multiple ways!
share