"Russians" in Hollywood

[gera.livejournal.com]

As somewhat of a complement to this topic, I'd like to say a few words about the way Russians are pictured by Hollywood. First of all, they are almost never true Russians so the accent is always fake - and we can recognize that right away. But in those rare cases when they do use true Russians, they make them exaggerate their accent to the point that it also sounds fake.
What's more interesting, however, is that probably most of those "Russians", both in Cold war era movies and in more modern ones at one point or another mention "Mother Russia" in their speech.
I can't recall any real Russian ever saying something like that, except, maybe, in a poem or in a literary composition.

Comments

[apredeus.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah =)) Even for Russian native speaker most of the time it's more difficult to interprete "russian" speach from Hollywood movies than english speach 8)
Dear Russian learners! Please don't take them as an example 8)))

[apredeus.livejournal.com]

oops, my bad
... English speach.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Hollywood seems to think that Russian and German accents sound the same, as far as I can tell...

[gera.livejournal.com]

That's probably why they need to throw in "und" (http://www.livejournal.com/community/learn_russian/224678.html?replyto=2803622) to distinguish the German guy :)

By the way, I am sure Russian imitations of American accent are no better, but they don't have such a huge pool of genuine language speakers (nor the money).

[aclarar.livejournal.com]

About exaggerating their accents, playing bad guys and generally becoming a cartoon of their culture...doesn’t they (Hollywood) do that to all ethnic groups?

What you said about Russians I can say it about Latin-Americans, and add to that our apparently lack of brains or culture at all and the fact the we are used just as drug dealers and/or comic relive. Oh, and they are under the idea that our more important cities look all like a small town on Mexico or a city right in the middle of the jungle, and we apparently, still walk around on our native (indigenous) clothes.

[gera.livejournal.com]

I agree, they do it to all ethnic groups - to each in their own way. Also, I would note how a Latino maid, who otherwise speaks perfect English, would always greet the owner of the house in Spanish, as well as use Spanish equivalents of the most simple words in her otherwise rich and correct speech. Or a German professor, whose vocabulary far exceeds that of an average American would still invariably use "und" instead of "and".

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

Don't even get me started on what they do to representatives of Scottish culture in Hollywood.... argh. I realize that it's among the most difficult English accents to understand (I grew up with Scottish parents, so Trainspotting was a breeze for me to understand), but the Scots aren't uniformly drunk, angry, and incomprehensible... nor do they frequently wander around in kilts or eat haggis for dinner.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Was "The Fulll Monty" Scottish? I wouldn't understand a lot of words without the subtitles. On the other hand, I didn't have much trouble undestanding my Scottish barber whose accent just sounded plain British.

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

NEVER tell a Scotsman that he sounds "British". My family always jokes about when people tell my parents "... I just love your British accent." They sound nothing alike. :)

The Full Monty was set in a very working class area in England, which might account for the difficulty in understanding. They usually subtitle Scottish (and some English) films for North American audiences... depending on the area of Scotland, it can sound like a totally different language. Though it's a very small country, there are numerous regional dialects and accents (my mother can tell within five minutes where someone is from in Scotland, even if they've been living abroad for decades).

I always tell my parents that if I had their accent (I grew up in Canada), I'd be able to pronounce certain Russian letters more easily... such as the rolled 'r's and 'x' as in 'loch'.

[dr-s.livejournal.com]

"The Fulll Monty" is set up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. And, yes, Yorkshire accent is one the most famous in England.

Here are some audio samples:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/voices2005/glossary/barrie_rhodes.shtml

[egh0st.livejournal.com]

W00T?!!!

*Scottish* accent??? There's no such thing at all!!!

_Scottish_ accent is only in Simpsons (that chap who works at school).

And in damn grim reality we have:

1. Glasgow accent
2. Edinburgh accent
3. Dundonian accent.
4. Grampian/Aberdeenshire accent
5. Highlander's accent

And the difference between e.g. Glasgow and Dundonian is HUGE, it's almost like between Yorkshire and London.

FYI, In "Sliding Doors" movie a main chap (John Hannah) speaks pure Glasgow accent.

But in most movies, of course, British actors have to hide their natural accent (whenever it's English or Scottish or Irish).

t3h b3st accent amongst British ones was proclaimed the one which Sean Connery has :) (He has something like educated Edinburgh/Midlothian).

I'd say David Tennant is also very strong actor and his accent is great :) His performance in BBC Casanova TV (3 eps, 2005) was outstanding.

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

Obviously there are different regional variations on the 'Scottish' accent, just as there are different English accents (just as there as different Russian accents, for that matter). My parents are from Arbroath, and our family friends are from Glasgow. Needless to say, they don't sound the exactly the same. These distinctions, however, are not so obvious to people who are not Scottish or English, which explains some of the poor imitations.

I don't think we are actually arguing here... my point was that, in popular culture, all these various Scottish accents are muddled together in characters like Groundskeeper Willy (or those stupid Alexander Keiths beer commercials in Canada) to form a diluted parody of what a Scottish accent actually sounds like. Stick said character in a kilt, make him play the bagpipes and say "Och!" to complete the stereotype.

[sisyphus.livejournal.com]

"the Scots aren't uniformly drunk, angry, and incomprehensible... nor do they frequently wander around in kilts or eat haggis for dinner."

That's true. Some of them aren't angry.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

Don't blame me for what secular Jews do off on their own little island. What I don't get is why some Hispanics/Chicanos will get pissed off at Liberal Hollywood but then call Bush Hitler. Texans have a lot better understanding of Mexico than Hollywood does. Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?

And anyway, Americans trivialise -all- cultures. We're a melting pot of so many people that we couldn't do justice to each and every one. Look at how Black culture is prepackaged and sold all over the world. Irish and German are the two biggest American ethnic groups but we do the same to them as we do to Russians. The difference is, Irish people laugh at being called always-drunk leprechauns where other people would piss and moan.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Don't blame me for what secular Jews do off on their own little island.

I had to read this part several times before I understood what you were trying to say. Apparently, you are getting at "Jewish Hollywood".
I don't think the above mentioned phenomenon has anything to do with the role Jews played in founding Hollywood or in them being secular.
Nor do I blame you, nor am I particularly pissed about that. I at worst it makes me frown, but it won't make me upset.
This is a ridiculous and curious phenomenon, it definitely has to do more with shallowness than malice.

Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?

Hey, hey, hold your horses there. :) You are starting to sound like a KGB interrogator.
I am not launching a political attack here, nor do I look at this phenomenon as a political issue.

Still, I think it would be enlightening to many of the members of the community to know that Russians don't say "Mother Russia" as they do in many movies.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

My point is that Hollywood has -no- idea what real America is actually like. And although it pretends to be cosmopolitan and multi-cultural, its idea of being "steeped in foreign culture" is listening to balalaika quartets or a $2 compilations of panflute solos from the Andes. They don't care about cute little Чебурашки or ask what Приключения Электроника is, unless they can steal an idea for a movie from it.

So you know, nobody -seriously- thinks Russians refer to "Mother Russia", it's just a light-hearted stereotyped. :P

[aclarar.livejournal.com]

"Do you hate Hollywood, "real America", or both?"

Don't want to start a discussion...a bigger one here, but that is the problem with most of the Americans I know. They took things way to serious and in a personal level. And most of the times it is not worthy.

I don't hate Hollywood, it will be Untruthfully of me, after all I see their movies, they got excellent sci-fi and action/epic movies.

I don't hate "Real America", actually I'm not quite sure of what you mean by that. But in general terms, to hate U.S. will it be ... well...pretty silly of me. I use their clothes, I read their scientific magazines, and books, and I eat their food. I even use, from time to time, their course words, they sound really good.

[nemica.livejournal.com]

If America is a melting pot for many nations it would be so easy to find a Russian immigrant to make up a couple of Russian family names other than Andropov, Gogol and Pushkin. Ah and Radek, which isn't Russian at all. :rolleyes:

[ignite.livejournal.com]

What does Jewish have to do with anything??

[sisyphus.livejournal.com]

Not too many people are truly represented in cinema. If I wanted real Russians, I'd wander down to West Hollywood and watch them play dominos in the park. Generally there is no room in cinema for unsentimenal Italians, sober Irishmen, boorish Frenchmen, Brits that aren't stuffy etc... I wonder if the Russians in Brat 2 are any closer to being like 'real' Russians, just because they have a proper accent?

That being said, my Russian teacher tutored the guy who played the Russian mafia guy in that XXX movie, and tried to teach him some cursing.

[gera.livejournal.com]

In my personal opinion Brat 2 is probably the worst piece of hateful ideological crap ever created by Russian cinema, including the Soviet era.

[n-sane-peace.livejournal.com]

Wasn't The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (nee.Dagmar) considered the "little mother of Russia"?

[oryx_and_crake]

"Little mother of Russia" does not make sense. The Queen (I don't like the word "Czarina", it looks very unnatural) of Russia, any Queen of Russia, was sometimes addressed as "матушка", which means mother (meaning mother of the people), but a) "матушка" does not mean "little mother" and b) "little mother of Russia", whoever she is, has nothing to do with "Mother Russia" which is a way of speaking about the country, not about a person.

[n-sane-peace.livejournal.com]

I understand that it doesn't have much to do with the way of speaking about the country. But the words do relate to what you're talking about. The Dowager was addressed mostly as "The Little Mother" and even had a book published in the same name about her.

Sorry if it was off-topic. I didn't think it was. It certinally wasn't as off-topic as some of the posts above this.

[egh0st.livejournal.com]

What's more interesting, however, is that probably most of those "Russians", both in Cold war era movies and in more modern ones at one point or another mention "Mother Russia" in their speech.
I can't recall any real Russian ever saying something like that, except, maybe, in a poem or in a literary composition.

Nope, Россия-матушка is rather frequent, but usually used as a joke.

As somewhat of a complement to this topic, I'd like to say a few words about the way Russians are pictured by Hollywood. First of all, they are almost never true Russians so the accent is always fake - and we can recognize that right away. But in those rare cases when they do use true Russians, they make them exaggerate their accent to the point that it also sounds fake.

Nope. Of course, earlier it was a disaster. Though not with every movie. A masterpiece of trash, "Spies like Us" actually had some genuine russians like Seva Novgorodcev etc. I watched that movie 2 times and prooly will watch several times more. It's trash, but I love trash movies $)

But in recent years, due probably to high amount of russian immigrant in US, they do use a lot of russians. Even in such TV series like "CSI: Maiami" they used a couple of russians in one particular episode. Though sometimes "russians" also stands for other Slavics, who happen to know russian, but it doesn't change things much (anyway what's the difference between ukranians and russians ? :)