Incoherent Scribblings

Robin Hood: Dialect Thief

Last week, we added Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to our DVD Collection. Remember that movie? The one where you got a glimpse of Kevin Costner’s butt and for months on end Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)” was on every time you turned on the radio? (At least it was in America!) I always liked the movie and we got a good deal on it at Wal-Mart.

I hadn’t seen it for a long time, so today I decided to watch it while I cross-stitched. (I started a new project today.)

The first thing I noticed while watching the movie with fresh eyes was that the dude that plays the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham had an uncanny resemblance to the dude that plays Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies. So when the credits rolled I noted who the Sheriff was (Alan Rickman) and double checked in the Internet Movie Database. I was right! The Sheriff of Nottingham was played by none other than Professor Snape!

However, what really struck me was Kevin Costner and Christian Slater’s (lack of) English accent.

The time period of this movie is around the time of the First Crusades (around 1100 AD). At this time, the English language was in a state of change. Old English was dying out and Middle English was becoming the standard dialect. Some scholars even think that the accent of Middle English sounded closer to that of American English than present day British English. (Whether or not this is actually true, isn’t really the discussion here. I am only mentioning this so that I can eventually come to my point…)

In the movie, Alan Rickman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and most of the other actors spoke with what I would consider a British accent. However, Kevin Costner and Christian Slater didn’t even TRY to adopt one.

The movie takes place in England. Today we identify the English with a particular accent/dialect, so I would have thought they could have at least hired Costner and Slater a dialect coach to give the audience the impression that they were actually English.

Or… if we go with the premise that early Middle English sounded more like American English, everyone else could have spoken like Costner and Slater. Either way, I think everyone (except Morgan Freeman who plays a Moor) should have been speaking with the same accent and in the same dialect. (Nottingham uses the word “twit” at one point, is that a Middle English word? No, according to my Oxford Dictionary of English, “twit” meaning a silly or foolish person originated in the 1930s.)

Overall, I think Costner made a decent Robin Hood and Slater an alright Will Scarlet, but their lack of an English accent really troubled me…

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Disclaimer:
Lest my British, English, Scottish, Irish, and/or Welsh readers be offended, I want to point out that I do know about the difference in the dialects/accents between you. However, like you might have a difficult time pointing out where in the US I come from by my accent/dialect, I have some trouble differentiating amongst your dialects/accents. I also know that Britain is made up of more than just England, so I hope in the spirit of my post you will understand that I am not trying to pigeon-hole you, just complain about the lack of consistency in this movie!

Tunnel Party!

Like all large cities, Munich is under constant construction. Its subway is no exception. Currently, I know of at least 3 new subway extensions that are being built. Two of these are on the U6 line. The U6 line is one of the longest in all of Munich and runs by many of the town hubs, including the University.

However, there are two Universities in Munich. The first is the LMU and the second is the TU (Technical University). In the past the TU was housed near the LMU, but the majority of the TU is now located north of town in Garching. Currently the only way to reach the TU is by bus or car, but one of the subway stops under construction is one that goes out to the TU. Sometime around 2006, you will be able to ride the subway all the way out to the TU.

Between the one going to the TU and the last finished one on that line, is another stop that has been under construction since before we moved to Munich in 2002. This one is almost finished. (It seems like about all that they have left to do is to lay the tracks.) As a way to celebrate the new, almost-finished subway stop, Saturday night there was a “Tunnel Party.”

Curious as to what a “Tunnel Party” entailed, A. and I went to check it out. After waiting in line for about an hour, we paid our way into the new subway tunnel. The tunnel itself was decorated like a disco and there was food, drink, music, and about 500 meters of empty subway tunnel open for the enjoyment of Munich’s residents. It was neat to walk through the tunnel, even though it was jam-packed with people and the music sounded awful (the tunnel didn’t make for very good acoustics).

We didn’t stay too long, as we aren’t the party animals we used to be, but I did get a decent picture or two.