MovieChat Forums > White Squall (1996) Discussion > Not Dutch!

Not Dutch!

posted 19 years ago by ZeZzyce
19 replies | jump to latest

I saw this movie a few days ago, and I enjoyed it very much. But what really annoyed me was that the "Dutch" girls were nowhere near being Dutch! The girl who slept with one of the boys (I can't remember who) said "Jeg vil også savne dig!" (Danish for "I'll miss you too!"), and that is not even close to being Dutch! You can also see in the credits that the actresses have Danish names, and the teacher (I think) was born in Copenhagen and has been in several Danish movies.
Why didn't they use Dutch people?

[–] shannonm75 19 years ago

I thought Danish was the same thing as Dutch. Pardon my ignorance.

Spiders eat Internet Trolls...

[–] Stratego 9 years ago

I thought Danish was the same thing as Dutch.

Wow!

Now if they were the same thing, then why would there be two different names?

[–] ZeZzyce 19 years ago

That's quite alright! I understand your mistake as Dutch is in fact (as far as I know) a mix between German, English and Danish.
Dutch is the language spoken in Holland and Danish is spoken in Denmark. Not many people know anything about Denmark as it is a very small country (in Scandinavia), and it is easy to overlook. You might have heard about H.C. Andersen who was a very famous Danish fairytale writer?! And of course Viggo Mortensen who is half Danish! :-)

[–] helentje 17 years ago

zezzyce said:
Dutch is the language spoken in Holland and Danish is spoken in Denmark.

well, that's not true, dutch/flemish is also spoken in Flanders (Belgium). Because I do :)

"Tomorrow never comes... It's always today..."

[–] mlamers 17 years ago

And in the Dutch Caribean and in Surinam!
And South African is closely related to Dutch!

>well, that's not true, dutch/flemish is also spoken in Flanders (Belgium). Because I do :)

[–] arlycan 17 years ago

You may also have heard of a famous Danish guy, Hamlet. I think he was prince or something?

[–] yurenchu 13 years ago

as Dutch is in fact (as far as I know) a mix between German, English and Danish.

No, it isn't!

~ Everyone is unique, except for me ~

[–] Stratego 9 years ago

That's quite alright! I understand your mistake as Dutch is in fact (as far as I know) a mix between German, English and Danish.

Uhm, it absolutely is not.

[–] ragreen259 19 years ago

If you're referring to Bregitta, she's supposed to be Danish, not Dutch.

[–] LubbeT 17 years ago

Yeah, they were supposed to be Danish! Well, originally they were supposed to be French, but seeing as Camilla Overbye Roos (who plays Bregitta) is Danish and doesn't speak French, they decided to cast Danish exchange students and au-pairs to play the girls.

[–] RoyWaller 17 years ago

wat maakt het uit

[–] reactie 17 years ago

Not much.
Danish is often mistaken for Dutch. As is German. :)

[–] mudita 17 years ago

Oh god, I've seen this movie many times, and it's only after reading this post, that I see the girls are danish :s I'm from Denmark!

[–] marcchanois 17 years ago

what're danish girls doing in 1960's caribbean islands??

it could only be english ,french,dutch, spanish

[–] jhc202 13 years ago

It makes sense that they're supposed to be danish, since the teachers name was Jensen. As for the "jeg vil også savne dig" it sounded so broken that I doubt many danish people would understand it... I did not! To me it sounded like a non-danish trying to speak danish, so perhaps they kept the French girls and fed them a few danish lines?

[–] mgulev 10 years ago

Jensen + the girl speaking danish = possible movie mistanke made on purpose. Maybe Scott the director thought it would be believable if the ships captain didn´t know the difference between dutch and danish, and left the mistake in the movie as an easter-egg for danes and the dutch.
Or maybe Scott himself doesn´t know the difference and doesn´t care.....

[–] Stratego 9 years ago

Jensen + the girl speaking danish = possible movie mistanke made on purpose.

It isn't, an early draft of the script describes them as being and speaking Dutch.

[–] fugazzi49 9 years ago

The mistake really stood out to me. They were described as Dutch before they actually appeared but then turned out to be Danish. I even checked the closed captioning and it said "In Danish". Ridley Scott is known as an extremely meticulous director and I can't imagine him leaving in a script error that could have easily been fixed. I have to agree with the post that postulates that Captain Shelton didn't really know the girls' nationality himself.

[–] Stratego 9 years ago

Ridley Scott is known as an extremely meticulous director and I can't imagine him leaving in a script error that could have easily been fixed. I have to agree with the post that postulates that Captain Shelton didn't really know the girls' nationality himself.

An early draft of the script describes them as being Dutch students from Curacao and speaking Dutch. So it seems more likely that for some reason they changed their nationality during filming. Perhaps because they couldn't find anyone who spoke Dutch in time. It also makes more sense for students from that region to be Dutch rather than Danish.