The Spur of the Moment Land Deal that Created an Empire

[Graphic]

Unfairly so. As far as historical revisionism goes it's not exactly an insulting change like "screw history, Americans save the day", and beyond that it is exceptionally well acted, well written, and somehow tense despite already knowing how it all turns out.

I hate Tom Cruise and I still couldn't bring myself to dislike the film.

Well that's relieving. I still haven't seen it, and I want to like it, but I've heard "things."

And there are all kinds of American accents. Midwest, New York, Boston, Philidelphia, Southern, Texas, Bayou, etc. Just not as many as, say, England, and they're not all crammed into an area the size of Florida. The variety of British accents still amazes me

Though anywhere west of Texas features the most neutral sounding English language accent I can think of. I live in northern Nevada and people just don't have accents of any kind, it's weird Everyone sounds like Stephen Colbert.

[A Very Super Market]

No, no, no, you always have an accent. Talking in neutral American English is an accent called "American English". A bit like how "RP" is considered a separate accent in Britain.

[Graphic]

Of course, that goes without saying. From my perspective, it's the most neutral.

[A Very Super Market]

Bah, humbug. Vancouverites have the most neutral accents anyways. Unless you're an immigrant, which is half of the whole city

[HKDDJulker]

I'm probably in the minority on this, but whenever Napoleon (or any character speaking a non-English language) is in a movie with English dialogue, they should have no accent whatsoever. Either that or actually speak French (or whatever language the character uses). I never understood the mocking of movies like Valkyrie for not using German accents (though from what I hear that movie deserves to be mocked for other reasons, like making the conspirators out to be noble peaceniks). A German guy put it perfectly, he basically said (I'm paraphrasing): "I've never seen a German movie set in America where the actors use fake American accents in German. If it's in English, let it be English." It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it, honestly. I don't need to hear the actors pronounce W's like V's to remind me that they're supposed to be Germans. It's in English, speak English normally then. Best example I can think of right now is The Pianist.



[/unrelated rant]

You wanna talk about bad accents in movies, how about Enemy at the Gates. The Russian characters really truly do have English Accents. Its one of the most ridiculous things i've seen in recent history.

[A Very Super Market]

If you had read his post more clearly, you would see that we would praise the lack of theeck Russian eccents in Enemy at the Gates. What do you suggest as an alternative to this? Have them speak Russian?

[Belgolas]

Well we are all on the subject of accents and languages. India has a new language like every dozen kilometers. It makes it hard sometimes. Well at least for my brother when he was down there.

Anyways everyone has an accent. The reason why north america has so many accents is because it has very large countries.

[Megas Methuselah]

The reason why north america has so many accents is because it has very large countries.

What? Then explain the much more varied number of British accents. Quite a small country.

[SpiritFox]

What? Then explain the much more varied number of British accents. Quite a small country.

Imperialism. When you begin picking up peeps from all over the world, you start to talk funny.

[A Very Super Market]

I was under the impression that British imperialism would not extend to white, British countryside farmers.

[SpiritFox]

Started with the Romans. :P

[Graphic]

If you had read his post more clearly, you would see that we would praise the lack of theeck Russian eccents in Enemy at the Gates. What do you suggest as an alternative to this? Have them speak Russian?

Yeah, Enemy at the Gates is actually the way to do it if you're not going fully Russian. They tried Russian accients in K-19 The Widowmaker and it was really weak and fake sounding, it added nothing to the movie. And at it's worst the actors sounded like bad Yakoff Smirnoff impersonators.

[Tillan]

I would just like to point out, that as a Brit, I have no accent. Not that any yank friends I have think that =p

Also, I dont see the problem with full russian/german/whatever language is used. Subs are not that hard to read while keeping up with the film.

[Graphic]

Yeah the actual language is always best. Apocalypto would have been such a different (and inferior) movie if it didn't have Mayan dialogues.

[Liberator]

First, WWI broke out ...... Then there was the post-war economic failure...... Which was part of the reason Germany actually elected Adolph Hitler(that crazy Austrian?)......Who caused WW 2...... Which ended with nukes...... which resulted in the Cold War...... Which led to Korea/Vietnam...... And finally gave us Hippies:

I think it's a widespread misunderstanding - Hitler was never elected (In a way, say, Americans think of being elected) at all.
His party, the NSDAP, had notable success in elections in the early 30s, but it still failed to gain absolute majority.
Hitler finally came to power as he was appointed as Chancellor by President Hindenburg in early 1933.
Even after taking over, the NSDAP failed to win an absolute majority in March 1933, necessitating maintaining a coalition with the DNVP. This was the last election in Nazi Germany (and you might guess, it wasn't a fair and free one)