Yesterday afternoon the WB network was showing Mad Max . No big thing, except after I tuned in noticed somethjing was different this time.
I realised it was the undubbed version.
Y’see, in AMerica, Mad Max has been shown on many networks, and every time it is the same old American relesaed that was done in the 70’s. The one that did the wonderful job of translating all the dialogue from Australian to American. Yes, they dubbed English to English.
I never know why they did it, the accents aren’t that harsh. But we’ve been punished with this version for ages.
Until yesterday, that is. It was a breath of fresh air. Was there a new remastering of Mad Max I was unaware of?
Well, there was a new DVD:SE release of it in January which was the original soundtrack. It’s beyond me why they thought people wouldn’t be able to understand the accents.
Ooh. I am interested to hear a response to this question. The dubbing really isn’t very good and detracts from the film, IMHO.
As a not-so-interesting aside, I managed to see both versions while I was an exchange student in Cheshire oh so many decades ago. The way I remember it is that the Americanized version showed up first as a bootleg and found its way into video stores before the Aussie version was released in the UK. In 1982 or so the bootleg was still by far the most available version, and my pals over there had to go to some lengths to find one that wasn’t dubbed.
I wonder if any of our UK friends can tell me if I remember this correctly? Thanks.
Just a quick comment that I was up late last night watching this on UPN for the first tim. I’d never seen it before. I have only seen the undubbed version, and I must say that I had trouble understanding a couple characters. Odd film all in all, the first 45 minutes or so are some of the most unsettling unintentional homo-erotic scenes I can recall. I wasn’t impressed.