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From: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Subtitling vs. Dubbing
Message-ID: <791@mcnc.mcnc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Sep-85 11:07:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcnc.791
Posted: Tue Sep 10 11:07:06 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 23:42:07 EDT
References: <356@decwrl.UUCP> <1138@mtgzz.UUCP>
Reply-To: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes)
Organization: North Carolina Educational Computing Service
Lines: 28
Summary: 

I used to abhor dubbed films, generally because the dubbing was so absolutely
awful.  Within the last few years, I have noticed that dubbing has developed
into an art form of its own.  "Das Boot" is a case in point.  The English
dubbed version is a much more faithful rendition of the original than the
subtitled version.  The lip-synch is wonderful and in places the pitch and
rhythm of the language are actually *better* than the German, depending
upon what is being discussed.

This isn't always the case.  My wife and I happened to catch "The Wizard
of Oz" dubbed in Italian when we were in Rome this summer.  The dubbing
over Margaret Hamilton was wonderful, and the person who dubbed Judy
Garland managed to actually capture the nuance of the voice, as did the
individual who dubbed Bert Lahr.  Most of the jokes actually made it
intact and the substitute puns were inspired. "There's no place like
Home" however, was translated to something on the order of "There is no
place to go like the place where you originally came from" and had to
be stretched over two iterations of the original.  Sorta destroyed the
final mood. 

We also saw an episode of Star Trek dubbed in Italian which got me rolling
on the floor hysterically.  Italian is definitely not the language of
technicians ("pushbutton" translates literally to "little thing that you
hit".)  Somehow "Signor Spock" loses a certain flavor.

-- 

						Byron C. Howes
				      ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch