MovieChat Forums > Little Fish (2005) Discussion > Worst subtitles ever? (SPOILERS)

Worst subtitles ever? (SPOILERS)

posted 18 years ago by happyhoix
23 replies | jump to latest

I rented this film the other day and since I live in the southern US with my ear used to our regional drawl I often turn on the english subtitles when watching british or aussie movies for help understanding the dialogue. While I enjoyed the film the subtitles actually became very distracting because whoever did them understood the aussie accent even less then I did, which I didn't think was possible. When Sam Neil tosses the bag of drugs at Lionel and says "They'll be no more packets" the subtitles said "The enamel packets." Okay like I said I'm from the US south and not an expert on Aussie english but I backed up the film and listened several times and it was clear even to me what Sam Neil was saying - and besides, 'enamel packets' doesn't even make sense. Is he giving him a packet of powdered enamel? Is an enamel packet some aussie word for a type of drug? When Trace says "I won't score for you" it came out "I won't school for you." HUH? And when Sam Neil screams at Lionel "Lionel for *beep* sake" it comes out "Lionel is a *beep* physique." Again, HUH? At least I can hear and with some patience and the DVD remote was able to back the film up and listen carefully a few times to figure out what was really being said, but what about people who are deaf and relying on the subtitles to understand the plot? I kept getting distracted and turning the subtitles off and then having trouble making out what some of the characters were saying and turning it back on - only to find another annoying error. I kept thinking as I watched one screw up after another - don't they have a script for the movie and couldn't they give that to the person in charge of writing the subtitles? I felt bad for the director - here he had made this nice little film, and all these actors had worked so hard to portray their characters so well, and then some idiot splashes these clumsy subtitles on the screen. It's like tracking mud through a church. Instead of helping us poor challenged US southerners it only makes the film harder to understand. And any deaf people who watch this film will think aussies speak gibberish a lot. Fire the subtitle monkey!

[–] vegi60015 18 years ago

Definitely some of the worst subtitling done to date.

I don't know what the process is for subtitling movies on DVD, or even if it's done by a human or a computer. Actually, that's what it seems like to me...a voice recognition system being confused by the accents. No matter, it is very annoying. It is good for a laugh, though. I just wonder if the subtitles for the other languages are just as bad?

[–] mrura 18 years ago

funny. i just finished this movie. and i, too, had to use the subtitles to help with the accent. and all along i kept telling my girlfriend the same thing: "oh my god, these are the worst subtitles ever". there were sooo many mistakes. the "physique" one had to be my favorite though.

[–] missgump 18 years ago

yes, this is funny. i also just watched the movie and also had
to use the subtitles BUT I didnt think the subtitles were wrong..and its because
I couldnt understand the people talking and just assumed that's what they
were really saying...kind of like maybe "aussie jive talk".
The 'I wont school for you' comment she makes was one that I thought, wow
I have no idea what this new lingo talk is. LOL
So much for relying on subtitles
I guess now I know why I had a real hard time with this movie...

[–] inthelittleroom 17 years ago

A really blatent example if I remember right is when someone says the time of "2:29" it comes out on the subtitles as "2:39". Or something really obvious like that.

[–] alone_in_kyoto_ 17 years ago

i love how americans always feel the need for subtitles for when anyone has a slightly different accent in documentaires/films. quite hilarious actually.

[–] mrura 17 years ago

clearly there isn't much differentiation in the dialects of whatever language you speak. probably that has something to do with the fact that there isn't a huge spatial difference between the areas that speak your language as their primary language.

US is quite far from England/Scotland/Ireland, and even further from Australia. The accents, slang, and usage of words can be vastly different. ask anyone who has learned english as a second language (maybe yourself?) if they can watch a Scottish movie and understand it without using subtitles.

Such an ignorant comment. Quite hilarious, actually.

[–] WhoisThePrisoner1 12 years ago

No actually it is "quite hilarious" that you would assume that "americans always" need subtitles, based on a few comments on IMDB.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] lowliestpeon 17 years ago

Yep-I did the same thing coz of accent problems. It made it kind of fun watching it, coz you'd hear "blar blar blar", and the subtitles would say"blaz blaz blaz", and you'd think -OH they must've meant "blah blah blah"-pretty funny

[–] wendy-joy 17 years ago

The subtitles were TERRIBLE.

Spoiler warning here

instead of saying "Lionel's O'd"

it says "Lionel's near dead"

[–] mrs_depp90 17 years ago

the subtitles were not written by a person, they were conducted by a computer who translated what it thought it heard. i watched a movie (an american one) with subtitles that said the absolute wrong thing with every line. obviously it wasn't done by a real person because these words are just so obvious to everyone else but because these subtitles were assembled by a computer which is not real, it just put in words that it heard. computer's suck.

[–] FrankPierce 15 years ago

i always watch movies with subtitles because of hearing problems and i noticed all of those mistakes too. it was kinda weird to see stuff like that come on the screen when i know that's not what the people were saying. i've seen it happen from time to time on different programs and i agree it must especially suck for people who are completely deaf.

accents can also be troublesome for me and that's because of my hearing issues too. but i do like listening to the british and auusie accents because those actors often need to cover it up for roles in american films.

"daddy hit the bottle, mama hit the roof, they musta hit it off, i'm the livin proof"

[–] BigGoon 15 years ago

My favorite was when Ray "said" to Jonny, "Pass me that fun." For a moment I thought he was just referring to the *ahem* waterpipe, but then Jonny tossed Ray his PHONE!

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Barbara2001 15 years ago

I saw it on cable this past week and with my closed captioning it made it easy to understand the language. My problem was that I didnt understand what was happening all the time.

[–] wearebrokenx 15 years ago

Hah, I didn't realise the Aussie accent was that strong!

Reach for the stars, kid.

[–] valis1949 14 years ago

I would love to know just exactly who is responsible for putting the subtitles on the screen. Is there a 'job description' in the credits? Although I didn't watch the subtitles during this film, I have definitely noted that many times that what is said, and what is stated in the subtitles, do not jive. And, my biggest complaint, is the subtitles position on the screen. Many times they are posted below screen level, and are extremely difficult to see. Since almost half of the films that I watch are subtitled, I have been bugged by this problem for years. I have noticed that the foreign films that I stream from Netflix are nearly perfectly positioned on the screen. I would love to know who handles the duties of 'subtitles', and who handles the posting on the screen....

Excuse My Dust...

[–] CitrusWithFuschiaTrim 14 years ago

They're often done by dedicated translation services, very often entirely unrelated to the original producers of the film. The translation service frequently places its name in the very last line of the subtitles themselves. Different DVD releases could well have very different translations, so this thread doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense to those who don't have the same release as the OP.

As for the position on the screen and timing etc, complaints should probably be addressed to whichever company prepared the film for DVD format in your part of the world. Many DVDs I see have a credit page for DVD "author" etc after the end of the feature.
_____
I suppose on a clear day you can see the class struggle from here.