# When Meaning is Lost in Alternate Titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2019, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724 "2019-09-05T07:58:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/1 "2019-09-05T07:58:10Z")
So, for the second time (that I can recall readily) I’ve watched a British film based on a British novel of the same name, released in the US under an alternate title that completely removes all subtext, leaving it devoid of any symbolism and all but the most literal possible interpretation. No clever play on words, no deeper meaning, just a bare surface: the new title is what it says it is and means what it appears to mean at first glance, and nothing more. What makes it especially frustrating is that none of this (at least in my examples) is even due to the necessary complexities of translation. The films and their titles are already in bloody English! The most recent example, and what prompted this thread, seems innocuous enough: Roman Polanski’s _The Ghost_, based on Richard Harris’ novel of the same name, and yet released in America as _The Ghost Writer_. What seems like a slight tweak to just clarify the title so people don’t go assuming it’s about a supernatural entity (and there isn’t any hint at the supernatural in the movie either, so no harm there) actually completely obliterates the deeper meaning. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can explain more without spoiling it. But before that, there’s a film I saw a while back called _Regeneration_, at least in the UK, which is (in my view faithfully) adapted from a novel by Pat Barker, also of the same name. It’s a fictionalized imagining of a real in moment in history in which the poet Siegfried Sassoon, at the urging of his then-friend and would-be famous author Robert Graves, allows himself to be holed up in a looney bin (hey, I’m using one of the fictional characters’ own words to describe the situation) to receive treatment from a noted British psychiatrist of the time, Captain W. H. R. Rivers, rather than persist with his loud anti-war message and face a court-martial. Oh, and the poet Wilfred Owens is there too (as he was in real life). On one level, it’s about regeneration in the sense of trying to recuperate from war-related psychological trauma—shell shock, if you will. But more broadly it’s about broken spirits coping with war, whether due to front line trauma or the experience of treating and interacting with those people, and on yet another level it refers to a dream Rivers has about an old colleague of his (also based on a real-life person) who did experiments on nerve damage and… regeneration of said nerves. Due to the ethical ramifications of trying to experiment on a human with a conveniently (surgically) severed nerve in a laboratory setting, this doctor experimented on himself by having the radial nerve severed in one arm, leading to a lasting impairment which he then attempted to describe over the course of several years. Rivers participated in this study, but in the dream his friend instead drives the scalpel to Rivers’ own arm. I think the point of this relatively brief mention of a historical incident and it’s supposed effect on Rivers, with wording that explicitly harkens back to the title, is that in trying to heal, or study ways of healing, the healer himself may be wounded. And of course he, Rivers is, psychologically scarred (at least in the fictional account) by his experience of trying to treat those with war-induced psychological trauma. Particularly as his treatment, if successful, may result in a patient being sent back to the trenches, perhaps to die. And if his treatment isn’t successful… well, that kind of sucks too, doesn’t it? Having failed to heal them, they will endure lasting impairment from their (psychological) injuries, just as his friend did not fully heal from the experiment to his arm (which, again, in the dream is to Rivers’ arm, as he is tormented in his waking moments by the moral dilemma of healing men so that they may go and experience further trauma. Hmmm…) See how all that ties into the title, _Regeneration_? One word, yet so deep. Of course the US release kindly changed the title to _Behind the Lines_. Because that’s where the main action of the film takes place. In a hospital, geographically behind the lines. Get it? Anyway, add on, discuss, or don’t. Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/2 "2019-09-05T11:02:41Z")
I thought one of your examples was going to be _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_ - perhaps not as egregious as the two you mention, but it seems to fit. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/3 "2019-09-05T14:11:48Z")
Hmm, neither of your examples is on Wikipedia’s [List of works with different titles in the United Kingdom and United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_with_different_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_United_States). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/4 "2019-09-05T18:51:37Z")
Does [Puck Man](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/37847/was-pac-man-originally-named-puck-man) count? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/5 "2019-09-05T19:06:24Z")
**Moderator Action** Moving thread from MPSIMS to Cafe Society, our home for the discussion of artistic works such as films. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/6 "2019-09-05T19:30:18Z")
Italian [sword-and-sandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword-and-sandal) movies might be set in Greco-Roman mythology, ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, or even medieval Europe, but when they were dubbed into English, they often wound up as Hercules or Samson movies. The worst example I know of is the Icelandic-Swedish film [Hrafninn flýgur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Raven_Flies). ILn Britain, it was translated as _When the Raven Flies_, which is not too bad. However, the American distributors, hoping to cash in on the popularity of Schwarzenegger’s _Conan the Barbarian_, released it under the title _Revenge of the Barbarians_. One of the weirder examples is Agatha Christie’s [And Then There Were None](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/7 "2019-09-05T19:59:35Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Hmm, neither of your examples is on Wikipedia’s [List of works with different titles in the United Kingdom and United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_with_different_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_United_States). I think it’s missing a few. Adventures in Babysitting was released as A Night on the Town in the UK. I’m not sure why they changed it - there might be a good reason - but it’s definitely a blander title. Several Agatha Christie stories had different names in the US, in addition to And Then There Were None and the 4.50 from Paddington, whose names changes make sense. Death in the Clouds was called Death in the Air, Lord Edgeware Dies was The Sittaford Mystery… Actually, there are so many I’ll just put up this link. [Mystery Fanfare: Re-Reading Agatha Christie: Alternate Titles](http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2010/09/re-reading-agatha-christie-alternate.html) Most of the changes don’t have any obvious cause - it’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/8 "2019-09-05T20:30:19Z")
_The Longest Yard_ (1974) was released in the UK and Ireland as _The Mean Machine_, thus losing the double meaning of the word ‘yard.’ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/9 "2019-09-05T20:39:58Z")
The 1989 James Bond film _Licence to Kill_ had the working title of _Licence Revoked_ – which fit the plot, as it centered on Bond being suspened from MI6. However, American test audiences associated “Licence Revoked” with having one’s driver’s license revoked, and thus, the name was changed, and the meaning lost. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/10 "2019-09-05T21:56:05Z")
\*The Quatermass Xperiment \* became _The Creeping Unknown_ for its US release. A generic kind of title, but at the time of the film’s release, Quatermass was unknown in the States and that “X” spelling in the original title, referring to the British Censor’s Certificate X rating (viewers over 18 only), would have been meaningless to American 1950s audiences. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/11 "2019-09-05T23:02:13Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > _The Longest Yard_ (1974) was released in the UK and Ireland as _The Mean Machine_, thus losing the double meaning of the word ‘yard.’ Having never seen the movie (but heard of it), I can only guess that the other “yard” being referred to, in addition to the football kind that you have to fight for, would be the prison yard? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/12 "2019-09-05T23:09:49Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Having never seen the movie (but heard of it), I can only guess that the other “yard” being referred to, in addition to the football kind that you have to fight for, would be the prison yard? Yes. For the most part I can understand why the names were changed. Having a clever title with multiple levels means nothing if it screws up your marketing and no one sees your movie. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/13 "2019-09-06T00:11:11Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Having never seen the movie (but heard of it), I can only guess that the other “yard” being referred to, in addition to the football kind that you have to fight for, would be the prison yard? They should have translated the pun into British - something like Gaol Goals? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/14 "2019-09-06T00:38:55Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > They should have translated the pun into British - something like Gaol Goals? Nice! ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/15 "2019-09-06T11:53:08Z")
More amusing than annoying: when the movie **First Blood** was released in France it was retitled, presumably because “Premier Sang” doesn’t signify in French what it does in English (I don’t speak French well enough for certainty.) Where it went slightly wrong was with the French title chosen: **Rambo**. I mean, it’s a good title - good enough to be used for the _sequel_ in the US: **Rambo: First Blood Part II**. All of a sudden, the smart thinking of French distributors re **First Blood** has caused an unexpected problem. But these are smart guys: **Rambo: First Blood Part II** is distributed in France as **Rambo 2 : La Mission**. At this point, I find it impossible not to wish that, to the end of recorded time, US and French Rambo movies are out by one, playing merry hell with the movie watching plans of Americans in France and vice versa. Sadly, by #3, the problem is rectified. [Ref.](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Stallone#Acteur) j ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/16 "2019-09-06T15:03:45Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The worst example I know of is the Icelandic-Swedish film [Hrafninn flýgur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Raven_Flies). ILn Britain, it was translated as _When the Raven Flies_, which is not too bad. However, the American distributors, hoping to cash in on the popularity of Schwarzenegger’s _Conan the Barbarian_, released it under the title _Revenge of the Barbarians_. This made me think of the Russian epic fantasy film [Sadko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadko_(film)), directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. Sadko was a hero from East Slavic folklore. It was released in the U.S. by Roger Corman under the title _The Magic Voyage of Sinbad_, turning a Russian folk hero into a Middle Eastern folk hero. Corman also gave it incredibly cheesy dubbing, making seem much sillier than it really was. That’s why it ended up on _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, despite being a lot better than their usual fare. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/17 "2019-09-06T15:18:02Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Sadly, by #3, the problem is rectified. Well, I mean, apart from still being _Rambo_ movies. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/18 "2019-09-06T15:21:19Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I think it’s missing a few. Adventures in Babysitting was released as A Night on the Town in the UK. I’m not sure why they changed it - there might be a good reason - but it’s definitely a blander title. > > Several Agatha Christie stories had different names in the US, in addition to And Then There Were None and the 4.50 from Paddington, whose names changes make sense. Death in the Clouds was called Death in the Air, Lord Edgeware Dies was The Sittaford Mystery… Actually, there are so many I’ll just put up this link. [Mystery Fanfare: Re-Reading Agatha Christie: Alternate Titles](http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2010/09/re-reading-agatha-christie-alternate.html) Most of the changes don’t have any obvious cause - it’s weird. _Lord Edgeware Dies_ had the US title _Thirteen at Dinner._ _The Sittaford Mystery_’s US title was \*The Murder at Hazelmoor \* Agreed that I don’t see a reason to change _Adventures in Babysitting_ to _A Night on the Town_, I wonder why? And in response to **mbh** , I don’t think that the change to _And Then There Were None_ was weird, considering the original title, _Ten Little N—s_ _The Sound of Music_ has oddly translated titles: “La Novicia Rebelde” (the rebel nun) in Spanish, La mélodie du bonheur (the melody of happiness) in French ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/19 "2019-09-06T15:35:18Z")
More translations of _The Sound of Music_: German: Meine Lieder, meine Träume (my songs, my dreams) Italian: Tutti insieme appassionatamente (All together passionately) Portuguese: Música no Coração (Music of the Heart) Spanish (Spain): Sonrisas y lágrimas (Smiles and tears) The Spanish title in the post above, La Novicia Rebelde, was used in Latin America. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724/20 "2019-09-07T01:31:03Z")
In Japan they sometimes change the name even though they don’t translate it to Japanese. Here a few examples: Thor: Ragnarok was changed to Thor: Battle Royale which loses a crucial theme of the film Big Hero 6 was changed to Baymax, which fits but kind of leaves out the importance of the rest of the team. The Fast and The Furious films are called Wild Speed Wreck it Ralph was changed to Candy Crush. The Wolverine was changed to Wolverine: Samurai, which actually might be an improvement. //i\ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-meaning-is-lost-in-alternate-titles/839724.md?page=2)