How do you prefer your foreign films: subtitled or dubbed?
That’s a pretty easy question to answer. Most of us have a strong preference for one or the other. Personally, I love subtitled movies. In fact, there was I time when the very idea of dubbing offended me. “What kind of hillbilly hick destroys the audio track of a foreign-language masterpiece, just so he doesn’t have to read anything?” I’d snort. I’ve met viewers who are just as passionate about their distaste for subtitles.
Today, my feelings on the subject are more complex. Stubbornly clinging to one side of the subtitled or dubbed debate just limits your options. It’s fine to have a preference, but it’s not a good idea to use that as an excuse to shun what might be a terrific film.
Subtitles and English-language audio tracks don’t just happen by themselves. People work hard on them. Translating a film is an art and a science. Some of the people involved in the task are going to be more proficient than others, which affects the viewing experience. I’ve heard dubbing so inept that it’s impossible to ascertain which character is speaking. I’ve also seen woefully mistranslated subtitles that look like they were created at random with a magnetic poetry set.
Let’s take a look at a few specific foreign film industries. In the early 1990s, Hong Kong was making breathtaking action films that were blowing people’s minds across the globe. Prior to 1997, the nation was still technically a British colony, and was therefore required by law to provide English subtitles on all films. Subtitles were made swiftly, cheaply, and often without proofreading. Some of them are hilarious:
• “He made fart, noisy and stink!” — Don’t Give a Damn (1995)
• “Run, or else been fucked!” — Shaolin Drunkard (1983)
• “Suck the coffin mushroom now.” — The Ultimate Vampire (1991)
These gems are often chopped off at both ends by the TV screen due to bad framing. Any kind of dubbing is better than subtitles you can’t physically read.
In Italy, films are typically made without sound and dialogue is dubbed in later. This allows for all kinds of freedoms that would be unthinkable on a Hollywood set. The roar of passing trucks and aircraft cannot ruin takes if there’s no microphone to pick it up. Casts can be made up of actors from around the world, all speaking whichever language they feel most comfortable with. Often, there will be American stars interacting with Italian bit part actors, each speaking his native tongue. Many actors have commented on the surreal quality of working on an Italian film set, but all is fixed later in the sound studio, where post-dubbing is used with care. Even the prestige pictures, which we watch with subtitles, are filmed this way. Next time you see Fellini’s superb La Strada (1954), look up from the subtitles for a moment and watch the lip movements. They’re dubbed — and extremely skillfully, at that.
North American audiences tend to be quite prejudiced against dubbing, despite the fact that our film industry uses it as much as anybody. Plenty of filmmakers shoot “Italian style,” or at least clean up unusable audio by calling the actors (or sound-alikes) to the recording booth. Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin makes mesmerizing use of post-recorded dialogue in his films.
Dubbing isn’t always the way to go. Jesus of Montreal (1989) does such a fine job of subtitling that I actually don’t notice when the characters switch from speaking French to speaking English. There’s no reason whatsoever to watch the lamentable dubbed version, which re-translates a passage from Hamlet back into English, making it unrecognizable. Dubbing can get even worse than that, leading to fiascoes like Roberto Benigni’s Pinocchio (2002), or the hysterical Gamera vs. Guiron (1969). Plus, it usually takes more people to produce an alternate audio track than it does to simply print up subtitles. If any of the artists involved — voice actors, writers, directors or sound editors — screw up, the results will be bad. Still, when a team decides to give the task their all, the results can be outstanding.
Today, we have DVDs with multiple language tracks, and can often choose from the original audio or a dubbed version. Which is better? It really does depend on the film and your own tastes. Savour the power of choice. Just bear in mind that we can’t always have access to the version of a film that we’d prefer, and sometimes it’s better to put aside our prejudices for a moment than to miss out completely.
