Rome

Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jan 8 2006, 11:24 PM
Why in the name of God do all the Macedonians speak in an Irish accent???
Click to expand...

Why not? Would anyone know a Macedonian accent if they heard one?
Click to expand...
I might have known that one would come up.....

Look, we all know the Macedonians spoke a derivative of Greek. It is inaccurate for them to speak English - if they were to, you'd expect at the very least a Greek accent, or accentless English. Please explain to me how in the name of God it is ever plausible they'd have an Irish accent??? Considering the film was a blockbuster, I was amazed at this crap. Oh, & Alexander's mother Olympias had a poor imitation of an Italian accent, again, wtf?? She wasn't Macedonian, but she was from another Greek country. Terrible bit of film making htere - whoever decided the accents wants sacking.
 
There wouldn't have been an 'Irish' accent then, since they were Gaels, speaking Gaelic. It would have to have been a Gaelic accent, which would have made it a very interesting exercise!

Londoners aren't all gorblimeymites, you know, but probably I should say Oxfordians, since as the most famous seat of classical tuition in all things linguistic, it would no doubt credit itself with teaching and speaking the Queen's English, rather than received pronunciation - an abomination to purists. Romans would, however, view themselves as the cream of all Latin society, and their upper classes would speak as our upper classes do today. And yes, I'll hold to what I think is an entirely reasonable supposition that some itinerant from somewhere like Brindisi's docks would NOT speak in the same way, any more than a Bristol dockie would speak precise and perfect English today.

But I'm a bit tired of going over the same thing, etiam atque etiam, and while Maurice takes the specific Scottish stance of 'nemo me impune lacessit' (and is in good company to do so), I must say by return, as most of this argument is pure conjecture, perhaps we should call it quits with 'ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret'? :lol:
 
Its completely implausible that they should have Irish accents, but so is them speaking English with a Greek accent. The only faithful option is to use the proper dialect of Greek and subtitle the film, but that would have been commercial suicide (Alexander's not Jesus).

If the film is good enough it shouldn't matter; Alexander probably just isn't good enough! It's really no different to Russell Crowe and pal's version of RP in Gladiator, or Harvey Keitel playing Judas with a Brooklyn accent in The Last Temptation of Christ (now there's a film good enough to get away with it).

As far as I know, Oliver Stone decided that it wouldn't make sense for Colin Farrell to put on a different accent which would either be completely inaccurate (if they went for the Gladiator option), or possibly accurate but pointless (if they were speaking in English anyway). So he decided he should just speak in his normal accent, and the rest would follow where possible.

I was amazed to see it in a "blockbuster" too (although the only thing blockbuster-ish about Alexander was the ridiculous budget) because it was a quirk, and that means a risk, and that's the last thing anyone wants when they've just spent $150m.
 
Why is it completely implausible for them to have been speaking English with a Greek accent? After all, that's what would have happened were they to have been seaking English. Ergo it is not unreasonable for me to expect that they should have used accentless English [ie the Queen's English] rather than Irish English; Scots English or Gibraltarian English - all of which would have been even more fabricatd & impossible than than the Queen's English!

As for the question of Colin Farrell - if, as one of the top ranking Hollywood actors he is not capable of putting on an English accent, why is he a top actor? There were other, arguably more established names in the picture, such as Brian Blessed (who spoke in an English accent as far as I recall) and Val Kilmer, who affected a poor Irish accent; as did the many other actors in the picture. True, I would not have been happy if they had American accents either (Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves as an example was terrible - couldn't Kevin Costner at least have pretended an English accent??) but why the need to go off on such an unrealistic, totally implausible & historically uncorrect tangebt as to give them all an Irish accent?? As I also said, Angelina Jolie's Italian accent was a joke too - she was Greek, ffs!!!

I do agree with you though - a blockbuster it wasn't. At least, it didn't deserve to be. I would have given it 5 0r 6 out of 10 - and that only because it is a decent story, even though they got a lot of it wrong.
 
Why is it completely implausible for them to have been speaking English with a Greek accent?
Click to expand...

Because they wouldn't have spoken to each other in English, simple as that. If you're going to look for realism you have to go all the way.
 
Ffs, they wouldn't have spoken in English BUT if they had, they would have spoken with a Greek accent!!! They spoke Greek, for the love of God, so had they spokem English, they would have spoken in a Greek accent. To say "why would htey not have spoken English in an Irish accent?" is not onlt impossible, it's ignorant in the extreme.
 
If Shakespeare's plays were performed today as they were in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries we'd have trouble understanding half of them.
 
Not only that, but when we get the variations on Elizabeth I, they're performed in a slightly high-falutin' but still markedly modern English, with many of the words that had a meaning then not being used in favour of words we understand now.

And what did the Iceni speak? Having old wotsit (Ralph Fiennes' ex) fling herself around in her little war chariot, as Boadicea or Boudicca, bawling out perfectly English commands to her people is hardly historically accurate, but I doubt any of us would bother to watch films spoken in the tongues of the time. Imagine trying to cope with Attila charging into the various tribal regions he conquered, speaking whatever form of Mongolian was spoken then (I assume it's evolved a wee bit, though I'm not sure). Great work for subtitlers, though.
 
Originally posted by krizon@Jan 10 2006, 02:08 AM
Having old wotsit (Ralph Fiennes' ex)
Click to expand...
Francesca Annis. Are they ex's now? I didn't know that. I remember when she left her partner and father of her three children, Patrick Wiseman, to go to live with Ralph Fiennes. I had a share in a horse with Patrick at tghe time.
 
No, not her - Francesca Annis went off with Fiennes, who left his wife for her. It's his wife I mean. Sturdily-built lass, much younger than FA. His (now ex) is over the USA filming in some hospital sitcom a lot now, but popped over here to impersonate Boudicca, to mixed reviews, either early 2005 or late 2004. Honestly, I have the memory span of a goldfish nowadays. :(

You do get around with your horses, Brian!
 
Yes, that's her, thanks! I don't watch ER - most hospital-based things from the US seemed to be comedies so I rather assumed it was another one. Do you buy all of the entertainment industry's magazines, Brian? :brows:
 
Back
Top