MovieChat Forums > Taken (2009) Discussion > The scene where he pretends to be an ext...

The scene where he pretends to be an extortionist inspector


Hilarious that they don’t find it weird that he speaks English, not French.

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I would think even back then the frogs would want a diverse police force.

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I could think it weird that these Albanians speak good English, but that's actually common in Europe. It is the world language and people study it at school and maintain it watching English language movies and tv.

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Common my ass.
It's the language of a finished colonialist mentality, studied mostly to asslick USA.
English movies and tv are dubbed anywhere in Europe.
Albanian criminals would probably barely understand it at an elementary level, forget Neeson and his fast talk.

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Movies are not dubbed in Scandinavia. And English is becoming more and more common, as we spend more and more time online interacting with people outside our own country - English becomes the natural bridge, because it is so common.

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What a delusional, idiotic mentality.
Scandinavia can go suck some US dicks. And they gleefully do.
Other than their almighty block of 3 people total, nobody else in Europe gives a rat's ass about English, unless they are asslicking America, and every show is dubbed in the local language or it is NOT shown at all.
And if you want to talk about NATURAL bridge, pick a NATURAL language, not this useless shit.

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Jesus, who pissed in your corn flakes?

Everything I said is 100% true. This very board is proof of it. Here you have people from all over the world writing in English, and why? Because it's the one language everyone knows to some extent, and they learn it more and more precisely for this reason. Are there non-English boards to visit? Sure, but they're not as popular. Why are they not as popular? Because they are not as populous. And guess what, whenever I go abroad to other European countries, I communicate in English, because by and large I do not speak the local language - but everybody understands a bit of English.

And when non-Scandinavians visit Norway, what do they speak? Every jack one of them asks if we speak English, because 1) they don't expect us to speak French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, or what have you, and 2) they know a bit of English. Hell, even Germans prefer to use English, even though most Norwegians know a bit of German. That's because their English is better than our German. So English is indeed the natural choice.

Which brings me to your next faux pas: how is English not a natural language? And how come YOU are communicating in this "useless shit"? Now, you can either realise how dumb you've made yourself look and retreat in silence, or you can entertain us some more by showing us how deep you can dig your hole. Or you can surprise me and apologise for your infantile behaviour, and we can continue the discussion with no further embarassment from you. Just in case you try to be a coward and delete your nonsense, I'll paste it here so people can see what I was replying to:

What a delusional, idiotic mentality.
Scandinavia can go suck some US dicks. And they gleefully do.
Other than their almighty block of 3 people total, nobody else in Europe gives a rat's ass about English, unless they are asslicking America, and every show is dubbed in the local language or it is NOT shown at all.
And if you want to talk about NATURAL bridge, pick a NATURAL language, not this useless shit.

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Ignore him. Apparently it offends him on some level that English has grown to become the world's most common lingua franca as a result of the worldwide spread of the British Empire, and the later rise of the post-WWII United States as a global superpower. The idea that people voluntarily adopt a second language as a common means of communication, because it makes life easier when we can all understand each other is a problem for him, if the language adopted is the primary language of a country he hates.

It's the mentality of a petulant child -- someone who hates reality, and wants it not to be.

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The irony is that he expresses his opinion in flawless (if juvenile) English. According to his own reasoning, this is because his country licks America's ass - and he went along with it.

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I used to love this movie when it came out, but the more I watch it the more flaws I see.

In that particular scene, Bryan mentions that he's going to increase rates, etc... and just mentions percentages, has no idea of what amount of money he's talking about and that satellite drivel makes no sense either... in the end they just give him a couple thousand euros at most... they had the money like in a little box.

Taken movie without Liam Neeson and particularly the phone threat-kidnapping scene would have been a 3/10.
With him it's a very entertaining-watchable 6/10, but no more than that.

I'd recommend watching Man On Fire with Denzel Washington as a superior film with a similar story.

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I have the same problem with The Hunt for Red October. For some reason the entire Russian submariner crew start speaking English after the opening scenes. So unrealistic.

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Do they speak Russian at the start?

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Yes

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They speak Albanian, not Russian.

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We're Talking about the movie Hunt For Red October, champ.

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Oh sorry

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All good 👍

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Fuck r u talkin about?
In THFRO hey make a CLEAR point to tell us that the movie shows them in English for our benefit but they are still speaking Russian.
When they meet the Americans that stops.

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Poe's law in effect. LOL.

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Was that supposed to be sarcastic?
The OP was not sarcastic, your comment sounds totally dead serious.

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I was mocking the OP.

There's a time and place for subtitles. In many cases, subtitles are appropriate. In other cases, the flow of the film is better when it remains in the primary language, with the understanding by the viewer that it could be or is an actual alternate language.

This is especially true in an action movie vs a drama, for obvious reasons.

The point is that the extortion scene took place the way it did. Whether it was subtitled for French or not is immaterial to the story.

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Ok.
I am a strong opposer of subtitles, unless it's a point of the story that they speak a different language.
But I have to agree with the OP, in the context of this film, he is dealing with Albanian kidnappers in Paris. This scene is ludicrous, he pretends to be a French inspector but he speaks only English, and they even respond to him in quite a decent English. Only an American would buy that as authentic.

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Either way would be fine for me.

If it were spoken in French with English subtitles, then it would be more authentic. But keeping it in English helps the flow of the film, just like switching from Russian to English did in THFRO. The point of the scene remains the same and it's easy enough to just imagine that it would be in French.

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"But I have to agree with the OP, in the context of this film, he is dealing with Albanian kidnappers in Paris."

I like this film. I do, however, remember watching it for the first time and thinking that scene was just awful.

I like the way the language was handled in The Hunt for Red October. It is difficult to have English-speaking characters in an environment that doesn't speak the language and make it look realistic. The quick transition from Russian to English was handled as well as can be expected in Red October.

But this scene was like Louden Wainwright's dead skunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu5hzc2Mei4

It stank.

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Yes THFRO should be the standard for movies with different languages. Unfortunately some asshats are sold on subtitles and think that's a half decent way to enjoy cinema.

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This is true. A lot of movies do this and while I don't mind I prefer subtitles.

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"I have the same problem with The Hunt for Red October. For some reason the entire Russian submariner crew start speaking English after the opening scenes. So unrealistic."

I always thought it was clear how they switched languages mid-sentence,check this clip out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEvwbxcRaCQ

"That elegant shot where they switch from Russian to English by dollying in on Putin's lips, landing right when he says "armageddon" (which sounds the same in Russian and English), and then dollying back out."

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I'm guessing you didn't read through the rest of the thread?

[–] aavfreak (1167) 7 months ago
I was mocking the OP.


Yes, our are correct. It was clear how they switched languages mid-sentence. That's why I used that particular example.

The point I was trying to make to the OP is that sometimes it makes more sense to just keep the film in the same language for the sake of the overall flow of the action, rather than adding in subtitles for an alternate language - just like an entire Russian submarine crew speaking English for the entire movie in The Hunt for Red October.

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Could be they all speak English as it is a predominant language in the world. Could be they all speak French but that would be useless to a movie marketed predominantly in English speaking nations of the world so the dialogue is in English. Nobody wants to watch a several minute scene relying on subtitles. Nobody in the Star Wars universe should speak English but most of them do. Most races in Star Trek do not speak English but their ability to communicate is explained by a universal translating device. Nobody is going to watch a movie or television that makes extensive use of subtitles.

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