I haven’t decided to spend $8.00 to see this flick-what intrigues me is how Ford labored to acquire a russian accent! According to the critics, it is phoney…but why is Hollywood so concerned about accents? I grew up thinking that the Germans in WW II were all Englishemen! (Think of James mason as a Nazi officer). So why the rush to Make Harrison Ford sound like a Russkie?
Is the movie true?
I heard them interview the author of the book on NPR. The sub accident happened.
The movie was made by the National Geographic Society. It is a true story.
Well…based on a true story.
I blame Meryl Streep. She raised the bar on accents to unreasonable heights.
I have to figure, the character would be speaking Russian, not English during the action of the fil. Therefore, his listeners wouldn’t notice an accent, as they would be listening in Russian.
Maybe if they made sure he had a thick Georgian accent, one which would make the hair on the ears of his Muscovite crew fall out…
I was tempted to start a pit thread on Ford making a pitiful effort at a Russian accent. I have a feeling it will be painful. Especially since Ford’s not a great actor.
sigh, i listened to the view today, sigh. according to mr ford they did russian accents so it would not be a bunch of american and brit accents. to remind the movie goer that this was a russian boat, this was a russian story. no wild cowboy americans in it.
i figure it was either use russian accents or all the actors learn the lines in russian and have sub titles.
i could go either way with it. having the actors use a mix of american, canadian, and british accents would be like having a group of ukranian, russian, and belarus actors speaking russian. each has a different way of saying: “park the car.”
I liked the way The Hunt for Red October “morphed” the Russian language into English in the beginning. IMHO, it made it easier for the actors and the audience.
Quasi
Get it! sub titles!?!? In a sub movie!?!?!?
hahahahahahahahaha!!!
Well, of course it’s phoney. He’s not Russian! 
The whole convention of having actors portray foreign characters by speaking in accents is pretty dumb, but it’s not too distracting in the movie. Actually, much of the time, Ford’s accent is not that pronounced–he’s seems to be barely doing it at all, which is a lot better than overdoing it.
For more, here’s a review: http://nemo.spoutnic.com/page.asp?id=323
Ford worked with a dialect coach to get the accent.
I have heard many people grumbling ‘How can all-American Ford play a Ruskie?’ Well he is an actor!
It is based on a true story. This, IIRC, is the second film from Nat’ Geographic (the first being Snow Dogs) but this is the first that they put their logo on the front. They want to assure the audience that the film comes with thier standards of research.
(I read all this in a NY Times article)
I wonder how many critics are expert linguists?
The National Geographic commercial at the beginning was breathtaking. Those guys packed some great shots of nature at it’s most beautiful, powerful, and destructive moments.
The Movie kind of blew. Slow. Mildly interesting cause it’s true, but hard to watch without falling asleep. If I saw one more damn drill I would have passe out. Way to take ALL the sexiness out of what it would be like working on a submarine.
Basically, my least favoritre sub movie. Even a bad sub movie is good. Like pizza.
DaLovin’ Dj
christ, for a moment there i was thinking HF cameo in K-9 remake K-9000! i was about to head on down to blockbuster… maybe i still will.
I was just watching a thing on the History Channel about the event. They had a small part on the movie.