MovieChat Forums > Breakfast on Pluto (2006) Discussion > Unintelligible dialogue

Unintelligible dialogue

posted 15 years ago by pat102853
82 replies | jump to latest

I'm getting very tired of British or Irish films that assume that Americans understand their often unintlligible burrs or brogues. Enough already. Provide subtitles. Upper class English accenst are fine. Even Australian I understand. Cockney not OK. I know Neil Jordan wanted authenticity and that's fine. However this film lost me because I could not understand half of what Kitten was saying. Please provide subtitles. US English is not the same as British English. I wonder if they have as difficult time understanding Southern US inflection as we do their regional speech. If Jordan provided subtitles for the so-called robins in this film (they bore no resemblence to any robin I've seen), he called have provided subtitles for his main characters. This film was just OK. Had I understood the speech it would have been better.

[–] sambrolan_gee 15 years ago

I like how you operate under the assumption that films are made only for American audiences. I can't exactly blame you, since most American-made films do very little to teach their audiences anything about the rest of the world. The reason why most people in other countries can understand the American brogue or the stereotypical and unrealistic other accents is because we are constantly bombarded with them. Neil Jordan IS Irish- it's not a question of wanting authenticity! That's like saying every director thinks first and foremost 'now how can I make this a movie that Americans will enjoy?' As a resident of Northern Ireland myself I found it to be a fantastic and magical film. If you want subtitles, put them on when you watch the DVD.

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[–] ShelbySherlock 15 years ago

I would like to point out that the O.P. never requested that the film should have been dubbed or performed with American accents. Also, perhaps they viewed the film on television and were not able to choose to use subtitles.
Many posters have said things along the lines of 'if it's not in your accent then you shouldn't watch it', should someone you obviously consider to be an arrogant, insular American make no effort to experience other cultures and societies? If so, then how can you expect change?
I'm from Australia, I often watch foreign films WITH and WITHOUT subtitles. I recently watched the film and know if I HAD been watching it on dvd I WOULD have turned on the subtitles, simply because I like to understand everything that is being said. Is there anything wrong with wanting to fully appreciate a film?

[–] jm10701 15 years ago

ShelbySherlock wrote the most intelligent post in this entire thread. We may live on opposite sides of the world, but I couldn't agree with you more.

I'm an American who loves all kinds of movies from all over the world, so I read a lot of subtitles (movies are practically never dubbed here, by the way), but I turn them on just as often for American movies as any others. Sometimes dialog is hard to understand even when it's in your own dialect (I'm Southern). That's how it is for me, anyway. Asking for subtitles is not an insult to anybody (although the OP certainly could have expressed it without so much hostility, which he admitted and apologized). If anything, requesting subtitles is a sign of respect, of a genuine and healthy desire to share in experiences we have no access to otherwise.

Lighten up. I think very few of us, from anywhere (even the US), are monsters. We may be foolish and clumsy, but we're not often hateful.

Also, I don't understand what's wrong with Americans wanting to identify with their European (or other) roots, even if those roots go back several generations. My ancestors came here from Ireland around 230 years ago, and although I don't think I'd call myself Irish-American, if I did, it would only be because I love Ireland and it makes me happy to identify with it even so remotely. I don't understand why that would insult anybody. Can't you see it means we love your homeland? And although it may (or may not) be technically incorrect for hundreds of millions of us to label ourselves Irish-Americans, it's not at all unlikely that hundreds of millions of us, like me, are primarily of Irish descent. That seems like a good thing to me, not bad.

I understand why Americans are widely despised and mistrusted around the world, particularly given the way our government has behaved the past few years, but we are not our government any more than you are yours. Nor are we the huge corporate monsters (and they are monsters) that rape us just as greedily as they rape the rest of you. We're all just human beings, getting by the best we can in a difficult world. It seems somewhat hypocritical to insist on seeing us as self-centered and uncivilized opportunists, and then condemn us when we try to connect with you.

[–] nuvahk 15 years ago

Not sure I agree with everything here but this film in particular I could not understand a word of. First time having this problem... I've seen irish films before without much problem but this film lacked any accessability in dialogue for me.

[–] apocalypse_please24 15 years ago

Even Australian I understand.

Even Australian? How are Australian accents hard to understand at ALL? Grow some ears.

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[–] mike_hankinson 15 years ago

this film has the same problem as the wind that shakes the barley, very broad irish accents, ive been to ireland and can easily understand the accent so i dont see why its so bad on screen, maby it was cillians over the top camp accent in this film, i was dissapointed that film4 didnt provide subtitles

[–] thatflutter 15 years ago

I agree with the OP, I'm british and live in england and i only understood like 50% of the dialogue :(

[–] Mort_I_found_a_spoon 15 years ago

Hmm, I have doubts about your being British, but okay, maybe you didn't understand a lot of the dialogue. The original poster on this thread probably hasn't watched a lot of British films, so he didn't understand anything. My advice would be to watch a few more, see some British comedy, and you'll eventually get it.

In the same way, there are lots of British who could not understand a single word of an American film if the accents are super-thick Southern. For films like O Brother Where Art Thou?, I know British and Australian audiences really need subtitles in order to catch everything. So it goes both ways. I know they also have trouble understanding films with lots of African American street slang. It's all dependent on what you're used to.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Doris_Wildthyme 14 years ago

Then listen properly.

[–] pushbuttonkitty 14 years ago

Truth be told, I almost always have captions on when I watch a movie because the only time I get a chance to settle in and watch something is when my kiddo is abed. I keep the volume low and follow the captions on the parts when the dialogue is low. The only time in this movie that I actually needed the captions was during the 'Breakfast is Served' scene. A few of the lines were spoken really quickly and I couldn't catch them without reading the captions. I didn't really have a hard time understanding the accents, though. They were easier to follow than the over the top fake Irish accents heard in most Hollywood productions!

[–] jandro_pardo 14 years ago

About the robins:

The "so-called" robins portrayed in the film are Erithacus rubecula (European robins). If you are American, you are perhaps more familiar with the American robin (Turdus migratorius), a species belonging to a different family of birds.

[–] dolifk 14 years ago

IMHO films should always be viewed in the original language(dubbing often ruins a film, not to mention makes up dialogue as it goes along. Anyone who has viewed a dubbed movie at the same time the subtitles are on, will often notice this)
Also however, subtitles should be available. In this digital age we live in there is no excuse for the dvd maker/ TV broadcaster, not to put subtitles as an option.

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[–] 14 years ago

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