Germany: "The Pacific"...

[Skybird]

... starts to get broadcasted on German TV this evening, 22:15, on K1.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Will it be subbed or dubbed?

[Skybird]

Fully dubbed, for that is standard in German media. Using just subtitles is extremely rare over here. Mind you that German studios are said to be probably the best and most experienced there are to dub movies - this I just bring up to prevent another discussion about the pro and contra on subtitles versus dubbing.

[heartc]

Yeah, I've been looking forward to that for a while now and I'm gonna watch it tonight.

Originally Posted by Skybird

Mind you that German studios are said to be probably the best and most experienced there are to dub movies - this I just bring up to prevent another discussion about the pro and contra on subtitles versus dubbing.

Well, I don't know about other non english speaking countries, but I often find the "translations" to be pretty horrible. Especially for military movies, specifically military aviation. The problem here is that in some movies - at least those portraying the period from Vietnam onwards - they are using proper NATO brevity code which there simply are no proper German counterparts for, and iRL also German crews would use the English words. The people who are translating the movies don't get this however and they often come up with all kind of crap talk while in the English version they are using proper aviation language and might even make sense.

And don't get me started on the titles of many movies. Often in German, they are much more "dramatic" than the original title, which often just makes them sound unnecessarily corny. I understand that you often can't translate everything word for word, but when the meaning gets totally changed, you didn't do your job properly either.

Some examples:

"Flight of the Intruder" -> "Flug durch die Hölle" (Flight through Hell)

"The Right Stuff" -> "Der Stoff, aus dem die Helden sind" (The stuff that heroes are made of)

One of the worst failures:

"We were Soldiers" -> "Wir waren Helden" (We were Heroes) - Something like that makes all the Anti-Americans go ape$hit. And indeed, it changes the meaning completely. The first title goes directly against any kind of mythology or pathos - it says: No matter what you think about the (Vietnam) war - we were soldiers and did what was expected of us. "We were Heroes" is the exact opposite.

"The Cape" -> "Countdown X - Alarm im All" (Countdown X - Alert in Space) What the...??

"Pale Rider" -> "Pale Rider - der namenlose Reiter" (Pale Rider - the nameless Rider)
Why that addendum? It takes away from the mythic effect of the Pale Rider, which is ajar to the "Pale Horse" of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation, and makes it sound like any other 0.05$ western.

"A few good men" -> "Eine Frage der Ehre" (A matter of honor)
The original title is a nice word game. On the one hand, it is "the few good (brave) men" that the semi-sadistic Col. speaks of, "who stand watch on the fence line a few hundred yards away from the Cubans so that you (lawyer types) can sleep peacefully at night and don't talk about it on your parties", and at the same time it means it would have taken only a few good men brave enough to stand up for the sick guy instead of going "Code Red" on him. Like the two younger marines realized in the end of the movie.

"Courage under Fire" -> "Mut zur Wahrheit" (Courage to face the truth)
Again, a nice word game in the original title. The female officer played by Meg Ryan is getting under (real) fire for her courageous decision, first from the enemy and then from her own side and is killed. Then, later, the officer played by Denzel Washington is getting under fire from the military Chain of Command / apparatus for exposing the truth behind the death of (Meg Ryan).
The German title instead is just trivial. It could have been nicely and directly translated with "Mut unter Feuer" or "Mut unter Beschuss".

There are many more examples which I can't think of right now. But luckily, it seems to be getting better in general since a few years now. Looks like the media is finally starting to trust the - what they must see as stupid - public to speak good enough english after all to leave the movie / TV titles alone.

I'm glad they left "The Pacific" alone and didn't change it into something like "Der Pazifik - Die Hölle im Paradies".

[kiwi_2005]

I did not like The Pacific, once they starting shagging sheilas (US troops in Australia episode) a whole episode on soldiers shagging and falling in love, wippy bloody do da! Boring. Then their were the soldiers having mental breakdowns and really did the F word have to be used all the time.

The Pacific was aimed at a younger generation tried to be realistic & throw in some coolness - lets add the F word in every 2nd line & we gotta throw in some sex scenes otherwise nobody is going to watch this on prime TV!

The Pacific was a complete let down that i didn't even bother to watch the series to the end.

Tom Hanks you sucked this time round at directing stick to acting

Nothing beats 'Band of Brothers'

[Weiss Pinguin]

Well, dunno if you stuck around to the end but it got better (well except for the language situation) once it focused on Sledge.

[Skybird]

By trailers and the first episode that I just have seen, first impression is that the band of characters is somewhat scattered, and the personalities are given more shallow descriptions than in Band of Brothers. I sat there, watched it, and was left uninterested when it was over.

Of course I will watch the other episodes too, but my expectations are dampened. Band of Brothers was so great due to its total lack of pathos and the believable characters and very good actors. My first impression after one episode thus is that Pacific does not hold up to that standard - the old series already had scored after just the first episode.