How good or accurate was it? Input from native speakers or fluent speakers would be greatly appreciated. I think this is the only aspect of his character that made it distance himself from the one he played in Inglorious Basterds, that this one was able to speak another language besides English.
shareAs a native speaker, I can only say that,apart from his sadistic and wanna-be-tough guy attitude in this crap, listening to him speak German also almost made me want to throw up.
shareWell I don't think his accent/skill at the language is supposed to be perfect
shareI think he only knew enough to get by .. if he spoke perfectly , then I would have questioned it .
"A man that wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough".
Close enough considering that the character probably never studied the language but just picked it up from the last war.
shareHe sounded absolutely retarded
shareIt was better than mine and I had two years in HS.
shareI am a native speaker and I can only confirm he sounded (and also looked) retarded.
shareWhy did he look retarded? His hair? I'm sure that German tank units of that time had hair stylists but American units didn't.
shareyip, cos if tough-guy-wanna-be hair cut (and attitude). Completely out of place.
shareDolphin84, you must be on Team Aniston. Lol
shareActually that undercut hairstyle was appropriate in that time.
Google Hitler Youth hairstyle - In Nazi Germany, a version of the undercut haircut which was long on top but shaved at the back and sides was popular among Wehrmacht officers
Pretty good! He spoke better German than the "German's" in 60s Hollywood war films :).
shareHis selection and range of words was quite funny sometimes. He came across as somebody who has a basic grasp of the language and a bigger vocabulary but little experience in actually speaking. His accentuation and pronouncing was mostly very strange.
When he asked the mayor about the SS dude hanging the children i didn't understood him. Like not at all.
That's the point. Little experience. He's not German and not a native speaker so of course it won't be perfect
shareThank you for that detailed answer. It must be like when American actors attempt to speak Spanish on films. Nine out of ten times they have a decent vocabulary but a mega crap accent and sometimes they are very hard to understand without subtitles.
shareHe came across as somebody who has a basic grasp of the language and a bigger vocabulary but little experience in actually speaking. His accentuation and pronouncing was mostly very strange. ]
His German cannot be as bad as his Italian in "Inglorious basterds". ...
I'm Winston Wolf. I solve problems.
...And no dream is ever... just a dream...
Lt. Aldo Raine:...Omar speaks third most (Italian), so he'll be Donny's assistant.
Pfc. Omar Ulmer: I don't speak Italian.
Lt. Aldo Raine: Like I said, third best.
Sure it's not perfect, but you can understand him and that's all that counts. He's speaking as if he learned German in a field expedient manner.
What about "Bible's" English? Does that accent make people sick? Accents are no big deal and we're all used to them. His word choice is strange but that's to be expected. When I speak French, I often use the wrong word, but I get the point across. That's all that matters.
What about "Bible's" English? Does that accent make people sick?
Dolphin - who cares if you are a native speaker Pitt's character was not trying to come across as a perfect one like you. He was trying to come across as an American who had some working knowledge of the German language and that's it, he wasn't trying to come across as the characters in other movies trying to impersonate someone in the German Army. If you were in the Wehrmacht or SS at the time and his character was speaking to you, could you understand what he was saying? If you could, then that's all that matters but you sounding like he has to be perfect would be like me knocking someone living in America who speaks English but with a Spanish accent. Who cares as long as I can understand them!
shareExactly.
I am starting to think Dolphin is French where if the accent is not perfect its nothing but ridicule.
I would say most of the time Brad Pitt didn't understand a word of what he was saying in German and was just reading the lines - with a horrible American accent.
But since he was playing an American after all, I felt that his bad accent actually gave his character more credibility.
I think the character had a working knowledge of German. Possibly from the prior war. I'm sure my accent is worse.
shareolphin - who cares if you are a native speaker Pitt's character was not trying to come across as a perfect one like you. He was trying to come across as an American who had some working knowledge of the German language and that's it,
Pitt's German may have cost the movie's IMDB rating by about 3/10ths of a point.
Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL! -Bruce Dickinson-