I just couldn't get passed the usage of English in this film. I'm a purist in this way, and this aspect just totally irked me. I'd even go as far as to say it ruined the otherwise pretty good movie. The acting was good and the concept was unique and fresh. If only they'd been speaking German it would have recieved an 8 from me and not a 5.
uhhhh...u do realise then majority of people who have watched this film wouldn't be able to understand it. Many people don't like subtitles so wouldn't watch it. I wudnt be suprised if there is a film in Germany a bit like this which is in German. but this was made in English speaking countries FOR English speaking people. duh.
shareThere's these nice little things called subtitles. "Duh".
Subtitles are distracting and don't allow you to concentrate on the work that is put out by the actors nor do they allow you to fully appreciate scenery/set design. On movies shown on TV, they are often illegible.
shareI disagree strongly with this one..
I watch my movies in Finland (mostly on TV) and ALL of the has subtitles (in Finnish). Never have a though that they are distracting or would make my not to concentrate on the work of art the film is..
For instant - I would never want to watch a foreign film that has been voiced over in Finnish..
Also - I did watch this film with subtitles. As I would have watched it should it be in German..
And I do agree with the original poster. I think it is a shame that everyone speaks English in this film. Yet they do break the illusion all the time when they call people in German (as "Frau" or "Herr").
I think if they wanted to make this film in English it wouldn't be so bad, but to partly use English and German mixed I get a feeling that this is New York and all the characters are migrates from Germany.
I guess you can't walk and chew gum at the same time either, huh?
"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'
well there are plenty of movies that are set in other countries which have gotten great accolades despite their use of English. A good example of just a few, The Sound of Music, Schindler's List, and a ton of other movies set in other countries. This one is no different from those. i work for a dvd rental chain and cannot even tell you how many people were annoyed with Mel Gibson's decision to film Passion of the Christ in Aramaic.
give me your tots
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I noticed how none of the main characters had accents...then I got technical,....Maybe they arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre speaking German....but for the view of the movie...it's in English....eh?
I dunno.
It let me stop thinking about it.
yeah gotta agree
shareyes but if they went to the trouble of speaking English with a German accent then why not just have done it in German. Or better yet, dump all those Americans and Brits. they should have been like the Harry Potter films. HP doesn't use anyone that ain't some form of British (be it English, Scot, Irish, etc). so why didn't they make Swing Kids with real German kids.
shareI found the use of English really jarring at first and personally I would have preferred it to be in German. Commercially I can understand the use of English, but what I really struggled with was the American accents.
Scenes with British accents would still have been better if spoken in German, but the use of American accents above all else really spoils the realism in my opinion. It's difficult to really believe the characters, especially in the film's early scenes. Thankfully I found the film involving enough to get over this later on. But if you look at a TV series such as Game of Thrones, all the characters speak in British accents. Now imagine an American accent in this setting... It's seem really out of place and, frankly, weird. I think Swing Kids suffers from the same sort of problem.
Having said that, there are certain elements that work better in the [English speaking] viewer's native tongue than if they were in German and subsequently subtitled. In particular the propaganda scenes, with German citizens listening to radio broadcasts on street corners, or the Hitler Youth watching films about the supposed evil of the Jews. These scenes would perhaps have less impact if in German, but by hearing the propaganda in English the viewer gets more of an impression about what it may have been like for German citizens at the time, the propaganda they were subjected to and decisions they had to make... with this ultimately being what the film is about.
"i work for a dvd rental chain and cannot even tell you how many people were annoyed with Mel Gibson's decision to film Passion of the Christ in Aramaic."
Funny. I don't usually mind subtitles; in fact, in a foreign-language film I prefer them to over-dubbing in English (usually with much inferior actors); no matter how well-timed the dubbing may be, the lack of synchronization with the movements of the characters' mouths is distracting.
Having said that, I found the use of Aramaic in THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST a bad choice; it created an additional distance between the story and the audience in what was already a bloody, off-putting, and ultimately rather disgusting and pointless film.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><
Oh wow, that makes total sense...bash a movie because they made it in a language you might understand, This wasn't a Documentary, and alotta people find subtitles Annoying, as you're constantly scanning the subtitles and the actors performances at the same Time...Who wants to do that if they don't have to?...Sheesh!
"We Make Everything You Need and You Need Everything We Make"
i know the perfect eample for you: watch M (german movie look it up if youdont know it) ita german movie which is subtitled in english. i am german and do think im quite capable in the use in the english languae as i have been studying it at university for quite some years now. anyways the subtitles are ridiculous, one doesnt get half the things in the subs that are said in the movie. my point is that subs cant always represent the movie adequately so I personally think thats not an alternative. i watched the movie both in enlish and germanand think its great but its not better in german and doesnt "feel" different. :-)
Well, I have the german version of the movie..
shareI've seen the movie in both English and German. Usually I prefer the original language, but I must say that I think they did very well in the German synchronization and I actually prefer it over the English version. Couldn't say though if the subtitles were any good.
shareI didn't mind the usage of the English language. I'm normally one for authentic language, and don't mind subtitles. But as someone said before, masterpieces like Schindler's List were in acted in English.
But one thing I hated about Swing Kids was that the central cast had American accents. It completely undermined the whole theme of the film, of the swing kids giving in to the American jazz influence Hitler condemned. As everyone in the film was a mixture of American, English and poorly imitated German accents the authenticity was ruined to a large degree.
I did however enjoy the film. But the fact the cast took no consideration for the accents was a huge flaw for me. In some of the earlier scenes I kept on having to remind myself it was set in Germany, not in America. It seemed a bit awkward and cheesy.
actually the use of American and mildly British accents was a perfect touch. at least by the Swing Kids. Why? Because these kids were sticking a finger up at all things German and Nazi. they don't dress the Nazi way, don't listen to approved Nazi music. why not not speak like a bunch of Nazis.
also, at that point in time, the actors may not have been talented enough to pull off an accurate German accent so to try would have made things sound really stupid
What do you mean by "at that point in time"? Are you saying that because of the cast's age they weren't able to do the accents?
I doubt that was a factor, many actors can cope with accents regardless of age. Child actors perhaps being an understandable exception. I'm sure however that the cast could have coped. They are an exceptionally talented group of young actors I think, and they were fairly mature while shooting this.
Not taking anything away from what I feel is a pretty darn good movie, but the accents, not the language detracted from the experience for me.
Except if they would have been speaking German, most of the world wouldn't have understood what was being said.
But, I agree, inasmuch as they could have not sounded so very American. I don't want the steretypical acting German accent, but at least use the indistiguishable Eurpoean accent.
But then, ancient Romans always seem to have British accents in the movies - so what can you do.......
I generally assume, in movies where the characters aren't English-speaking, but the movie is, that they ARE speaking German, but that they're being represented in English so that we can understand them, if that makes sense. Almost as if the audio recording device has a Babel Fish in it. Obviously, I know that the actors are speaking English. I just assume that the characters aren't. Looking at it that way, it wouldn't even make sense for them to have accents of whatever language they're 'really' speaking. It makes sense for them to have the typical accent for whoever is making the movie, because it's the familiar, normal thing to the people watching, just as their accent and language would be the familiar, normal thing to the characters in the movie. I usually think it takes away from a movie when they have accents for the setting and they aren't doing the language for the setting. It calls too much attention to the way they sound, I think, because the characters would sound 'normal' to each other.
shareI think about it that way too! makes it easier. anyway, subtitles do take away from the acting and imagery. Plus they are often done wrong, like many lines are left out or incorectly translated, i know the people doing it are onlt human, but still it is better to have it ina language that can be understood by more people.
shareI too am troubled by films depicting realities in other countries where other languages are spoken, which are filmed in English. It's just not historically accurate or even plausible. I hated Schindler's List being in English, along with many other films (Enemy at the Gate, parts of The Pianist, The Dancer Upstairs, and many more). The idea that Americans must have films in English is ridiculous. We can read subtitles, though may not be accustomed to it. Some of us even speak other languages. Despite these comments, I recently saw Swing Kids again and appreciated it so much.
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