Poll: Subtitled Movies: Yea or Nay

[the1ultimate]

It kind of bothers me that you have to watch subtitles while watching the action in the rest of the screen.
Aside from that, you can't really hear inflections with subtitles, and as poorly mishandled as they sometimes are, I feel like this is a big part of the experience I'm missing.

Mind you, I wouldn't watch Dubs either because of the terrible grating disjointedness between the characters' mouth movements and the spoken dialogue.

Since Anime doesn't really have the mouth problem I only watch anime dubs.

All that said, I have stumbled across the occasional movie good enough to overcome it's subtitles, but as a general rule: No.

 

[Jamash]

Yes, I find subtitles are a must, because hearing the actors real voices and the original language of the film helps convey a lot of the more subtle aspects of the language and characters, plus the emotion of the scenes.

Also, despite English being my native and only tongue, I'm not ashamed to admit that I turned the subtitles on when I watched The Wire.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I generally prefer subtitles rather than dubbing. The exception is for ANYTHING japanese because apparently I am unable to tolerate the incredibly strange kitten in pain tones that come out of the mouths of anything female in such things.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Dubs are the worst thing to exist. There's nothing wrong with subs.

This question is totally different if English isn't your native language or if you mainly watch videos that are in your native language. I only use subtitles nowadays if it's some odd (old) banter that's difficult to understand, or if it's not Finnish or English, then I use English or Finnish subtitles. And if it's a DVD or something other where you can pick the subtitles easily, I usually go for the Finnish subtitles.

 

[effilctar]

...or just learn the language.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Many people have mentioned Pan's Labyrinth, and someone mentioned Run Lola Run, both of which are great in the original language with subtitles. Another example would be Mongol (and the upcoming sequel The Great Khan). I can't imagine watching that in English, it wouldn't been nearly as good.

 

[Dwarfman]

I watch a lot of foriegn non-english films so subtitles are escential

 

[SonicKoala]

I like watching pretty much all my movies with subtitles, foreign or not. I often watch pretty plot-heavy movies, and more often than not you get actors who enjoy mumbling every 5th word; subtitles are just there as a sort of insurance to make sure I don't miss anything crucial.

 

[AvsJoe]

Without the proper context I'm gonna have to have multiple answers for multiple scenarios.

As opposed to dubbed? Most definitely yea!
Foreign language movies in general? Cuss yea!
English-language movies? Unfortunately yea as well as I am a little hard of hearing.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Watch Babel.

/thread

 

[AgDr_ODST]

Hell yeah I watch them Let the Right One In, boy in the striped pajamas, and Pans Labyrinth(just to name afew) are fantastic movies. that are among my favorite of all time. Those 20ish(who said nay) and the people you know (who refuse to watch) are extremely lazy or retarded, but its not my problem or yours they'll just miss out.

 

[bl82]

It seems silly to discount all foreign/subbed films simply because you have to do a bit of reading. We're lucky we can enjoy great films from all over.

 

[Hellz_Barz]

i love mongol

 

[Cargin]

Maybe there are so many awesome foreign language movies out there because people who speak foreign languages enjoy going to the movies as well? God, you'd think English-speaking countries were the only nations that had movies with the way your post is written.

apologies if i came across as conceited with the OP. i'm not expressing my surprise or anything at he existence of subtitled movies. i favour the theory that because european cinema doesnt tend to have as much money to throw around as say Hollywood, they tend to make a smaller number of deadly flics, rather that mountains of dross with the occasional gem.

But apologies to anyone who actually lives in a non-english speaking country who may have been offended by how i phrased my question. no offense meant.

 

[DemonicVixen]

I only use them on films that have songs. Other then that, i despise them. I also hate the little people sitting in the corner of the screen, blocking my view, giving sign language. I have nothing against people with hearing problems needing to know whats going on, but they really do get on my nerves.

 

[inpachi]

I was at first greatly against it.. The only place i even see subs are in animes anyway.. Since there are 0 and i mean absolutely FUCKING 0 good English ones.. But eventually after i got used to it.. I could read them and see whats going on at the same time no problem.. It just takes a little practice after a certain amount of time into it i dont even realize im reading anymore..

Then again i have seen hundreds maybe even thousands of hours of animes.. At least 3000 episodes of all the shows ive seen and at 18 minutes a episode i dont watch the intros normally and skip sometimes the pointless parts so it narrows down to about 15-18 minutes a episode or so.. THATS A DAMN SHIT TON OF READING.. And i must say it has improved my Knowledge of the foreign language and improved my reading speed.. So i get to enjoy the good stuff increase my knowledge in the language and improve my reading speed.. Its a Win Win Win!

 

[Chewster]

Yay, if I don't speak the language. Otherwise, how the eff am I to understand?