MovieChat Forums > Red Road (2006) Discussion > Would anyone else have benefited from su...

Would anyone else have benefited from subtitles?

posted 16 years ago by normalou
44 replies | jump to latest

I watched "Red Road" on Sundance last night, but I had a really hard time understanding a couple of the actors. It almost seemed like they weren't really speaking English at all, to me. I've studied Italian, French and Spanish, and English is my native language, but the Scottish dialect is nearly impossible for me to decipher. Anyone else have a hard time interpreting the (thankfully sparse) dialogue in this film? Particularly as spoken by the Stevie character?

[–] quigley_brown-1 16 years ago

I watched it last night, too. I agree with you. Stevie was a bit difficult to understand at times.

[–] jmarsh4036-1 16 years ago

I agree. The Scottish accent is really hard. I didn't have as much trouble with Trainspotting as I did with this one.

[–] stamaheep 15 years ago

Accents vary a lot in Scotland. Trainspotting was in Edinburgh and Red road in Glasgow. Although both cities are barely 40 miles apart it can be hard for a Glaswegian like myself to even understand an Emburger accent.

I have a boss at work who is from Saughton in Edinburgh and after a few drinks it is near impossible to understand what he is jabbering on about.

In Glasgow the proper English spoken in Bearsden or even Milngavie is at the opposite end of the scale from the Springburn nasal whine which is best described as being that of Stevies in this film.

The actor Martin Compston who plays stevie is originally from Greenock just outside Glasgow and a great movie about the scummy side of Glasgow that he is in is called Sweet Sixteen but you will definately need subtitles to understand the dialogue in this one, which I believe are available.

[–] wjfsmf 16 years ago

The copy I got from Netflix had subtitles, thank goodness. That Scottish dialect, while sounding beautiful to my ears is definitely difficult to understand. The movie itself was outstanding.

[–] normalou 16 years ago

Oh, very cool. I might see again then, thanks.

[–] pd78w 16 years ago

We kept the English subtitles on throughout the whole movie. Otherwise, I think we would not have been able to follow the story. It was hard to believe that these people were actually speaking ENGLISH! I guess I can never visit Scotland, how would you communicate with them?

[–] normalou 16 years ago

Hopefully they would understand "The Queen's English". Yes, they have very strong accents in the film - I wish the cable version I saw had the subtitles.

[–] Teabz 16 years ago

you do know that not all Scottish people sound like that? i certainly don't.

i work in a call center and speak to people all across the UK and my customers hardly ever have any problems understanding me.

this film is set in a rough part of Glasgow. so of course they aren't going to speak perfectly and the characters such as clyde and that idiot that lived with him weren't the most educaed men on earth.

that post made you sound like an idiot. where are you from? do you speak perfectly?

I'm a quitter. I come from a long line of quitters. It's amazing I'm here at all.

[–] pd78w 16 years ago

Your customers "hardly ever" have any problems understanding you? Well, that's encouraging.

[–] Teabz 16 years ago

yes, the one's that don't are usually old and going deaf or stubborn English men.
I have had tonnes of customers telling me how lovely my accent is and if it was difficult to understand me then i wouldn't of been working there for three years.

so, where are you from? what makes you so much better than Scottish people?

I'm a quitter. I come from a long line of quitters. It's amazing I'm here at all.

[–] zoso_uk 10 years ago

It was hard to believe that these people were actually speaking ENGLISH! I guess I can never visit Scotland, how would you communicate with them?

Could you be any more insulting? I wouldn't go to Scotland if I were you because you're extremely rude and disrespectful.

That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!

[–] kamikaze_camel 16 years ago

This is all funny because I could understand it easily, although there were parts were I couldn't quite make it out. And I'm Australian.

[–] normalou 16 years ago

That's all I'm saying: "there were parts I couldn't quite make out". The bulk I could understand, but there was one actor in particular who sounded like he was speaking some totally different language.

[–] mysticmac 16 years ago

This is funny, because the only scenes where actual, 100% authentic Glasgow slang is used is the scenes where they are angry. The dialogue is fairly realistic, but some more neutral anglo-friendly expressions are used.

Martin Compston is actually from Greenock, not Glasgow, so I can even pick up on the slight variation that comes with his Greenock accent.

[–] fluffchop 10 years ago

Yep Aussie here to, no problem whatsoever understanding everything in this film.

[–] lolee_the_pigeon 16 years ago

I absolutely can't believe how many people had difficulty understanding the language. Fair enough I am from Scotland but then the dialect in Glasgow as opposed to where I am is completely different and often in a real social situation I would find it difficult to understand someone but in red road the accents and dialect were really toned down I thought.

Maybe it's the speed more than what's actually being said. I think us scots have a tendecy to speak a little fast.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Doc-Fan 16 years ago

I've been to Scotland twice, and spent quite a bit of time in and around Glasgow and found almost everyone very easy to undersand. The only time I remember having a difficult time was on the train to Edinburgh one day and two young 20-something blokes were talking and their conversation contained a fair amount of slang--no different from any other 20-somethings (or teenagers) anywhere else!

When I first saw Red Road at a film festival in 2006, I found the English subtitles very distracting.

[–] LAT71 16 years ago

I too find it strange that people would need subtitles to watch this (unless English is not your first language).

I'm from Glasgow and it never fails to amaze me that the generally the only people who have trouble understanding me are those from Scotland's closest neighbour - ie. England - particularly people from the South East of England.

I lived in Northern Ireland for a few years and never had a problem being understood - not even when I travelled south of the border.

While holidaying in Australia and the USA I very rarely had problems being understood (although for some reason African Americans ask me to repeat myself quite a bit).

However when I'm in England - as I said especially in the South East (particularly irritating during the year I lived in the Southeast of England) or speaking to someone English on the phone - I seem to be repeating myself all the time.

[–] LatigoMeans 16 years ago

I don't ever like watching films with sub-titles, although necessary for some films for obvious reasons, I too had trouble understanding some of Stevie's dialog. The film was strong enough to overcome this small complaint, although it would have been nice to know exactly what Stevie said in her bedroom. I missed most of that. I'll have to watch it again and pay closer attention I guess.

~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!

[–] rivethead808 16 years ago

He basically was going on about how he and Clyde had spent 23 months together in prison and both were extremely hard-up for sex, but neither ever made any advances on each other or any other inmates so therefore (in his mind), Clyde couldnt have possibly raped her. He also said that there was no way she could have been raped because he never heard her scream. Its really not all that important of a scene overall except for the exposition from Jackie i.e., we finally get to officially find out what the hell happened.

http://www.listology.com/profile_public.cfm/indv_id.12830/b_check_link _dest.True

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] cthulhulurks 16 years ago

I had to use subtitles. Otherwise, a good film.

my vote history:
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=27424531

[–] bettylanguage47 16 years ago

as a few people mentioned, the dvd does have subtitles. which i found i didn't really need (a few times i wasn't sure what stevie said, but that was it).

i'm american, but spent a little time in glasgow with some friends, who i absoltely could not understand (of course, they had no trouble understanding me). i think the film actually toned down the glaswegien compared to how my friends spoke. it isn't even an accent so much as a totally different language in glasgow (i had no trouble understanding people in edinburgh).

god, i love that accent, though!

[–] Cottage27 16 years ago

Well you have not spent enough time in Glasgow have you then you might understand us it's just you braindead.