Tonight I watched the Iranian edition of "Prince of Parkour: Sands of Time" and I enjoyed it immensely. It had lots of sand, parkour, and the inevitable spoiled cheeky princess in a rare anarchic kingdom that entirely lacked the necessity for kings and queens altogether. This is probably due to a high consumption of Meth in Ancient Persia, which also explains why they're so excited to have thrilling ostrich races throughout the film as they're governed by someone called "Princess Stamina" in this anarchic neighbouring kingdom and ... oh, and lest I forget to tell you, the aforementioned ostriches have suicidal tendencies. Pure awesomeness.
Wat
However, amidst this completely normal arrangement of events, something bothered me as strikingly bizarre. Everyone talked with a distinct English accent barely used by contemporary Brits. Even the American actors! What gives? It sounded as though Tehran was in a temporal chasm parallel to the City of Westminster sometime in the 19th century. I find that particularly irksome because in ye olde Britain, people sounded more like Americans than the poshest students in Oxford nowadays (e.g. they pronounced all their R's, for one thing) as American English has been more conservative than most of their European counterparts, which is far from being something exclusive to the language. Also, if they just spoke English with a Farsi twist, it'd make much more sense.
This is not just restricted to cinematic adaptations of computer games. The one thing I remember from Star Wars is that everyone from the dark side must have been borrowed from the Harry Potter franchise, otherwise they wouldn't sound like that (I can't remember the official nomenclature of the bad team, but I'll just call them "The Republic" because they scare me as much as republicans do). It was even more widespread in the Lord of the Rings: I don't remember hearing a single Yankee in the trailer, but haven't bothered to check if there was one in the trilogy. Was there?
I bet you can come up with dozens of different examples, but what is going on? This is not like the opposite of "House MD" where American actors need to pretend they're bloody aristocrats so they can sound convincing to a foreign audience. Rather, it's like a Hollywood law: All foreigners sound like Hugh Grant. Every single one of them. I bet one of you can find a film starring a blond and Europeanised Jesus that talks like the friendly tea-sipping saviour of humanity Hollywood would eagerly make him out to be.
I don't reckon the Armageddon will be televised, much less adapted to the big screen. But, just in the odd case it will, I bet all the inhabitants of the world will speak their respective languages, or they'll just speak American English with a thick accent, whereas all the knights of the apocalypse, the Devil, God, and pretty much everyone involved will sound like Tony Blair. Mark my words!
Why? Beats me.
CORe version: John Lennon's Britanicity scares the hell out of Hollywoodians and, surprisingly, Yoko Ono is not to blame. Other than your opinions on this bizarre phenomenon (really, I'm curious to understand what's going on!), I'd like to know what you thought of this post. I'm thinking of starting a blog about language, written like that. Did you enjoy it?
Sushipunk
I like the way you write, and would find the style entertaining to read in a blog.
I have no idea about the answer to your question(s) though, other than the knowing it's a Hollywood trend to have the villain (in anything at all) speak with a British accent of some type. Because the British are evil, I guess.
Lilith
quote:
Originally posted by Sushipunk
it's a Hollywood trend to have the villain speak with a British accent of some type.
Unless we're from the west, then we're all pirates, possibly villainous pirates.
Sushipunk
quote:
Originally posted by Lilith
possibly villainous
Ah ha! See!?
Lira
Does that mean John Lennon is potentially scary according to Hollywood standards?
Sushipunk
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Does that mean John Lennon is potentially scary according to Hollywood standards?
People from Liverpool sound scary to everyone....
bas
Congrats Lira, you've borrowed approximately 90% of stand-up routines from the early-mid 90s :p
Fledz
Lira, as a c0r vet yourself, I am disgusted at your lack of c0r version :whip:
Lira
quote:
Originally posted by bas
Congrats Lira, you've borrowed approximately 90% of stand-up routines from the early-mid 90s :p
I did? :p
quote:
Originally posted by Fledz
Lira, as a c0r vet yourself, I am disgusted at your lack of c0r version :whip:
Ooops, sorted.
Lews
Most of the scenes in the first three Star Wars films were filmed in England, using actors that were hired there. Almost everybody except the main cast were English actors and hence all had English accents. During the editing process for the first film they decided to dub over the voice of the Rebels with American actors to make the Empire sound more cultured, refined, and, uh, empirical.
Sorry that paragraph sounds so awful and jumbled. I feel really weird right now. Hopefully I answered a question, though.
Lira
You did, you did.
Hah, I had no idea...
DaRoZa
quote:
Originally posted by Lews
Most of the scenes in the first three Star Wars films were filmed in England, using actors that were hired there. Almost everybody except the main cast were English actors and hence all had English accents. During the editing process for the first film they decided to dub over the voice of the Rebels with American actors to make the Empire sound more cultured, refined, and, uh, empirical.
Sorry that paragraph sounds so awful and jumbled. I feel really weird right now. Hopefully I answered a question, though.
incidentally i was watching spartacus and they seemed to employ the same technique there.
i'm not sure why proper british accents seem to strike a chord in movies in classical settings. i think in a weird way it alludes (maybe not the best word) to the colonial brits.
