What are your thoughts on subtitles in movies?

[UofLCard]

I don't much care for them. Before you call me an illiterate hick, I don't like them because I'm often focused on the lower half of the screen, and miss what's going on in the movie.

[Trimss]

It's cool for us foreign people who might need them. I wouldn't understand some words or .. like the medical terms on Dr House if I don't google them, and if I don't know how to write them then I'm pretty muched fucked.

[EG.]

I prefer watching everything with subtitles tbh, even in my own language. Its just handy for when there's background noise and stuff.

[Trimss]

I prefer watching everything with subtitles tbh, even in my own language. Its just handy for when there's background noise and stuff.

This hoebag is always right.

[AbramIsaac]

I used to date this girl that always turned the subtitles on. I had the same proble, I would focus on reading instead of watching the movie. She would also watch the special features before the movie, which was just a spoiler.

Fucking bitch...ruined every porno we ever saw.

[flyingmonkey10]

i don't mind subtitles, they're hella useful sometimes especially for quiet scenes

[Fleka]

So, we can agree that lots of members here suck at multitasking.

[Slim Fiasco]

I don't like them because I'm often focused on the lower half of the screen,

Fucking this.

[SliK]

I enjoy foreign films and for these subtitles are essential, but if I understand the language I think it's dumb as fuck.

[B.A.D.]

hahaha they're gonna be useful for when they release The Dark Knight Rises for DVD... this bastard bane is impossible to understand hahaha

Fucking bitch...ruined every porno we ever saw.

how were the subtitles??

"aaahh, aaahhh" or "[moans], [keeps moaning]"

[Guess_Who]

Americans, they don't like subtitles. That's why you remade many Spanish movies, like Vanilla Sky. Remade and sometimes destroy.

I need the subtitles, my English is not good enough to understand everything. So dubbed or subtitles.

[Amaranthine]

I don't much care for them. Before you call me an illiterate hick, I don't like them because I'm often focused on the lower half of the screen, and miss what's going on in the movie.

This. They're obviously very useful for brief scenes in other languages, because otherwise I wouldn't know what was going on, but I can't read subtitles and focus on what else is visually happening in the movie at the same time.

[KaZer]

I always use subtitles for every movie & TV shows...

[EminemBase]

I've only ever watched a few right through in subtitles... Initially I find them a bit distracting and annoying to follow, because I'm lazy and would rather just hear, plus on some level I think it can take away from certain elements, as, nuance of understanding of the communication is being lost, which can be entirely vital to the point of certain characters or themes...

However I do remember watching, I can't remember what film exactly now, but I remember with one specific film before thinking "I can't be fucked" but then I kept watching and soon the subtitles don't matter, and following them becomes second-nature as if listening, and I just got lost in the film.

So, I'd rather not have to have them, and eventually want to learn many languages (not for that purpose but, it would be a nice luxury and use for it), so I don't have to.

There is something somewhat nice about having the slight curtain of mystery on some elements of the communication though. That's one of the problems with some modern commercial art (films, TV) in recent times (Hollywood mainly) in that every ending or thought or concern is attempted to be settled, tied-up, or nicely explained for the audience... sometimes, and I think perhaps even often: art is better, and richer, when that ISN'T the case. Sometimes art intentionally having cloaks or subjective elements for interpretation, is what makes the art special.

So, in some ways it's nice, in some ways it isn't. Now that you've mentioned it, I may look up some apparently great foreign films of recent years, and historically, just to watch them in subtitles and see how I feel afterwards. It all aids greater understanding in the end.

[UofLCard]

Sort of an old thread, but I just want to change my opinion after I watched a Swedish movie in my film class. I think their language is much more pleasing to the ear than Spanish for me.