Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

    So, Mad Max was on tv this weekend, and there's something bugging me about it.

    I could absolutely swear that when I saw it at the film festival in Toronto years and years ago, the actors all had Aussie accents. My video tape, however, and all tv versions, seem to have had the Aussie dubbed (!) with American voices.

    Did I imagine that it was Aussie voices at the film festival?

  • #2
    Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

    Fear not -- you haven't gone starkers. Mad Max was dubbed with American voices and this was the only version available in the U.S. on video for some time.

    The odd thing is, I saw a new print of the film two or three years back and the original Aussie voices aren't hard to understand at all . . .

    Oh well.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

      The DVD has the original Aussie voices.

      No problem there, mate
      Positive outcomes. Only.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

        I think Americans are much more used to "other" English language accents now than they were back then, including Australian. I remember as a child visiting the States in 1980 and spending a LOT of my time repeating myself, everywhere I went. (We visited the East and West Coasts, Southern US states and even Hawaii.) I was actually quite a well spoken kid too, and I had no problem understanding them.

        In recent years, when I first returned to the States as an adult, it happened less and less. It still happens occasionally, though now I'm more careful about how I pronounce certain words and sounds. A's and I's were the killers. When I used to live in Hawaii, I was based in Aiea for some time and was always on the phone to the Mainland. Any time I had to tell them my address I'd end up putting my husband on the phone so he could spell Aiea in "American".

        I have only heard the American-dubbed version once, and was positively stunned when I realised what was happening. I think HW generally has a pretty low opinion of the intelligence of the American people - unfairly, in my opinion.

        They also gave the second film a different title. Here it's the no-nonsense, says it all "Mad Max 2". I think it's Road Warrior or something like that in the US.
        sigpic

        Website
        Tweets
        Book

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

          Originally posted by WritersBlock2010 View Post
          The DVD has the original Aussie voices.

          No problem there, mate
          Where can I purchase it, and what is it I'm looking for as markers for the "right" version?

          I have a friend who is also very much interested in getting the proper version.

          (It was a shock to realise that the "Goose" character is Jack on the Aussie tv show Water Rats!!)

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

            Originally posted by ghostoforson View Post
            Fear not -- you haven't gone starkers. Mad Max was dubbed with American voices and this was the only version available in the U.S. on video for some time.

            The odd thing is, I saw a new print of the film two or three years back and the original Aussie voices aren't hard to understand at all . . .

            Oh well.
            Thanks! I thought I was going, um, mad. It was particularly weird hearing clearly Aussie dialect with flat American accents. It was just so - wrong, somehow.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

              Originally posted by TDWoj View Post
              Where can I purchase it, and what is it I'm looking for as markers for the "right" version?
              It's the SE edition here:

              http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Max-Specia...148798&sr=1-44

              Watching it was like a breath of fresh air, as the original dubbed version always struck me as an unintended comedy, while the original audio track turns it back into a kick-ass action film.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                Originally posted by vmf View Post
                It's the SE edition here:

                http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Max-Specia...148798&sr=1-44

                Watching it was like a breath of fresh air, as the original dubbed version always struck me as an unintended comedy, while the original audio track turns it back into a kick-ass action film.
                Cool! Thanks!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                  Are Americans that lazy that they can't sit through Australian accents and have to decipher the meanings of certain things? Come on.

                  Next thing you'll see is Crocodile Dundee Redux - with that announcer guy from Saturday Night Live dubbing over Paul Hogan.
                  Joan: What does the "T" stand for?
                  Jack: Trustworthy.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                    Originally posted by NePatsFan View Post
                    Are Americans that lazy that they can't sit through Australian accents and have to decipher the meanings of certain things? Come on.

                    Next thing you'll see is Crocodile Dundee Redux - with that announcer guy from Saturday Night Live dubbing over Paul Hogan.
                    Well, I don't know about laziness - it may have just been presumption on the part of the North American studio/distributor. What I found peculiar, of course, was that the dialogue was Aussie, and when spoken in an American accent, made less sense to me than hearing it with an Aussie accent.

                    (Imagine listening to Coronation Street dialogue done in a midwestern twang, or the horror that is any of the New York City accents - no offense, but I find listening to New Yorkers, um, a painful experience, both in terms of volume and accent.)

                    Of course, this goes both ways - I have a British crochet pattern book, wherein it says something like, "For our English speaking readers, [instructions]; for our American readers, [instructions]." I was amused.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                      Mad Max wasn't written for an international market. It was all local, all Australian, back when Mel Gibson had an Australian accent. No one really knew who he was, nor even George Miller, let alone Byron Kennedy. And it was written at a time when we were just beginning to re-stake our name as a noted filmmaking country. It was quite an experiment and could have gone either way, and there weren't huge expectations for a market here let alone overseas. (Though the Weirs, Beresfords et al were beginning to make a name for themselves at the time.)

                      The thing is, back then, a LOT of Americans DID have problems with the Australian accent, let alone dialect. Nowadays, I doubt it would be an issue, but this film was made in 1979. Way before Dundee, or the Australian onslaught into Hollywood. (I was there in 1980, and as I said before, LOTS of people didn't understand a word I said without my having to repeat or rephrase it usually more than once.)
                      sigpic

                      Website
                      Tweets
                      Book

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                        Good God. I have seen the undubbed version many times and there is nothing that comes to my mind that is not as clear as a bell. Hell, I find areas of the deep south with dialects and accents harder to understand.
                        Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                          Originally posted by NePatsFan View Post
                          Are Americans that lazy that they can't sit through Australian accents and have to decipher the meanings of certain things? Come on.
                          Nah, I think we would have loved the movie, but due to some (unfounded) concerns of the distributor, the ultra-cheap, super-lame dubbing was done.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                            Originally posted by vmf View Post
                            Nah, I think we would have loved the movie, but due to some (unfounded) concerns of the distributor, the ultra-cheap, super-lame dubbing was done.
                            Me jumping with arms in the air...

                            I am telling you it was a good call. THEN. Lots of Americans DIDN'T understand the Australian accent back then. Many had never heard my accent before, or had even heard of Australia itself. Some of the questions I, an 11 year old, was asked BY ADULTS during my month in the US in 1980:

                            Do you have electricity?
                            Do you have a pet kangaroo?
                            Where did you learn to speak English?
                            What language do you speak at home?
                            Are you off the African coast?
                            Just near England, right? In Europe? (Me: No. That's AUSTRIA. Them: Are you sure?)
                            Do you have movie theatres?
                            Do you have television?
                            Have you ever heard of a movie called Gone with the Wind? (Seriously. She was a southern belle and a drunk, granted, but I remember my mother - who has close to 1000 much watched, almost worn movies on video/dvd - being rendered positively speechless by this one.)

                            And all of our answers had to be repeated several times, or pronounced more slowly, or even changed altogether for understanding. Over and over we answered these questions until by the end of the trip, I'd picked up the beginning of an American twang and had begun to lie, so sick of having to close my vowels and kill the Strine.

                            "We used to have a kangaroo. But it was eaten by our dingo." (This was before Azaria Chamberlain, so probably a bit funnier at the time.)

                            Now, of course, it would be idiotic to dub Strine. You get it, we get it. We all get it. But back in 1979? Made perfect sense.
                            sigpic

                            Website
                            Tweets
                            Book

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Mad Max - myth or my own madness?

                              Well on the one hand I'm baffled they couldn't understand you. On the other, those sound like perfectly valid questions to me.
                              Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X