# Dubbing is evil

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbing-is-evil/184205>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 25, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbing-is-evil/184205 "2003-06-25T02:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dubbing-is-evil/184205/41 "2003-06-27T04:12:57Z")

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Looping is SOP-- they did it for the whole thing because the ambient noise on-set made it a necessity. The actors were still speaking German when it was originally filmed. The chronology goes [ol][_]Filmed with a German crew, from a German script[_]Six hours of German dialogue recorded for German miniseries version[_]Pared down to 2 1/2-hour version and subtitled for North American theatrical release the same year[_]Dubbed into English featuring the voices of many of the original cast and rereleased a year later.[/ol]If you have the opportunity to check out the DVD, you’ll notice that the dub (although a better effort than usual) is at variance with the subtitled lines, because the English dialogue had to be massaged to closer match the mouth-movements of the original German-- this artificial constraint gives many of the lines an awkward, stilted feeling, apart from never _quite_ matching up with the visuals.

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