I only comment on one aspect of the film that I found particularly noticeable. It is about the use of foreign languages, in this case German, in American movies.
There were several occasions when the German POWs were talking amongst themselves in this film, and - quite rightly - the medium of communication switched then from English to German. The problem with this is that only a few of the actors who play Germans in this film are Germans, and the result is a bit off-putting. I would categorize the German-speaking in this movie into 4 classes:
1. Non-native speakers who don't have clue what they are doing: they rush their lines very quickly, but are virtually incomprehensible. It is not even German with a strong accent, it just comes across as gibberish.
2. Non-native speakers who do have a clue: they speak more slowly and are understandable, but sadly they all seemed to speak with a fairly strong and easily identifiable accent.
3. Germans who speak normally.
4. Helmut Griem. One can tell that he is stage-trained, because he tended to speak with this peculiar cut-glass, highly articulated accent stage actors are trained to use so that the people right at the back of the theatre would still understand what they say. It doesn't sound very real though - it doesn't in English and it doesn't in German either. Perhaps Griem instinctively wanted to compensate for groups 1 and 2, and surely the director wasn't in a position to tell that he was overdoing it.
What some American movie makers (and this is a prime example, another one would be 'Die Hard') fail to realise is that whenever the original version of such a film is viewed by native speakers then foreign language scenes built on such premises will not work, they just make the knowing viewer cringe. Just think about what it would do to 'The Great Escape' if some of the inmates were played instead by German actors who speak English with a strong German accent.
There were several occasions when the German POWs were talking amongst themselves in this film, and - quite rightly - the medium of communication switched then from English to German. The problem with this is that only a few of the actors who play Germans in this film are Germans, and the result is a bit off-putting. I would categorize the German-speaking in this movie into 4 classes:
1. Non-native speakers who don't have clue what they are doing: they rush their lines very quickly, but are virtually incomprehensible. It is not even German with a strong accent, it just comes across as gibberish.
2. Non-native speakers who do have a clue: they speak more slowly and are understandable, but sadly they all seemed to speak with a fairly strong and easily identifiable accent.
3. Germans who speak normally.
4. Helmut Griem. One can tell that he is stage-trained, because he tended to speak with this peculiar cut-glass, highly articulated accent stage actors are trained to use so that the people right at the back of the theatre would still understand what they say. It doesn't sound very real though - it doesn't in English and it doesn't in German either. Perhaps Griem instinctively wanted to compensate for groups 1 and 2, and surely the director wasn't in a position to tell that he was overdoing it.
What some American movie makers (and this is a prime example, another one would be 'Die Hard') fail to realise is that whenever the original version of such a film is viewed by native speakers then foreign language scenes built on such premises will not work, they just make the knowing viewer cringe. Just think about what it would do to 'The Great Escape' if some of the inmates were played instead by German actors who speak English with a strong German accent.