I'm watching the movie "Troy" -- why do the Trojans have English accents?

[driver8]

As a matter of fact, in the movie "Alexander", the children who speak to their teacher have Irish accents.

What's up with that?

[Chan790]

1. Historical accuracy is clearly not a goal of the film industry.

Why is Brad Pitt wearing 6th-century C.E. Celtic-style boots instead of 2nd-century B.C.E. Greek sandals?

[Deja Q]

3. Which is why all the Imperial troop dudes in Star Wars speak with a British accent...

:evilgrin:

[KitchenWitch]

15. Thank you for using C.E. and B.C.E.!

:yourock:

[Generic Brad]

2. You've got me!

:shrug:
It's all Greek to me.

[AlCzervik]

4. that movie was unintentionally hilarious, after "Helen's run off.....with the trojans"

i was pretty sure it was a satire.

[NNadir]

5. You are watching the dubbed version.

In the original version, all of the characters speak Greek with a Bolivian accent.

Granted, this was also inexplicable since many of the Trojans were actually Peruvians in real life, but that's the movies.

[LibertyLover]

6. Did you see the llamas?

There is one scene in the marketplace of Troy that is the only reason my husband and I watch the movie - there are two llamas. We call them Ralph the Wonder Llama (from Monty Python of course) and his cousin, Larry the Lounge Llama.

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. Llamas are dangerous

So if you see one where people are swimming, you shout...

¡Cuidado! ¡Llamas!

[WCGreen]

7. Why they thought they could improve on Homer is beyond me....

That movie looked like an egotistical cluster fuck...

[crim son]

8. That wasn't the best film I've ever seen.

:rofl:

[bikebloke]

9. Troy was originally settled...

...by a disaffected splinter group from a Brixton cooperative, while Greece was settled by Shepherd's Bush pub crawlers who boarded the wrong bus after closing.

[Kutjara]

11. It would be hilarious to see The Iliad performed by...

...a "Sarf Landon" cast.

"Oi, Hector! A word in your shell-like."
"Wotcher Priam?"
"We really gonna scrap over this Greek bint?"
"Looks like it."
"Fackin' 'ell mate. Can't see the point myself. She's got a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle. I wouldn't shag her with yours."
"Too right. Must be great in the sack to get everyone in such a lather. Personally, I'd rather be drinking."
"You an me both, mate."
"Anyway, get on the blower if anything goes off."
"Right-o. Stay lucky, Chief. S'later."
"S'later."

Much better that all that speechifying. :)

[driver8]

14. Ha Ha!! Excellent!

Well done! :toast:

[datasuspect]

29. true cockney version

"Oi, 'ector! A word in your shell-like."
"Wotcher Priam?"
"We really gonna scrap over this fucking Greek bint?"
"Looks like it innit?"
"Fackin' 'ell mate. Can't see the bloody point meself. She's got a bloody face like a fucking bulldog licking piss off a bleeding nettle. I wouldn't shag that poxy slag with yours."
"'ere, must be great in the sack to get everyone in such a lather innit? Personally, I'd rather be drinking."
"You an me bofe, mate."
"Anyway, give us a ring if anything goes off."
"Right-o. Stay lucky, Chief. S'later."
"Right."

[Kutjara]

10. Because Hollywood thinks English accents are posh?

By giving their characters English accents, they no doubt believe the film will have added gravitas.

I suppose this comes from the theatrical tradition of the great Shakespearean actors of the past being English, so Cesar, Marc Antony, Cleopatra et al were always played in the movies by English actors (Lawrence Olivier, Liz Taylor - before her accent changed, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud). A lot of the great dramatizations of classical works were also made by the BBC (I Claudius etc), which added to the Classical = English trope. Hollywood is just piggybacking on that perception.

[leftofthedial]

12. because they used the actors who would have played Russians

if raygun hadn't single-handedly defeated the evil commies and ended the cold war

[deadparrot]

13. More important: WTF is a Sword of Troy?

I'm a Latin geek. And definitely saw it with several of my Latin geek friends. We laughed.

[jobycom]

16. Since it was Homer, they originally wanted to go with Springfield accents

but no one in Springfield could act worth a shit, so they hired British actors instead. Except Brad Pitt. Homer liked him so much in "Snatch" that he insisted the retain Mr. Pitt.

In its inception stage, they had cast an entire troup who could speak the original Greek--not the literary stuff of Homer, but the actual various dialects of the various regions of Greece. But the entire cast quit over a misunderstanding in the contract, and, well, because they were all boring geeks, anyway.

[driver8]

17. He should have done the Pikey accent from "Snatch" in "Troy" --

now that would be funny!

[sakabatou]

19. Same thing happnes in most Sci-fi flicks

[sasquatch]

20. Because Americans think that a character is "ethnic" enough if it has-

an English accent.

[Mr. Blonde]

21. I always hate it when

people in movies are of another nationality and speak english in the movie, but speak it with the accent of their nationality. I don't know why it makes me mad, but it always does. If you aren't going to speak the language you actually would (ex. German) why bother with that accent? It's pointless.

[sleipnir]

22. Bigger question, "Why are the gods all but ignored in that movie?'

What a terrible piece of trash.

Did the screenwriter even take a look at the source material beyond a two sentence summary?

[KeepItReal]

23. For the same reasons Chinese stars play Japanese people in "Memoirs of a Geisha"

<eom>

[girl gone mad]

24. There was talking in that movie?

Hmm...I must have beenn distracted by something or other.

[sarge43]

25. OK, some questions

What was the Trojan phonic system 1200BCE and why would it be narratively necessary to accurately reproduce it? If you can answer the first part, historical linguists would like your email addy or phone number because they don't know. Because we don't know, what phonic system would be suitable?

[terrya]

26. The same sort of thing happened in "Marie Antoinette"

The French characters spoke English in American accents. Kirstin Dunst sounded pretty much like she did in every other film of hers.

Obviously, the characters should have been speaking French, with English subtitles. Since the film does take place in France.

But, to me, better that they speak English in the actor's own accents than they speak English with French accents. A person who spoke French and who lived in France would not be speaking English. This is the same sort of thing that annoyed me while watching various movies and television shows...such as "Hogan's Heroes". Obviously, Colonel Klink, Sergeant Shultz, etc, would not have been speaking English in a German POW camp.

[NewJeffCT]

27. Everytime I hear a native English speaker with a foreign accent

still speaking English, it always brings me back to Hogan's Heroes "I see nuff-ink" and makes me roll my eyes. Either do it in the native language, or don't even bother with the accent.

[CBHagman]

28. Why? Should they have American accents instead?

I mean, it wasn't as though Jamestown was even settled by then, not that what we know as American accents even existed.

Then again...is that you, Mel Gibson? If you want authenticity, here's the ticket:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_language

On edit: And does this mean we get to cover the accents in Spartacus, which come to us by way of the Bronx, the Old Vic, and many places beyond?