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No, because there are theatres that show the original language version. So you can choose which one you want to see.
And by the way: if dubbing would be forbidden, then every not-german-language-movie would flop really bad, because 99% of the people would never go and watch a movie not in their own language.
The movie studios would never allow to forbid dubbing.
Even people that know english or french or whatever language very well would go and see the dubbed version, because they love their dubbing-actors. It's their great voices they love.
For exemple: Bruce Willis has a really cool voice in Germany, whereas his real voice is really lame and nothing special. But in german he sounds badass. People love that. And dubbing-actor's voices are sometimes the reason why some "old" movie stars are still big in Germany while they are not A-listers anymore in America or England.
And some TV-shows even were bigger in Germany than in their original country, BECAUSE of the dubbing.
"The Persuaders" with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis are CULT in Germany, because of it's great dialogue. Many Germans don't understand why it was cancelled after two seasons.
Yes, the german dubbing-script is not a 1:1 translation of the original spoken words. It was way better and had way more charme and wit. That's why this TV series was nowhere as succesful as in Germany.
If Bond and Blofeld are brothers - and this is shown in SPECTRE - couldn't you argue this is Eon/Sony showing major disrespect to Ian Fleming. He never mentioned Bond and Blofeld were related and if that is what happens in SPECTRE I think you could argue that this is a disrespectful reinvention of Bond's childhood and Blofeld's.
I fear SPECTRE may be completely reinventing the character of James Bond. And not in a good nor respectful way. Barbara and MG did not buy the rights to James Bond - they inherited them. Pure chance, you could argue. Is it right they should do what they like with Bond just because they were born into the Bond film family?
IF that is the case, I have no doubt that Mendes and everybody will make it work in a way that would make Fleming happy. I just don't see anybody on that team doing anything to disrespect him in such a way.
The question is: which option is more intrusive, which one alters the original movie more? The answer obviously is dubbing. This is why subtitles will ALWAYS be the better choice.
A personal example: I dislike dubbing. Since I speak English, I always watch English language films in their original language, and without subtitles. When I watch a movie made in a language I do not speak, I always opt for subtitles. The only movie I LOVE watching dubbed is Pulp Fiction. Still, I know that the original audio track is the superior version, simply because that is what reflects the intentions the filmmaker had when making the movie.
Well he's really the face of Quantum, as far as I'm concerned. And Quantum is (at very least) indirectly responsible for Vesper's death, so I'd say he has a reason to put a bullet in White's head.
Or as you suggested, Bond could give him the Dominic Greene treatment and let death find him.
Very, very successful and cult in France too, and also with quite some "creative dubbing" here. I'm not sure why The Persuaders was "adapted" so much, compared to a mere word-by-word translation : maybe because the US vs UK angle of the original show simply cannot be translated...
Bond related trivia : "The Persuaders" was translated into "Amicalement Vôtre" (Friendly Yours). When they had to translate "AVTAK", they chose "Dangereusement Vôtre" (Dangerously Yours). I don't know how it sounds in English, but in France it sounds really cool.
More generally, It's funny that people care so much for the actors but does not care about the DoP work : these ugly lines of white text in a frame that a whole crew spent weeks making can be quite a problem ! I wonder how many people have seen a 3D movie with subtitles for instance. The text has to float somewhere to avoid collision with the 3D, it's very distracting.
He's on a roll! :))
I'd appreciate any help, thanks.
Respectful or not, that would be lowest soap opera level. I can´t believe it´s going to be like that. A personal connection, ok, that can make sense, in order to have a mirrored dark side. But brothers?
I know a very easy solution for that: chuck the 3D :-)!
Ok, I admit that I French movies dubbed, and not subtitled. But that´s mostly laziness. Asian movies can make really more sense with subtitles. Except Chinese ones, which are dubbed in any case, because usually half the cast speaks Mandarin, and the other half Cantonese ;-).
So considering Quantum and Silva were not part of Fleming's Bond, CR, QoS and SF are disrespectful?
No, I don't think so
As far as I see it, "Franz Oberhauser" and James Bond were merely childhood friends, who share one common link: their dads, Andrew Bond and Hannes Oberhauser.
By the way, we don't know exactly for sure if the tall man on the picture is Hannes Oberhauser or Andrew Bond no? Yes, it's highly likely it is Hannes Oberhauser, but still.
Regarding the complaints about "re-writing" parts of the factual written information that Ian Fleming left us: I find those complaints rather stupid.
What the Bond producers and the directors did ever since "Casino Royale", was going back to Ian Fleming's material. And obviously, when "SPECTRE" went into pre-production, the whole team -Barbara, Michael, Sam, Daniel- did extensively re-read at least a few novels. Most likely "Octopussy" and "Thunderball", to get fully informed about the Oberhausers, Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E..
I fully admire that. And I especially admire the fact that they use these facts to slightly update it with new material. Is it dishonest to Fleming's legacy? Off course not. It's admirable AND immensely creative that they make new connections that basically follow Fleming's original storylines, without changing them at all. They are entirely new connections that Fleming did not write about. I call it: Lending the late Fleming a helping hand to continue and expand his universe, his legacy, his continuity.
I would be more dissatisfied and unhappy, IF the producers and the writing staff really turn Blofeld into a blood brother of Bond. THEN you're falsifying Fleming's original stories. That is something I dislike.
Also, there were days when Bond producers came up with completely new storylines WITHOUT referencing any of Fleming's stories. I can think of "AVTAK". Now look how that movie turned out. It's admirable to come up with something completely new, but it's also my feeling that when Bond producers do that, they start making creative mistakes. They start to think in terms of elements. "Now that part needs to be in the film" or "Let's look at Goldfinger, because this part is not in there". I usually find that a flawed approach.
The best way to make a near-perfect Bond-film, is to always go back to Fleming's work. Even "LTK" (Milton Krest, "The Hildebrand Rarity") and "SF" (Bond's family, "You Only Live Twice") had these references. And IMO they worked. Barbara Broccoli, Michael Wilson, Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig have shown us consistently that they are as nerdy and geeky as us fans, by constantly re-reading Fleming's work, and perhaps even extend his work with new plots and twists, without destroying the original Fleming storyline.
I love that approach.
And in return?? We're completely spoiled by a wonderful sense of continuity during this Craig-era. Something that Fleming already took into account in his own novels, but that at the time, the 1960's, could not be taken into account due to issues related to finance and scale of production.
Whether we can go back to the simpler stories remains to be seen (I personally doubt it).
It's possible that television has contributed to this (there are some excellent tv shows that run story lines through multiple seasons in more depth and with very high production qualities).
It's possible that 911 has contributed to this as well (i.e. there has to be a more in depth/personal reason for why people would commit dastardly acts/villainy now on film since reality has become more frightening/insecure for the general public)
Then no dubbing to respect the actors and no subtitles to respect the DoP, ok. But sometimes you want to see foreign films in languages you don't understand. And even when you think you understand English, when you come across a movie where people talk something else than Hollywood English...
I was actually wondering the same thing. White is such a generic name it could be an alias. Although Christensen is only marginally older than Waltz. He'd be a bit young to be his father, adopted or not.
Glad I am not the only one seeing this...
Just want to say: Hear, hear! I love this post and agree with every word. I think we're in very good hands with the current team, including Daniel Craig, who seems to take Fleming's work as seriously as any actor ever has (including Dalton, who felt a true obligation to do Fleming proud, which he did IMO).
To me, this sounds like Waltz'voice, i.e. IMO it is his own voice. I watched a lot of the German films, series the last 30 years, etc. starring Waltz, and this surely is him. As for the lacking German accent: Waltz lived in Londo for many years and resided now in LA. But I see what you mean, but then, do Pleasance, Savalas and Gray have a German accent? This might have gone in all this years.
And in the German version of the trailer, Waltz speaks also with a monotonous voice.
Oh and let's not forget Blofeld is Polish.
One of the Bond films got broadcasted then, "Octopussy". And when watching the PTS, I saw Roger Moore in that little airjet, escaping that Cuban heatseeking missile. After Bond destroys the missile together with an entire Cuban military airbase, Bond sees the red light flickering, which means soon the fuel runs out.
Upon watching the instruments, he says in German: "Aah, Ich muß mal tanken!" It actually sounds quite funny.
BUT, here it comes. Years later, when I watched the original version, there was no English line to be heard at all! The little moves of Moore's mouth did not utter ANY spoken word. The "Dzjermans" made it up! They ADDED that line. Although funny while I was young, I find it really disrespectful towards the original acting profession.
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Personally I prefer the undubbed versions of movies, but do not oppose to dubbed versions. 20 years ago it was difficult to find a movie theatre in smaller German cities, only in the bigger cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, etc. they showed the movies undubbed. Around here (Greater Stuttgart Area), there was and there is a movie theatre, which shows the undubbed versions. The reason was, that there was a big US army base, so they new they would attract those people. Nowadays, more and more movie theatres do show the original versions, not every day, but three times a week, usually the 6pm shows, especially in cities with an university like at my place.
Sometimes the German dubbings can be bad, as the example of Gustav_Graves proves. They did this in OHMSS when Bond is "talking" to the Saint Bernard's dog, or in DAF, in Bond's fight with Bambi and Thumper, inventing two lines, when we actually see Bond is not speaking.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST maybe is the most extreme example. The German title is SPIEL MIR DAS LIED VOM TOD ("Play to me the song of death" or so), and the best thing is, nobody in the English version ever says this phrase. In the dubbed version, Henry Fonda says this line, when he pushes the harmonica in the boy's mouth. In English he says "Make your loving brother happy!" And in the German version, audience might believe, that the man on the boy's shoulders may not be his brother, but his father.
This said, usually German dubbing versions are done very well mostly. The actor lending Robert De Niro's his voice, is mostly known for this job and earns a living dubbing De Niros, Keitel, etc. and also by doing audio books and readings in literature.
And, of course, as other users pointed out above, there is the German version of THE PERSUADERS, although a lot of the lines do not have much resemblance with what the actors actually did say