MovieChat Forums > Rudo y Cursi (2009) Discussion > The English subtitles

The English subtitles

posted 15 years ago by jardevas
10 replies | jump to latest

Anyone else notice how the subtitles were apparently written by a British person, with words like wanker, mum, tally-ho and "boot" instead of trunk? Seemed like an odd decision.

[–] Johnny0581 15 years ago

Yeah I did notice that...and it was annoying at first. They were more obvious when "Baton" spoke for some reason. Words like "lad" "bugger" "tally-ho" "chap" i'm like what is this?. They should've did what they did with Pan's Labyrinth. In that movie, Guillermo Del Toro wrote his own subtitles, so since he was involved in this one, maybe they should've let him do the same with this one.

[–] jardevas 15 years ago

Yes, I thought it was annoying, too. And because the United States is so close to Mexico (literally and figuratively), it seemed like a weird decision.

[–] oantonio 15 years ago

Lol, are you guys for real?

No, it wasn't written by a British Person. They just used british slang when subbing "batuta" so people would notice he was a foreigner and had a different accent. I know it was a weird decision, but there's not many other ways to make something like that noticeable when localizing something.

[–] cisco-16 15 years ago

yeah baton wasn't mexican, so when he spoke he spoke with a different dialect, so they tried to do the equivalent in the subtitles for the american audience

[–] grouchochaplin 15 years ago

Exactly, He speaks with Argentinian slang and at one point in the movie the guys even ask him what a word means, So it was actually a very crafty move to sub his lines with british slang.

Its ten times faster than Nascar!

[–] mlfm256 15 years ago

that was very clever. but i guess some americans think that everyone that speaks spanish must speak it the same way.

[–] Nostalgie 15 years ago

Yup. I'm Argentine and when I heard him say Boludo I knew he was as well. I thought it was strange he was using the word in the movie until one of the characters asked what it meant and he explained it.

[–] clevernot 15 years ago

does anyone know where i could download the english subs?

[–] suzyl_05 15 years ago

I did not watch the film with subtitles, but Baton was definitely Argentine. They would obviously use a different English dialect to imply that difference.

[–] ecthelion 14 years ago

Thanks for pointing out what in retrospect was obvious. I'm originally from the UK but live in Miami and speak Spanish, so for me it was obvious from his first voiceover that Batuta was Argentinian. I watched the film with subtitles and I did notice that there was some use of British English, which struck me as odd, but I didn't connect it to only being with Batuta as I was only glancing at the subtitles.

I have to add that some of the Mexican slang used in films like this and "Y Tu Madre Tambien" and "Amores Perros" is really hard for someone like me used to Miami and South American Spanish.