You’re watching a movie that was filmed in a language not your own. You have a choice between the original audio and subtitles, or dialogue dubbed into your own language without subs.
What do you generally prefer?
I was just having this conversation earlier today. Dubbed. I almost never just watch a movie. I’m cooking, cleaning, working, moving around, etc. It’s gotten to the point that I get (mildly) antsy in movie theaters where I’m expected to spend two-plus hours doing just one thing. Sitting down and reading a movie to know what’s going on is not for me.
I generally prefer the original language with subtitles. Not much takes me out of a film more than dialogue not matching up to the mouths speaking it. Subtitles bother a lot of people, but they don’t bother me; a lot of times I’ll leave the subtitles on even for stuff that’s in English, for various reasons.
Depends on multiple factors.
Live action - subbed, with a handful of exceptions, where the downside of dubs is actually part of the experience (the older Godzilla movies (except for the first), some old French Canadian stuff that I have a nostalgic fondness for, etc).
Animated - if it’s something I want to watch while doing something else, dubbed. If it’s something I’m going to be paying full attention to…depends on the quality of the dub - a seriously good dub, like Cowboy Bebop? Will totally watch it dubbed. An OK, but not great English dub…probably subbed, unless the original language dub is bad (it happens, especially in anime - there’s one particular style of ‘young girl’ voice that makes me want to poke my eardrums out with a rusty spoon). A bad English dub, the subs, even if the original language dub is also bad.
Some movies, I’ll do both on different rewatches!
OL w/subs, always.
I think films like Tora Tora Tora and the Longest Day would have been far inferior if not using the native languages of the speakers with subtitles. Far better than the buffoonish Hunt for Red October which started out with the actors speaking Russian but after a few minutes all the Russian sailors were speaking the Queen’s English.
Always original language with subs except for this.
Technically, I’d have to say it depends on the movie. In general, I find subtitles distracting, and have trouble keeping my attention on the storyline. I am aware that this preference identifies me as a mouth breathing knuckle dragger.
I voted “it depends on the movie.” For a seriously arty film, I want to hear the original dialog, even if I can’t understand it. I want to hear the emotions in the voices. I can get the meaning from the subtitles. But if it’s just a frivolous action flick or comedy, without a lot of depth to it, make it easy on me and give me dubbed dialog.
Original language with subtitles in English. Of course I already have the subtitles on because I’m deaf as a post.
How about an undubbed Passion of the Christ in Aramaic? I don’t that would have gone over well.
If you see a dubbed movie you are not seeing the real movie, IMHO, just a bastardized version.
The fact that you don’t hear the real actor’s voices is bad enough, but they actually change the dialog to try and fit the movement of the actor’s lips.
When I learned that I decided to never see another dubbed movie.
(which is getting increasingly harder :/, I couldn’t see Winter Soldier in the cinema because all the damn theaters in Greater Buenos Aires decided to show it dubbed in Spanish, with a few screenings in English at really inconvenient times (think 1 AM))
Yeah, I want to see and hear the actual actors acting. Even if I don’t understand what they’re saying, the emotion comes through, and it comes through a lot less (or at least differently than the director intended) in a dubbed vocal track. Subtitles aren’t usually distracting to me at all. They can be, but it’s rare. And if I have something else to do that I can’t read the screen during the movie, I’ll just watch something else, and save the foreign language film for when I can focus.
100% original language and subs. There are many subtleties of foreign languages that can’t be conveyed by dubs and even subs.
Agree. I’m trying to think of an exception. There must be one, but I can’t think of it. I mean, sure, animated kids films, dubs are better because, well, it’s for kids and they may not be able to read subtitles. But, otherwise. No. I remember one time in college renting “Cinema Paradiso” from Blockbuster and I somehow ended up with a dubbed version. I wasn’t any kind of movie “purist” at the time, or even had any opinions about subtitles vs dubs, but, fuck, I could just not get through more than fifteen minutes of that movie, because the dubs were just bothering me so much.
Good example. Mel’s *Apocalypto *is another excellent example where dubbing would have ruined everything.
Original language with subtitles always. I usually have the subtitles on even when they’re speaking English. My hearing is crap, and anyway, with the captions on, often you’ll get dialogue (whispered, for example) that you wouldn’t be able to hear. And if there’s a song playing, you’ll get the words.
Can’t stand subtitles, they take your eyes away from where they should be. Dubs are usually terrible but at least I can watch what I’m supposed to be watching instead of the bottom of the screen.
Dub-overs absolutely ruin it. Original track, with English sub all the way.
I think it’s the art house snobs, and herd mentality. The Crowd doth proclaim that subtitles are the one true path, and all others shall be exiled. So sayeth the Crowd.
Who is to say if the subtitles are any more accurate than dubbing? Subs have to condense dialog to fit, and of course their accuracy depends on the skill of the translator. It’s just luck if the subtleties come through in either form.
Fortunately, we have choices. In general, I prefer dubbing, because then I can actually watch the movie. You all talk about things in the actor’s voices that convey information? How about being too busy reading subtitles that you miss some action in the corner of the screen? or miss the character contradicting what they are saying with their eyes or gestures?