Subtitles? - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Discussion

[–] kbarada 14 years ago

iffatall, don't be afraid or overly concerned about the occasional use of non-engligh language in this or most any other movie. The greatness of this movie comes through. Remember, most of the main characters did not understand Spanish very well and did just fine....Dobbs being the exception, but not because of his language skills.

Just watch the movie and you will see!

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[–] HoneyBakedHam 14 years ago

Part of it (small portion reall) but it's not entirely necessary to understand what isn't in English. Part of the English dialogue is also briefly explains some of the non-English dialogue also.

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[–] romefan123 10 years ago

Wrong. To me, this was an unnecessary distraction. I get they strove for authenticity...but there was too much of it. Turned the film for me into something less than spectacular.

"You can just stand there, ... and let him kick your ass!"
--Sensei Terry Silver Karate Kid III

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[–] svenrufus 10 years ago

I've just watched it, and as I recall pretty much everything was translated by the old guy as it was said. The exception was the brief bit with the bandits as they killed Bogart, then again as the bandits were rumbled and arrested. In those moments it was patently obvious what was happening because of the way the film was put together, so I didn't think it was a problem. I can understand being frustrated from a completist point of view, wanting to know everything that was said, but I don't think it affected intelligibility.

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[–] kbarada 10 years ago

Look at it this way romefan. Our American gold seekers were strangers in a strange land. Would you have every native Mexican speak in English just so you would not be distracted? Now that would be disingenuous and so far removed from the actual experience of Americans traveling in Mexico in the 1920s as to be unbelievable.

If you thought the film was something less than "spectacular", then there must have been other reasons why you felt that way. On the other hand, maybe not as I'm not sure of the depth of your appreciation of this classic film.

The Spanish portion of the dialog was in my opinion necessary in portraying just how risky a situation our prospectors had placed themselves in for their quest for gold

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[–] ancamg 9 years ago

I also wonder why didn't they use a sub script for the Spanish dialog. I understand Spanish quite well and I admit it was not a philosophical dialog, and it didn't add too much to the message of the film, but I agree it would bother me if I had no clue what they were saying. What I noticed is that s few times they spoke Spanish almost as a foreign language (slow enough). I doubt real Mexicans speak like that in everyday life. It was a lot of dialog in Spanish, but most of the time the English part partly explains/answers the Spanish lines.

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[–] sadsayeed 9 years ago

So, no one so far got any English subtitles for the Spanish parts or at least some Scripts for those?!?! I searched on subscene, opensub, etc found none. It'd be really helpful if there was any... :(

??? It is not the Answers that Enlighten, but the Questions ???

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[–] liscarkat (19395) 6 years ago

Ninety-nine percent of the movie is in English. When Spanish is spoken, it's either translated by one of the English-speaking characters, or you get the gist of it from the context and the speaker's gestures.

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[–] BillySlater (4281) 5 years ago

Not quite. The Bandits talking amongst themselves isn´t translated when they confront Dobbs. Neither are the parts where they are captured by the authorities. It would certainly bother me if I didn´t understand what they were saying. Walter Huston didn´t speak any Spanish and mis-translates a few things the Mexicans are saying but nothing too important.

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[–] brux (14840) 5 years ago

It's all in English as far as I can remember. It's an American movie.

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