I watched this movie earlier this week and found it engaging, emotional, and mesmerizing. But there is one thing I don't understand: what was the purpose of the headphones during the trial? Was it so people could hear translations of the different languages? If so, I find it rather odd to incorporate this detail into the movie since everyone spoke English.
[deleted]
Thanks. If this movie were made today, it would probably have had the subtitles.
shareI think it was the other way around. Yes, the headphones were needed because of the different languages being used. However, having everyone speak English was, in my opinion, a cinematic device to keep the movie from slowing down.
In the opening scenes, they have brief pauses while they show the translators doing their work. However, the audience would probably have gotten bored waiting for all that to play out. Early on, you see Maximilian Schell speaking in German and then he switches to English. From that point on, everybody is pretty much speaking English. The first time I saw this movie, I never even noticed the transition. I still don't unless I'm specifically looking for it.