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This is so true. Watch an older, say, 1950s movie, and every word is crystal clear. Nowadays it’s as though no one bothers to train any actor in diction, and they don’t care if the audience understand the dialogue or not!
I am glad I am not the only one! I thought it was just me getting old.
I have the subtitles on all the time. Never dubbing though.
I am a native speaker of French with near-perfect English.
I use subtitles if available for original content in both languages.
I'd rather have subtitles than bad voiceovers...like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Lion" - it was butchered by the voiceovers and yes, reading is a bit tedious but worth it.
Also...sometimes I need subtitles depending on volume, background sounds on the movie, and accents otherwise I miss dialogue. So yes, mayb e tiresome if I'm already tired but if it's a good movie it's fine
Counterpoint - obviously you can't be doing anything BUT watching the movie if it's a foreign film with subtitles - you can't be browsing on here, for example - you have to give it your full attention, and maybe that's actually a good thing.
Does having to refer to subtitles exhaust us, especially when we are already tired? Or is there just something of a lullaby in that language?
Nope. I can read most subtitles in a fraction of a second and go back to the action and there is also "repeat" button that can be used as needed.
If I would eliminate movies with subtitles, I would miss so many awesome foreign movies which I watch almost exclusively.
Maybe, if more foreign films were available, popular and subtitled, the American people would become more interested in them?
Sadly, I noticed that many great movies get bad reviews solely based on the fact that someone wasn't able to keep up with reading the subtitles.
I think, most Americans aren't used to movies with subtitles, because most popular movies in the world are from English speaking countries like USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The rest of the world especially Europe and Asia grew up watching movies with subtitles, so watching them is totally natural to them, as is to me.
(not to mention that subtitles serve millions of people not only for hearing differences, but also for language learning, and more.)
But I do understand why some people dislike such movies, especially when they can't give them undivided attention. Many "watch" tv and check on their phone, or work, or do house chores, or juggle the needs of their children at the same time, and want to be able to understand what is going on without looking at the TV.
I have no problems with closed captioning or subtitles. I started using CC when I was in college with a number of hearing impaired friends (back in the 90s) and I never dropped the habit. Now I have a harder time watching TV or movies without.
I was watching Great British Bake Off with my mother over the holidays, and we had to turn on the captioning because the variety of British regional accents was too much for her to decipher with only audio.
I am glad I am not the only one! I thought it was just me getting old.
I have the subtitles on all the time. Never dubbing though.
I am a native speaker of French with near-perfect English.
I use subtitles if available for original content in both languages.
I don’t think this is preferred because it sounds unnatural for everyone in a specific country to have the same accent and speech patterns. Some people may be hard to understand, but that is typically more representative.
My only real problem with some subtitles is that they are inaccurate/poorly written. There are also times when I may have something on while crafting or doing some other project and obviously subtitles are not going to work. I do find that they can be helpful when the sound profile is off or if I am watching something on my phone in the gym when they have different music on in the background or I forget my headphones.
This is so true. Watch an older, say, 1950s movie, and every word is crystal clear. Nowadays it’s as though no one bothers to train any actor in diction, and they don’t care if the audience understand the dialogue or not!
I forgot who it was, but I once heard a famous actor director complain about actors not speaking clearly in recent movies. I personally think there maybe other reasons too for not hearing clearly what is going on in movies is that flat screen TVs sound system is just not as good as the old analog TVs were. The speakers are in the back of the flat screen. The other is the way TV shows and movies are edited. Now using sophisticated digital editing software programs, editors can easily use every bell and whistle from those apps to distract, such as using every sound and visual crossfade known to man, causing so much sound that it is difficult to understand what the actors are saying, not to mention a whole lot of flashes, resulting from over use of visual crossfades. Its annoying, and distracting in which many turn English subtitles on in a English speaking movie or show.
I don’t think this is preferred because it sounds unnatural for everyone in a specific country to have the same accent and speech patterns. Some people may be hard to understand, but that is typically more representative.
To clarify: "Training in diction" does not mean ironing out everyone's accent so that they all sound the same. It means teaching people to enunciate clearly and project their voice so that others can hear it. One can have good diction in a Southern accent or a New York accent or any accent. It is just the opposite of mumbling and slurring words.
In a movie with a dialogue that the viewers have to understand in order to grasp what is going on is not the time to showcase the fact that some people are hard to understand.
I forgot who it was, but I once heard a famous actor director complain about actors not speaking clearly in recent movies. I personally think there maybe other reasons too for not hearing clearly what is going on in movies is that flat screen TVs sound system is just not as good as the old analog TVs were. The speakers are in the back of the flat screen. The other is the way TV shows and movies are edited. Now using sophisticated digital editing software programs, editors can easily use every bell and whistle from those apps to distract, such as using every sound and visual crossfade known to man, causing so much sound that it is difficult to understand what the actors are saying, not to mention a whole lot of flashes, resulting from over use of visual crossfades. Its annoying, and distracting in which many turn English subtitles on in a English speaking movie or show.
This, too.
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