by Phedre de Feuillide

Created on: March 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 10, 2010

We've all seen the stereotypical, badly dubbed Kung Fu movies, and laughed. There's a reason for that, dubbing is ridiculous, but ok, in the instance of kung fu movies it does tend to enhance the experience. We should all remember the awesome dubbed fight sequences in Wayne's World II, but I digress.  I consider myself as someone who watches a lot of movies, vast quantities of foreign films included, and I have yet to prefer a dubbed version over the subtitled one. Unless it's a kid's movie, where the audience might not be able to read, I don't even see the point of dubbing. I know that sometimes, foreign films are dubbed by big name English speaking stars to bring more publicity to the film, but that just seems to cheapen the work the foreign actors did. I cannot imagine that as an actor, you would want someone else putting their own technique and take on a character, plot, etc, and literally putting words into your mouth.

The worst example that I have ever seen of the very soul being taken from a film due to dubbing, is "Le Pact de Lupes" or "Brotherhood of the Wolf." This is not only my favorite foreign film, but one of my favorites in general. The effects are amazing, there's plenty of action and intrigue, and in its original state, the male actors come across as manly and intense. The dvd offers the film dubbed in English, so, one night I gave it a try. I guess with all the new fangled technology, matching up words with the movement of the mouth isn't so much of a problem, in fact, it wasn't distracting at all. What was distracting, and just bad, was how terribly the dubbed voices matched against the voices of the original foreign actors. It was terrible watching the badass Manny, a Native American, speak in a very high pitched, nasal voice, or having the lead actresses sound like fourteen year old girls. Not only that, but it's like the dubbed voices aren't even trying to put emotion in their performance, it's like listening to a bad book on a tape or a dry reading. 

In my experience, this is the worst problem of contemporary dubbed films. It's great when they can get the real actors to dub their own movies, which sometimes happens, but not nearly enough. It would be great to at least have voice actors that come from the film's country of origin.  I'm tired of watching Italian and French films dubbed by actors with Brooklyn accents, no offense meant to Brooklyn accents, but they just don't really vibe with 17th century France.

Subtitles are definitely the way to go. Watching a film in it's original language isn't as difficult as you might think and can help you brush up on a language or simply attune your ear to a new one. As a movie goes along, I am always surprised at how natural and easy reading subtitles is. They really become a non issue, and often, when I think back on the movie, the lines that were in a foreign language pop up in my mind in English. It's really cool. Subtitles only become a problem if you've downed a bit too much of the vino. So, maybe, just make sure foreign films are watched while sober if subtitles are difficult for you. Otherwise, they're the best way for a person to watch a foreign film and to appreciate the work of the the actors, writers, and directors who laboured to create the film in the first place.

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