When the Burton/Eastwood team walk out of the woods in their German uniforms into the town, I expected there to be a language barrier. But remarkably everyone speaks English. Are we supposed to believe that the Eastwood character speaks fluent German without an American accent? Are we supposed to pretend that language is not an issue? Or do the Germans in that town all speak English?
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I seem to recall when Burton was briefing the team, he mentioned something about one of the reasons they were selected is because they were all fluent in German.
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During the briefing scene when Colonel Turner says "You all speak fluent German" I always thought the line should have been "You all speak fluent German which doesn't matter as all the Germans speak English."
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Did it not cross poetbandit's mind that it IS possible to speak another language fluently and also with the accent of another nation. Otherwise spies would be out of a job.
With your feet on the air and your head on the ground, try this sig with spinach, yeah!
The current state of US linguistic ignorance hasn't always been the case. Remember that America was a nation of immigrants. 1st generation Americans of the 30's and 40's were often able to speak their parent's homeland's language like natives. My own grandfather was fluent in German- he spoke it like a native (his parents were born and raised there). He joined the Army in 1917 during WWI and went to France where he translated for his officers and later interrogated German POWs. He would have had NO trouble passing as a German native, and there were thousands like him; children of immigrants.
shareLanguages change too, and German in 1944 didn't have the same ring as German in let's say 1900. Maybe your grandfather wouldn't show any accent, but he'd have been short of words for stuff such as "aircraft", "gas pump", "arrested prisoner", different kinds of weapons and tools. And he'd have had trouble understanding some words and nuances the natives took for granted. Pick up a newspaper or any film made since 2000, it's peanuts to find words and phrases that nobody would have used like that in 1970 but which are common now. But of course, Eagles isn't meant to be realistic. As someone pointed out here on the board, the German soldiers in the film couldn't even have taken Luxembourg.
raf-33: well, spies in wartime are either recruited among natives (on location in the target country, preferably) or among people who speak the language without any foreign accent. At least not the accent of an enemy country. Nobody would try to recruit ordinary Americans to infiltrate al-Qaeda if they were fluent in Arabic or Pashto (an Afghan language) but were white and showed an obvious US English accent.
After the revolution everything will be different. Your password is 'Giliap'!
He would have had NO trouble passing as a German native, and there were thousands like him; children of immigrants.
My high school Spanish teacher did in fact pass as a German native during WWII. I don't recall the full story, but he spoke German fluently and had to pose as a local at one point in order to avoid being taken prisoner or killed. It worked.
And yes, I'm sure we're meant to understand that the characters are speaking German at the relevant times during the movie.
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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
The funny thing to me was that pretty much everybody spoke American-style English, except the SS officer. For some reason, he not only had a german accent, but seemed to "play" it over-the-top. In other words, it seemed like they were actually trying to imply that "this character is extra-German".
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Except that the SS officer was wearing a gray uniform. The guy in a black uniform was the Gestapo :)
shareThis very question was brilliantly parodied by MAD Magazine in their comic spoof called "Where Vultures Fare." You can probably find that strip somewhere online :)
"Major, right now you've got me as confused as I ever hope to be."
Is this really that hard to figure out? Is this your first WWII film? Stick with "Porky" and it's sequels, if you need things that simple.
shareNone of you get it, do you?: It's a MOVIE, schmucks!:-)
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There are several scenes that really should've been in German, amongst them:
-The arrival of Gen. Rosemeyer and his inspection of the soldiers.
-Burton and Eastwood arriving in the town, making small talk to avoid suspicion.
-Burton pretending to be Himmler's brother to other Nazis at the gesthaus.
-The exchange between Von Hapen and Kramer, when Von Hapen was angry at not being informed about the presence of the agents.
-Burton's conversation with the Helicopter pilot and another officer.
-Everything between Mary and Von Hapen.
-The telephone call to Wilhelm Wilner.
-Von Hapen's unexpected arrival on the interrogation scene.
-The aircraft communication at the end.
Everything else works in English, I believe. I guess we're to believe that they are actually speaking German when they're speaking English in the appropriate situations.
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5184666
Nope.
Nothing in German if you are going to have the characters speaking English with the understanding it's German.
Spoils the ilusion big time.
There are some rules. For instance:
- every time when people are supposed to talk in one single language and the dialog is significant, it's spoken in English, since this is the intended target of the movie.
- every time when people speak, but the dialog doesn't matter, it's German, in order to bring out authenticity to the movie. Like, when the soldiers are given orders witch one to go where while searching for the escaped prisoners.
- if any circumstance would have presented itself to have both German and English on screen (for instance, if the American would have been exposed as such and the German officer would try to interrogate him, the officer would try a bad English and would comment in German), both languages would be present. But the script was as such that such occasion never arrived, the American was passing as German and German was used.
Usually the language used for one or the other line is deduced from context. What if every SciFi movie would have to spend half of it showing the long time it would take to learn the language of the alien encountered? The action would suffer... It's a convention used throughout the whole movie industry. Just like time being "shortened" during the movie due to leaving out irrelevant events.
every time when people are supposed to talk in one single language and the dialog is significant, it's spoken in English, since this is the intended target of the movie.
- every time when people speak, but the dialog doesn't matter, it's German, in order to bring out authenticity to the movie. Like, when the soldiers are given orders witch one to go where while searching for the escaped prisoners.
Usually the language used for one or the other line is deduced from context. What if every SciFi movie would have to spend half of it showing the long time it would take to learn the language of the alien encountered? The action would suffer... It's a convention used throughout the whole movie industry. Just like time being "shortened" during the movie due to leaving out irrelevant events.
As far as I remember, on "A bridge too far" every time German was supposed to be spoken, it was spoken. Every time Dutch was suppose to be heard, it was heard. Did that reinforced the sense of realism? Probably, but it added a layer of difficulty since the American public (or, on a larger scope, English speaking public) are not used to read subtitles, and providing subtitles mean they are forced to read them (and not follow acting) in order to understand the action.
And I don't think I remember when in Star Trek were Romulans speaking English and being mentioned that the language spoken is Romulan... For instance, in Star Trek Enterprise, on the episode when T'Pal is invited aboard the scientific vessel to spend a few days studying something, the language spoken with fellow Vulcanians is... English. Obviously, they're speaking Vulcanian but as a courtesy for the viewer, English is used in order to avoid subtitling and forcing actors to speak nonsense while acting as they knew what they're talking.
Films must be accessible in order to sell. That's the sad truth and nothing we wish will change that.
BTW, I'm Romanian, and so used with subtitles that I read them instantly, without even thinking. So I am able to enjoy every movie no matter the language spoken... :)
I just assumed it was like The Hunt for Red October where the foreign language is translated for the audience the difference is the Germans and the spies never have to interact in seperate languages so you never notice
shareActually I would disagree on that one..
In the very late in the movie Jack Ryan makes his way into the Red October and is in that vessel the only Amerian that can understand Russia. He has also some "Russian" dialogue with the captain of the ship.
Without this scene it would work perfectly, but I think it's one of the stupidest things in the movie and it does ruin some of the atmosphere. Especially since it's quite difficult to see which part of the confersation the other Americans don't understand.
In Where Eagles Dare it's not that much silly as everyone is still supposed to understand everything so it never doesn't build up this same question.
As for to do the scenes like this in general, I think it's stupid. It works well in Indiana Jones type movies, but with a very serious movies like this one I think it's a bad call..
It seemed to me that any German with a name spoke English, but all the lower rank soldiers in the background spoke German.
shareThis was one of the things that annoyed me about this movie. Really, in general, older "classic" movies are so English-centric. But here it's just inconsistent. Ok, we know that they all speak German so we can assume that when they speak to the Germans, they are speaking German.
But there are times where we hear the Germans speaking German to each other. Like during the big castle blow up. If those had been in English too, I wouldn't have minded it. I mean, compare it to something like Inglorious Basterds, which uses language correctly.
Compare it to a movie made 40 years later? Funny thing is, I saw this on it's first release and we never noticed (or cared ) back then about the language issue.
How about the fact that Sean Connery plays every part with a Scottish accent? And refuses to budge on the issue? The only reason he was not allowed to do so on James Bond was because Ian Fleming wrote the character as an Englishman.
Amazing that such a post gets so much discussion.
The whole team spoke German and are except between each other.
The movie is in English for the benefit of the audience.
This is SOP for a WWII movie.
To the OP - do you think about what you are saying or just write it down anyway ? Do you seriously believe that in time of war a bunch of Germans are going to meet up & have a chit chat in ENGLISH !!!! OMG !
That which does not Kill me makes me Stranger . . .