Movies portaiting cultures propperly

[FrogMarch]

Maybe not London then, but there's at least one Mr Bean in Devizes (little English town).

He occasionally buys stuff from the shop where I work. Mostly, though, he drops/breaks/spills stuff instead, and then apologises in a high-pitched mumbling voice to the world in general, while trying to rectify the situation but inevitably just getting in the way.

But yeah, Shaun of the Dead does portray England pretty well. Especially the zombies.

[Chicky]

Ahh, isn't Devizes great.

[Pumaman]

Farlander: No, there aren't. I don't know anyone that acts like Mr Bean, in London or out.

She's right, nobody in Britain acts like Mr Bean -- we all say "jolly spiffing", "what ho" and "terrible weather today" whilst wearing bowler hats and carrying pocket watches.

[FrogMarch]

No, no, that's a completely unfair representation.

We Brits actually go around looking like this[/b].

[m0ds]

Trainspotting is fairly accurate to where it's set, I guess. I certainly beleived it as a Southern UK viewer. Natrually it's not like they are "all" like that but I thought that film gave a good representation of drug-addicts up north.

I know people with as much common-sense as Mr Bean, but they're not EXACTLY like him!

When Hollywood portray England they do get a lot of things wrong, just to please American audiences. I heard that a lot of people walked out of Trainspotting because they couldn't get their head around the accents the characters used. That doesn't surprise me. It's not a particularly appealing accent.

One example of a slightly strange portrayal was in Domino, reminissing about her days in England, she was at a fair and there was French music playing, which made very little sense to me but I'm sure it made perfect sense to American viewers.

[skw]

Erm... sorry for gravediggin' and offtopicing (it's NOT an movie and it DOESN'T portait Polish culture properly) and all, but...

http://fakty.interia.pl/swiat/news?inf=732172 (click "odtwórz" or "zobacz reklamę!" to play this s*it)

Okay, it's quite funny, but the very part of Polish community don't approbate such a behaviour. And so do I... I don't know what to think, I'm pissed off. It's really annoying when a country where you were born and its people are said to be like that. It wasn't my choice but I don't feel shame for this reason.

:/

[edmundito]

Is it me, or do most british movies that make it out of england (err... James bond, Harry Potter, etc. etc.) have people speaking very proper English, though when I'v talked to the brit/welsh AGSers they all spoke with different accents! (The exceptions are the movies by Guy Ritchie.... and Trainspotting!)

Lots of movies reflect part of the culture of that particular country, though some times it's hard to distinguish the fact from the fiction, which may suck if you're insterested in learning about other cultures. I do hate people who expect to go to see a movie that is historical-esque as if they were trying to skip reading a book or whatever. It's a just a movie! To entertain! To make distort reality into something exciting!

Like, I remember watching Y Tu Mamá También, which takes place in Mexico, and it does reflect a lot of stuff that is authentic to latin america (if you've seen the movie, stuff that happens on the road like kids charging a fee for toll by using a rop to stop a car, etc. etc.), though I wouldn't say that all mexicans or latin american best friends are sex hounds trying to score with the same woman.

And yes, all American cowboys are gh3y.

[Kinoko]

I've met quite a few Brits over here and they're all pretty different. Some are the lads, wif deir strong accent, like, ...and some speak in a very proper way and are quite reserved. One of them, I swear to god, is so Hugh Grant. I hate Hugh Grant yet this guy's really awesome and me and another American guy and about half my students have crushes on him. I quite like them all on the whole, particularly the "lads" though it did take me a couple of weeks to get used to their humour.

[m0ds]

They have proper English accents because of stereotypes, and most accents aren't easily understood by majority audiences across the globe. American movies usually seem to give English guys a really annoying Bob 'oskins accent.

[InCreator]

Well, I'm quite bothered by the fact that in EVERY Hollywood movie, when Russia is shown, it's... SNOWING. Especially in Moscow. But fact is, summers there are much hotter than many other places in Europe, 25-30 degrees Celsius is no miracle.

Also, I haven't seen a movie with REAL Russian language spoken. Always some horrible, not-understandable mess that only a true yankee would buy (in some movies, Bruce Willis himself tried to speak some, this is what ROFL really means...). This always led me to an idea that getting a job in Hollywood as a proper culture portrayer/critic and language specialist would be a piece of cake. Man, they're so dumb...

[Kinoko]

But you all wear those fluffy, tall hats and do that it-looks-like-I'm-sitting-down-in-mid-air dance, right??

[InCreator]

To clarify: I'm NOT a Russian, neither live in Russia. Estonians could be easily mistaken by Finns, but Russians are waaaaay another people, culture, language, etc, etc. Then again, it's only 180 km to border of Russia. And about 40% of our local population is Russian (Well, in part of city where I live, 90%  ).

Stupid hats and dance? Well, every nation has hats and dances. But as with others - things like this could be seen only at a folk festival.
Described hat and dance applies more to some far-eastern nations, like Tatars, Mongols, Georgians, etc, not Russians, btw.

[Kinoko]

I um, was kidding Just in case you thought I was serious

[InCreator]

Nah, just rambling

But a true Russian would take it very seriously. They're EXTREMELY sensitive. For example, you may be friend with someone for 100 years, sharing everything... and this can be simply ended if you have a good (silly) mood and make even a simple, innocent practical joke on your friend... That's kind of unsecure thing about them.

[Alynn]

First off, I hate to say it, but the majority of American culture is ignorant of other cultures. This has mostly to do with the size of the country. In Europe you have tons of countries, and cultures, packed into a much smaller area than the US, much easier to be exposed to those other countries and cultures. It also has to do with, sadly, nobody really cares to know.

In the US, we have multiple cultures within the same country, say for instance the upper parts of North Dakota, and say Georgia. However all in all, we are still the same people.

Now anyone that thought Pulp Fiction was anything but fake is a moron, hell at the beginning of the movie they give you a definition of what Pulp Fiction is. The whole movie should have been viewed from that perspective (which I did, and which makes it such a great movie).

Now when it comes to hollywood productions, I'm sure they went for close enough in most cases. For instance the french music being played in that one movie. My guess is, either their researchers couldn't find any English music that fit the mood they were going for, or they wanted to convey the multicultural aspect of Europe.

Now as far as accents, I've gotten a handle on many of the accents I've heard so far. Some I've heard are very thick, even though I'm still in England (Cambrigeshire to be exact), however, I met a nice Welsh woman (who we bought our dog from) and her accent was easy to understand.

Now, when it comes to using the stereotypes, such as the Ireland red head fights example, all in all, most cultures are similar. People just want to go to work, make money, provide for their families, and come home and spend time with those families. This however, is what we all do, why the hell would we want to go spend 8 bucks (your local price and currency may vary) to watch what we all do anyway? We go to escape. So stereotypes are used to help provide that escape. Yes in Ireland there are all sorts of haircolors, and temprements, however, if you add in more sterotypical people and behaviors, it becomes more of an escape, and less like real life.

Bottom line, if anyone watches any (non Documentary) film with cultural references, and believes it whole hartedly as a complete and accurate representation of that culture, is a moron.


EDIT: Oh I forgot, Military. There are very few war movies done that are a good representation of the US Military and how things Actually Are. Some have little things, like wrong ranks on the collar, some are huge, larger, like rank structure, or just how we do things.

Anyway.... Thats that.