The main thing I appreciate about this movie was that there was no requirement for the non-Russian actors to speak with a phony Russian accent (Ex: K-19 the Widowmaker), which is how I believe all films set in a foreign (non-English speaking) country with dialogue exclusively in English should be treated. It simply makes for a more enjoyable viewing when one isn't distracted by a relatively good actor's awful accent.
shareI'm not sure I agree with that. I think if a movie takes place in a foreign country, there should be an accent. You mentioned K-19, but I'll suggest Dr. Zhivago(sp?) to counter that. I saw that movie on TV when I was young, and right from the start I thought it was British. It took me a while to realize it wasn't, then I had to put everything into a different perspective.
"The only second chance you get is to make the same mistake twice." - David Mamet
I think I would have preferred a phony Russian accent to the phony British accent that Hurt used. That is one thing that always cracked me up about this movie. American playing Russian speaking with British accent. Other than that I loved the movie.
shareIf you want a laugh, watch "The Eagle has landed".... Micheal Caine playing a Nazi officer with his cockney accent ;-)
shareIMO, there should be no accents when a film is set in a foreign country, with characters that are from that country, and where only one language is spoken. In that context, as part of the audience, you know the characters would actually be speaking the foreign language. It's just being presented to you so you can comprehend it better, as opposed to having to read subtitles.
In Gorky Park, we know that the characters would have spoken Russian to each other. Therefore, there's no need for us to hear a Russian-accented English to remind us that they're supposed to be speaking Russian. That's redundant.
The problems start when you have these characters enter a different setting where a different language would be spoken. Or when you have characters speaking multiple languages, which did happen in Gorky Park.
This is less problematic in novels, of course. Using Gorky Park as an example--when you read the English of Arkady speaking with another Soviet, you know they're speaknig in Russian without having to be told. Only when the author explicitly--and I think Smith did this at times throughout--tells the reader that the language has changed are you aware that they've switched languages.
e.g. Arkady answered, in his best English, "blah blah blah. . ." The change in the language obviously signifies something.
But these problems only arise in movies where more than language will be spoken.
He was supposed to be fluent in English - it doesn't matter which regional accent he used. If he happened to learn English from a Cockney then that's what he would sound like.
shareWhen I went to Russia as a tourist in 1979 or 1980, I was told by the guides that they learned British English, not American English. Maybe that's part of the reason for using an English accent in the movie. Although, according to an English person who posted here, Hurt did NOT use an English accent. I think he tried to though. :)
I think characters should not speak English with an accent if they are supposed to be speaking their native language. An accent comes from an effort to speak a foreign language. Although it could be argued that when Arkady was speaking to the Americans, he should have used a Russian accent. But that would have been way too confusing.
I've read the book and seen the film. I liked them both a lot.
Michael Caine said that the most genuine Cockney accent he ever heard from an American actor in a movie was Forest Whitaker's in "The Crying Game." The worst he ever heard was Dick Van Dyke's in "Mary Poppins." Is there anyone here who could verify that?
I originally watched this film with my ex and of course, everywhere you looked there were red flags and communist symbols, etc., plus, everybody was calling each other comrade - despite no Russian accents. Suddenly half way through the film she turns to me and asks - 'Is this meant to be set in the Soviet Union...?' I kid you not so, sometimes lack of traditional accent can throw people, even non-blonde women...
This has always bothered me about the movie. I finally decided it was because it has an English director and he just decided to "blow off" accent issues by casting a bunch of Brits as the Russians.
So except for Hurt, they are all Brits ... or something. But then, why is Hurt's British accent so terrible? He sounds worse than Peanuthead Jolina in Tomb Raider.
His embrassing attempt sounds like he is going for "proper English" but they surround him with Brits doing a natural Cockney. What gives? It really is confusing as hell. Unless it is because they screwed-up casting Hurt.
I think I saw the character who played Golodkin (Sayle) doing stand-up once. He was hilarious ... and very Cockney.
"I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them."
You did see Alexei Sayle as a stand-up comedian. He is from British Communist background, and if you can ever get hold of his vinyl LP "Cak!", you can literally hear the embryonic DNA of Fyodor Golodkin oozing out of the grooves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Sayle
He also featured in the first Indiana Jones classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark' as a Mussolini-like Sjeik who falls in love with a Rolls Royce Phantom Silver Ghost. "And I even like the color ;-)"
His appearances as "Jerzy the Polish landlord" (and a range of lunatics credited as "the Balowski family") in the anarchic sitcom "The Young Ones" are memorial TV, even today.
Smashing bloke, as we say on this side of the great pond.
He also featured in the first Indiana Jones classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark' as a Mussolini-like Sjeik who falls in love with a Rolls Royce Phantom Silver Ghost. "And I even like the color ;-)"
Sayle is from Liverpool. His accent is normally referred to as 'Scouse'.
shareI watched Gorky Park last week for the first time since its theatrical release.
Hurt's 'accent', it's all over the place, vaguely antipodean, then tenatively British, then so opaque as to obscure identification. Missed that the first time, but what a strange performance, and how unusual that someone so adept as Apted (yeh) let it slide.
Long wait for a follow up reply if it matters any now, but I do remember seeing an interview, it couldn't of been more than a year or so ago, cant remember what show, I'm thinking it was Connan Obrien maybe cause he does his goofy accents but I'm not absolutely sure, where Cain did say that about Forest Whitaker's accent and about Dick Van Dyke.
Heres an intresting, or maybe not, the main guy from the Crying Game played in another sort of similar or comparable movie to Gorky Park called Citizen X. Been a while since I've seen it, but I wonder if they did the same thing with the accents or not, I'll have to go rent or something now.
Having been to Moscow on several lengthy occasions I can say that Hurts portrayal and demeanor is close to Russian, far more accurate than other actors have attempted. It would have been more appropriate to use real russians in supporting roles also. Its always nicer for an american to hear foreign accents, its easier get ''into" the movie. The producers go to the expense of filming on location or a location like Finland or Sweden to approximate Moscow, why not have the actors use a accent coach to get the proper Russian accent? Otherwise you get horrible movies like Troy where everybody uses bad british accents.
shareHa ha ... when I read 'The Eagle has landed' I thought for sure the name I would read next is 'Donald Sutherland' ! His accents in this and 'The Great Train Robbery' .... oh man. He did a little better in 'The Eye of the Needle', but not by much.
How Sean Connery dealt with it in the making of 'The Great Train Robbery' I can't imagine ... he must have been beside himself.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna hafta 2nd that. For me personally the double disparity REALLY took me right out of the film and made it completely unenjoyable to me. Clearly though for others, they prefer it that way. Now for another excellent example where they spoke in English but you knew they were speaking in German was the very well done 'JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG' They very cleverly STARTED out with translators for the first few exchanges and then smoothly transitioned over to all English. But the guys STILL had German accents.
Maybe it's just the way films have almost always been made where if they take place in a foreign country all the people have the accent of that country although speaking English (for an English film that is) maybe it's just simply a matter of preference. But RUSSIA... GEEZ... that honestly REALLY took me right out of the film, story, everything. But you make a good point though; the double disparity of everyone speaking in British accents and then William Hurt speaking some kind of hybrid accent just did me in as far as the film went. After 1/2 hour that was about it.
Although I WILL admit that if the bloody WRITING had been much, MUCH better than I might have muddled through the film or at least been ABLE to sit through it. The, in my lowly opinion, EXCRUCIATINGLY poor writing and the goofy way the people were all acting were the worst culprits to me.
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I strongly disagree. The British accents really annoyed me about this film. William Hurt kept drifting in between British and American dialect. I would have preferred a genuine attempt at a Georgian accent for authenticity's sake. Surely Hurt could have at least attempted a credible Russian accent unlike Harrison Ford or Kevin Costner's phoney English accent in Robin Hood. Joanna Pacula is the only actor with a believable accent due to her Polish upbringing. All of the Red Square lackeys speak with thick cockney accents that sound more like Scotland Yard than Red Square KGB.
share[deleted]
Watching the movie right now, this is how I justify my suspension of disbelief: As stated before, and as I have heard first-hand, the English taught in Europe is British-English for the most part. The reason for this is that one is more likely to speak English to/for Brits than Americans.
Going forward with this, I'm guessing it'd be very disconcerting for all concerned if Hurt/Arkady were to switch from Brit-English to Russian-accented English when talking to different characters. Or if Hurt were to speak with an American accent where all the other Euro actors spoke in Brit-English. As to why it drifts about: 1) His character is not a Brit. it's British-English through a Russian filter (and probably not spoken very often by the character). 2) I've seen the phenomenon of absorbing accents other people. A Texan in Canada who speaks in a Canadian tone if she's doesn't realize it's me on the phone, a Swede who arrives speaking Brit-English and leaves speaking like a Valley Girl. Arkady could very well unconciously pick up American stylistic traits in his conversations with yanks.
As to the issue of speaking in a Russian accent, I honestly think that's kind of dumb and a little condescending in a way. Sort of Frito-bandito if you would. I don't know if the syntax and rhythm of the dialog is typically Russian, but that alone tells me it's a foreign country.
Lastly, Hurt's too good an actor (and by accounts, too perfectionist) to give us a cheap lazy con job. I accept his characterizations whether it's a Russian cop or a Philly mobster or American drug dealer.
I always thought George Peppard did a great job in the Blue Max. He spoke with an American accent but he was believable. I think that's because his English was excellent in it's pronunciation. That's the trick.
When he did the film Tobruk, he spoke English with an attempted German accent and he sounded ridiculous.
I had absolutely ZERO problems with the actors not putting on accents (well, besides Hurt)
because I've seen it done before in The Hunt for Red October/Enemy at the Gates/ and yes Marie Antionette (movies which I like, and didn't mind the lack of acccents)
HOWEVER in this particular movie my suspension of disbelief was spoiled somewhat when they introduced American characters...
and they seemed to communicate perfectly (btw in Red October they tried to cover this up)
It just didn't fit. As some ppl mentioned it may work for the book, but on film it jars...
6.5/10
In the book, both principal Americans (Osborne/Marvin and Kirwell/Dennehy) speak perfect Russian with a hint of an accent that tells any Russian native speaker that these are not native Russians. In this context it seems perfectly reasonable that the only characters speaking with American accents are, in fact, Americans speaking Russian.
For me, William Hurt's accent, which was almost but not quite perfect British English, fit very well. The cockney accents were less satisfying but, arguably, what messed things up was Joanna Pacula's Russian acccent which, while very good, made you wonder why none of the other Russians had Russian accents. My opinion is that actors playing foreign characters who are ostensibly speaking their native tongue should not affect an accent approximating that of people from that country speaking English. They should only affect an accent if they are playing foreigners who are attempting to speak English.
it worked for me.
Season's Greetings
Although the characters don't speak with Russian accents the dialogue does come across as 'Russian' even from say Michael Elphick's character - something about its flow maybe. I found it more believable than phony accents. You forget rhar Rikki Fulton is Scottish because the way his lines come across make you think Russian.
Or is it just me?
"Remember, you have to make it home to get paid" (The Dogs of War)