I've seen the Swedish version of the film "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and have been curious about the upcoming American version, so I've been sporadically checking RottenTomatoes.com for reviews and IMDb.com to read what regular people have to say. I can't tell you how many times I stumbled across a comment like this - "I can't wait for the American version. It will be far superior to the Swedish version. I can't stand subtitles. If I wanted to read, I'd get a book." I've heard this same statement uttered about other such foreign films.
Are we really that lazy? Do we stray away from reading at any given opportunity? Is it really that bad? There are occasions when my eyes are so tired, I'm really not in the mood to read words on the television screen while watching a movie, but those times are few and far between.
I've found that there's really not much difference between watching a film with subtitles and watching one without them. If an American film doesn't catch our interest, it's common to space off and perhaps run a little behind on the dialogue due to that lack of intrigue. If we enjoy a movie, we're typically glued to the screen (not literally. That would be problematic.) and have no problem following along with every word and event. The same holds true of a foreign film. If the film doesn't catch my interest, it's easy for me to not be able to keep up with the subtitles, but if I'm enjoying the movie, the words seem to flow just like a well-made American film. I find the same is true about books. If a book is boring me, I'll find myself reading a page and then forgetting exactly what I read, whereas in other books, I literally can't put them down, well, until they're finished. If I didn't put them down at that point, eh, I may have some problems.
So, never fear. While I can understand one's eyes being too tired at times to watch a subtitled movie, I'd really recommend giving them a shot sometime. Some such films I'd recommend are: "The Perfect Crime," "Kung Fu Hustle," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "Through A Glass Darkly," "Fanny & Alexander," "The Virgin Spring," "Up and Down," "My Father and I," "I'm Not Scared," "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Devil's Backbone," "Amores Perros," "Songs From the Second Floor," "Du Levande," "The Return," "Paradise Now," "Blind Shaft," "Noi," "Good Bye, Lenin!," "The Edukators," "The Lives of Others," etc.
Are we really that lazy? Do we stray away from reading at any given opportunity? Is it really that bad? There are occasions when my eyes are so tired, I'm really not in the mood to read words on the television screen while watching a movie, but those times are few and far between.
I've found that there's really not much difference between watching a film with subtitles and watching one without them. If an American film doesn't catch our interest, it's common to space off and perhaps run a little behind on the dialogue due to that lack of intrigue. If we enjoy a movie, we're typically glued to the screen (not literally. That would be problematic.) and have no problem following along with every word and event. The same holds true of a foreign film. If the film doesn't catch my interest, it's easy for me to not be able to keep up with the subtitles, but if I'm enjoying the movie, the words seem to flow just like a well-made American film. I find the same is true about books. If a book is boring me, I'll find myself reading a page and then forgetting exactly what I read, whereas in other books, I literally can't put them down, well, until they're finished. If I didn't put them down at that point, eh, I may have some problems.
So, never fear. While I can understand one's eyes being too tired at times to watch a subtitled movie, I'd really recommend giving them a shot sometime. Some such films I'd recommend are: "The Perfect Crime," "Kung Fu Hustle," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "Through A Glass Darkly," "Fanny & Alexander," "The Virgin Spring," "Up and Down," "My Father and I," "I'm Not Scared," "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Devil's Backbone," "Amores Perros," "Songs From the Second Floor," "Du Levande," "The Return," "Paradise Now," "Blind Shaft," "Noi," "Good Bye, Lenin!," "The Edukators," "The Lives of Others," etc.
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