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#1 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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Quote:
Robin Hood is a bit different, in that it is an English legend; therefore Costner's Midwestern American accent was off (as was his wooden acting). Of course, it could've been worse. You could have had Joe Pesci's New Jersey accent.
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#2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Muddy-earth
Posts: 1,297
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I think it's something to do with how the rest of the English speaking world see's England as an old realm, somewhere almost ancient compared to where they find themselves in the modern world. The strange thing is, why don't those who used to be The Colonies speak with accents like ours, after all most of them came from here (England). I think the truth is, their accents are probably closer to how we used to speak back then than ours are today....therein lies the irony.
The other possibility is to look at all the accents from the British Isles and put them in a blender and you'll get New World accents. I don't think it should really matter, I enjoyed the American Radio Hobbit without any problem at all, if anything I dislike the visual imagery of the Hildebrandt Musketeer Fellowship more. One only has to look at the brilliant voice characterisation of Nicol Williamson's The Hobbit to know that Dwarves are from the North of England and not Scotland, Gollum is Welsh and the hobbits come from the West Country, so a pat on the back for Sean Astin's marvellous attempt.
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[B]THE LORD OF THE GRINS:THE ONE PARODY....A PARODY BETTER THAN THE RINGS OF POWER. Last edited by narfforc; 03-30-2012 at 11:39 AM. |
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#3 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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I have to admit, I think it was the right thing to do when Peter Jackson chose to have his actors use 'broadly' British accents in the LotR films, given that Tolkien himself was British and wrote so much about the development of the English language within this country. It would have been very peculiar to use other accents. I say 'broadly' as not all of them were delivered perfectly and some did sound a tad strangled. And I still find it strange that Pippin, Sam and Frodo all had different accents.
The article mentions A Game Of Thrones (and incorrectly states that the TV series was made for Americans - I suspect not that many have HBO as it's expensive and it was watched just as widely elsewhere) which is slightly different. There was no real reason for that series to feature British accents for the people of Westeros and they could have chosen anything, yet they managed to go even further than Peter Jackson did and have regional accents (one or two examples like Samwell and Sansa aside...). I wonder if it is like narfforc says, and British accents still have some cachet of being 'old' and more fitting to a faux historic setting? As for American accents being closer to older British accents, I think there's a Bill Bryson book which has a section about this and I'll have to dig it out. He once wrote about some areas around Chesapeake (islands off the coast...I think) where the locals had accents very similar to Shakesperean English, and about areas in Michigan which had lots of Cornish immigrants and retained some of the culture.
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#4 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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In Michigan, The Cornish stock mixed with immigrants from Norway in the state's Upper Peninsula (huge copper mining area), and became what is commonly known here as "Yoopers" (a bastardization of "Upper"). The nearest thing to "dah Yooper" accent is in dat dere movie Fargo, except even more pronounced, yah?
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#5 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Now you've just reminded me of a film I've not seen in a long, long time, and I'm going to have to dig the DVD out from somewhere and watch Fargo again! Cheers!
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#6 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,493
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becahz Britttish ahxents ah cuoohl.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#7 | |
Wisest of the Noldor
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![]() Of course, to echo narrforc's point, the "real" Robin Hood ( if there was such person) wouldn't have had anything like a modern British accent– or even have been speaking modern English. And yet, that kind of thing can indeed be jarring. Perhaps it's that *some* American accents already carry strong associations of their own for most viewers. I mean, if someone looks medieval but sounds like a cowboy, that pretty much does it for suspension of disbelief...
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#8 | |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: As my whimsey takes me.
Posts: 43
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Also, American actors tend to not smooth over their accents unless they are specifically told to. American English really has no special "broadcast" accent (the US equivalent of BBC English) that is used across the board for actors. There used to be one, but it has rather fallen into disuse. Someone who looks medieval or like something that just stepped out of a fairytale but then sound like they are from Brooklyn/Mississippi/LA is just disconcerting.
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"One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. " Tennyson, Ulysses |
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#9 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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It's true you'll not always hear anyone letting fly with a full-on Barnsley, Liverpool or Dundee accent on screen, complete with the local dialect, especially in things with an international audience, but even if gentled in some way accents are still there. Evene when actors do try to drop the edge off their accent, it never entirely goes. One thing I enjoy about the films of LotR is how I can still tell Bean is from Sheffield and McKellen is from Wigan. I suppose that's just because I am used to hearing British voices though - if you had to get me to tell the difference between say American and Canadian or Aussie and New Zealand, I have to admit I'd be a bit lost. ![]()
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#10 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,493
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Good luck with that. Considering that both countries have tonns of immigrants from all over the place, I doubt you can have a clear-cut American or Canadian accent. And both are pretty big, so different areas have different accents. Even Bethberry and I have different accents, though you wouldn't say that we talk with an accent!
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#11 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Quote:
I think many British people can't tell the difference between a Lancashire and a Yorkshire accent though, looking at inconsistencies on the regional soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Whereas I can often tell which village someone from Lancashire is from. That's perhaps why I found it a bit jarring that the Hobbits' accents weren't consistent in LotR - a mishmash of 'posh', Scots and generic 'yokel'.
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#12 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,493
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I'm completely accent-deaf. I could tell that it's not how I speak, but for my life I wouldn't be able to tell you what accent is it. I've been known to mix Irish and Aussie and Brit and perhaps something else, possibly the "types" of American/Canadian. I recall one time when my family met a couple - he was from New Zealand and she was from Ireland; but before they told us that I thought they were both Brits. Well, you know, I haven't had a Higgins train me!
![]() You have a real talent, Lal, and all others who have the fine ear to hear inconsistencies in LOTR. As to me, well, I haven't heard them, I probably wouldn't even have noticed if Frodo spoke like your average Torontonian (unless I knew otherwise, which I do), and I think that Brittish accents are more round and are softer on the ear.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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