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Subtitles

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It's been said that certain moviegoers are turned off by the idea of sitting through a foreign film and being forced to read the yellow translation known as subtitles. They feel that following along with the action and the text projected at the bottom of the screen simultaneously is far too distracting and makes watching foreign film a chore as opposed to entertainment. What's odd about to me is that we live in a society where we are constantly bombarded with visual imagery as well as scrolling words along the bottom. One has only to view most news programs and they get a clear idea that we are actually able to watch a news program dealing with one topic while we read the constantly scrolling news flashes at the bottom. Another point of view is that we are a society of mutli-taskers. We can drive, text on our I-phone, brush our teeth and watch our GPS tracking system all at the same time. So why is watching a movie in its original language while reading a translation at the bottom of the screen considered such an odd thing?

Those who import foreign film would say that subtitles are essential to the full understanding of a feature. Everyone from the screenwriter to the actor to the director has painstakingly worked to craft a "perfect" interpretation of the material. For an audience that is not a native speaker of the language to dub the roles takes away the subtle nuances that most imports have in common. Subtitles help the audience achieve a greater understanding not only of the story and the actors' performances but give insight into the culture where the film takes place.

When films are dubbed, often the crowd viewing said film spend more time noticing inaccuracies in the dubbing and making fun of the voices of the actors reading the translation. Imagine if Ang Lee's masterpiece "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had been released with the actors' voices dubbed. We would have lost the connection between the beautiful lilt of the Mandarin language and the performers' multi-layered performances. Pedro Almodvar, arguably one of the greatest directors of all time, writes stories that are so unique and specific around Spanish cultural ideas that having them dubbed into English only muddies our understanding of the quiet truths he manages to weave into every quirky tale he tells.

The majority of great movies are more than just narrative film. Often they are allegorical commentaries on society. A perfect example of this is the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" which functioned as two tales-one of a man pursued by a psychopath and the other an aging man witnessing the ever growing gray lines between good and evil and his place in it. (Perhaps subtitles of this second story would have made it a clearer film viewing experience for some who felt cheated by its anticlimactic ending.)

Subtitles are a wonderful, subtle way of interpreting the films of other countries without losing the beauty, timber and vocal shadings of the performances. It also allows the audience to enjoy it as a multi-media experience-the sound of the voices and the language, the visual of the action and the immediate gratification of seeing a translated version of the entire happening. In reality, subtitles create a truer connection to the heart of the film and if a person is willing to invest the time and energy to seek out a foreign film, they are probably enlightened enough to know that their enjoyment will enhanced by the subtle, constant appearance of subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

Learn more about this author, Eric McKeever.
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