LotR and British Accents?

[ninthcouncil]

One of my wife's friends is (originally) British and she contrends that Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are doing a *terrible* job with their British accents.

I can't say it caused me any bother, but then maybe I wasn't listening for it, since they aren't meant to be impersonating English people. I did wonder why they'd made the orcs speak Cockernee, Mary Poppins Perhaps PJ has been playing Warhammer recently....

 

[SableWyvern]

So were most of the Imperials. I hate the way that English accent = bad guy 99% of the time. If it were any other nation, it would be called racism, discrimination or some such, but everyone seems to have a free pass to insult the English. We take it in good humour, but look what happens when we try to give some of it back - people start crying.

Oh well, that's Hollywood for you. I'm sure I'm oversensitive and am imagining it.

Have you read the FAQ? If you can't keep politics out of your posts, I'm going to have to report you to a moderator.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Have you read the FAQ? If you can't keep politics out of your posts, I'm going to have to report you to a moderator.

Regarding the accents, I didn't notice that they were very English accents, but I did think that they two of them were very consistent in their accents, which is more important. The only thing worse than a bad attempt at an accent is an inconsistent accent.

And thank the Lord Dick van Dyke's Cockney accent only shows up at Xmas nowadays. Mary Poppins is a great film though. Much more surreal than I remembered.

 

[KnowTheToe]

So were most of the Imperials. I hate the way that English accent = bad guy 99% of the time. If it were any other nation, it would be called racism, discrimination or some such, but everyone seems to have a free pass to insult the English. We take it in good humour, but look what happens when we try to give some of it back - people start crying.

Oh well, that's Hollywood for you. I'm sure I'm oversensitive and am imagining it.

I think it is long lasting resentment from the Revolutionary War. After all, in American scools they teach you about that every year, so much focus there that you never really enter 20th century history. According to teachers, Pilgrams and the Revolutionary War were the most important things to ever happen in the world. Its OK though, I think most people have gotten over it

 

[Gumby]

I hate the way that English accent = bad guy 99% of the time.

Only the smart, cultured bad guys!

 

[Gumby]

I think it is long lasting resentment from the Revolutionary War. After all, in American scools they teach you about that every year, so much focus there that you never really enter 20th century history. According to teachers, Pilgrams and the Revolutionary War were the most important things to ever happen in the world. Its OK though, I think most people have gotten over it

It's probably because American History courses never seem to get anywhere past 1890 or so before the school year's up.

 

[Morrus]

I think it is long lasting resentment from the Revolutionary War. After all, in American scools they teach you about that every year, so much focus there that you never really enter 20th century history. According to teachers, Pilgrams and the Revolutionary War were the most important things to ever happen in the world. Its OK though, I think most people have gotten over it

In that case, you guys should love the French. You should be sending Frenchmen flowers on a daily basis, and writing regular newspaper articles about how wonderful, charming, good-looking, intelligent and generally superior they are....

But you don't! So I don't think your War of Independence is really the cause.

 

[DanMcS]

My favorite is when people playing /other/ nationalities have British accents. For instance, the Germans in most any WWII era movie, or some of the Russians in Hunt for Red October. My theory is that by having distinct accents, they're immediately identifiable as foreign, which is good because there's not a lot of time to spend on characterization in a movie. But since it's British, it's still easily understandable to the target audience, where a German or French accent wouldn't be (I had a French math teacher and it took me a couple of weeks to work out that the word he kept pronouncing as 'fooshoon' was meant to be 'function', heh).

 

[KnowTheToe]

In that case, you guys should love the French. You should be sending Frenchmen flowers on a daily basis, and writing regular newspaper articles about how wonderful, charming, good-looking, intelligent and generally superior they are....

But you don't! So I don't think your War of Independence is really the cause.

We really don't focus on foreign aid so much. We mention it happened, but America is really brinwashed into a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" culture where you focus entirely on yourself and ignore all of the essential and welcomed help others have provided for you.

What are bootstraps and how would you pull yourself up with something attached to your feet?

 

[Morrus]

What are bootstraps and how would you pull yourself up with something attached to your feet?

You know, I have no idea! Why would a boot need straps? I'm going to look it up!