why does america....

ronaldraygun

copy all of englands place names? there's even a 'kelso'...

Brian

quality thread

ronaldraygun

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

The_Non

No one can possibly be this dumb

phongone

Raygun have you posted your picture yet?

ronaldraygun

No one can possibly be this dumb

Soulhawk

dolo

ronaldraygun

Raygun have you posted your picture yet?

selperfuge

INNIT

ignasty

why are all place names names of places from other places

Gary

its like when cucumbers crawl intoo their cocoon and go through whats called metastasis and come out a delicious pickle. england is the cucumber and the us is the butterfly, or delicious pickle.

skel

I'd like to know if you 'Mercans have visited the original towns that your home town is named after, be it in England, Scotland, Germany, Egypt wherever.

And what did you think?

skel

I'd also like all of you, every single person on here, to name a TV or film character that you sound like so I can read your post in my mind in the appropriate accent. Thanks.

nzshadow

I'd also like all of you, every single person on here, to name a TV or film character that you sound like so I can read your post in my mind in the appropriate accent. Thanks.

Jimster

^^^A MORPH OF ALL STRUTTEUR MUGSHOTS POSTED THUS FAR*

SelinaKyle83

I'd also like all of you, every single person on here, to name a TV or film character that you sound like so I can read your post in my mind in the appropriate accent. Thanks.

SelinaKyle83

Btw if you haven't seen Puberty Blues it is an absolute MUST!!
Real Headz Know The Deal.....ya fish faced moles!

skel

Blimey, that was heading towards some 14yo girl on girl action for a moment.

"Perf"

nzshadow

Blimey, that was heading towards some 14yo girl on girl action for a moment.

"Perf"

SelinaKyle83

In the book they are 14 but because they get up to so much mischief they thought it less controversial in the early 80's to make them 16. if you think that's pervy, you don't want to see the end surfing scene, its all boobies!!

Mjukis

I'd also like all of you, every single person on here, to name a TV or film character that you sound like so I can read your post in my mind in the appropriate accent. Thanks.

I sound like Stellan!

skel

You could get a job in one of those American films where they cast a foreigner in the baddie role.

i.e. vitually all of them.

nzshadow

I sound like Stellan!

ronaldraygun

You could get a job in one of those American films where they cast a foreigner in the baddie role.

i.e. vitually all of them.

skel

This is not an original question, but I've never come across a satisfactory answer. Just out of interest, in Hollywood films and US TV shows why are the heroes generally American, even when playing Englishmen or other Europeans, and why are most villains either played by European actors or American actors putting on European accents. The evidence?

Prince of Thieves - 'good' Kevin Costner. 'bad' Alan Rickman.
Die Hard - 'good' Brucie. Bad Alan R ..again.
Die Hard with a Vengeance - another Englishman as a bad German..this time Jeremy Irons.
Star Wars - 'good' rebels (all American). Darth Vader ( Jame Earl Jones putting on English accent), Empire generals = mostly British e.g. Peter Cushing.
Braveheart - Mel Gibson (brave Scotsman). Patrick McGoohan (cruel English King)
Lethal Weapon 2 - Joss Ackland (British) as evil South African diplomat.
Buffy - American actor playing English vampire i.e. Spike
Cliffhanger - US actor John Lithgow as English baddie.
Mission Impossible 2 - Scotsman Dougray Scott as baddie Sean Ambrose.
Dynasty - Joan Collins superbitch Alexis and Chris Cazenove as no-good brother of Blake.
Raiders of the Lost Ark - good ole Harrison. British actor Paul Freeman as slimy French baddie.
The Fugitive - good ole Harrison. No good Jeroen Krabbe.
Bladerunner - hey..again..good ole Harrison ..no goodnick Rutger Hauer.
Silence of the Lambs - Welshman Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal
Beverley Hills Cop - Steven Berkoff as smarmy drug kingpin.
Titanic - Billy Zane (english accent) and English actor David Warner as unpleasant duo.

get my drift?

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Bev StapletonDecember 1st, 2003, 07:44 AM
Same reason that film about the submarine and the Enigma machine had to re-write history so that the US became the heroes. There are some people in Hollywood who seem to think Americans can't cope with non-US heroes. I can't believe the American film going public are that daft.

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Muskrat RambleDecember 1st, 2003, 08:07 AM
They also put an added, unhistorical emphasis on Americans in the classic WWII movie The Great Escape. Not to mention the motorcycle chase at Steve McQueen's insistence

As for submarine films, most people would place the German film Das Boot at the top of the heap, and there are no Americans in sight in that one. Sadly, at the US premiere, people cheered when the opening credits noted how only a few thousand of the 38,000 U-Boat personnel survived the war.

Btw, some of what you list above oversimplifies things. Braveheart is roughly based on history. The Scots really did fight the English, who, it would seem, really were the bad guys. In Buffy, Spike was hardly just a villain, for one thing. The accent gave him extra exoticism and tied into his backstory (through a couple flashback episodes to Victorian England). In Blade Runner, Roy is as much the sympathetic hero of the piece as Deckard. Star Wars is about a farmboy rebel fighting the Empire--calls to mind the Revolution and American self-mythology in general. (Though the faceless Stormtroopers and grey-uniformed officers of course call to mind German troops of WWI and II--"Sturmabteilung", "feldgrau" (field grey) uniform color, etc.)

Anyway, the bias only makes sense. Films made in America are going to focus on the familiar: Americans. It's also easier to see outsiders as enemies. That plays on natural human tendencies but also can be a cop-out for writers. The scariest enemies are actually the ones within (us). Don't forget, though, that there are countless Hollywood movies starring sympathetic Brits, our cousins across our ocean

LOOOOOL

SelinaKyle83

Alan Rickman - Prince of Thieves = Owwwwwwwwwwwww!!

skel

OWWW OWWW OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
OWWW OWWW
LET'S GO
WOOOOOOOOOH

Duderonomy

I remember when that came out and my mum spent most of the film drooling over him - she was less than impressed with the final 'wedding-scene': "As if she'd be fighting Alan Rickman off!"

Junior

I think we can't forget that most British actors are far better at playing villains than leading men (example A: Truly Madly Deeply vs Die Hard).

On the same subject I saw the other day that Michael Sheen was rumoured to be in line to play the next Bond Villain. Despite my personal hatred of the man that makes me want to make small animals cry every time I see his face I'm also disappointed by the franchise's focus on young baddies. Whatever happened to the geriatric super villain? Bond doesn't have to wrestle each one mano o mano and I miss the days of the elderly gent who would have a small coronary every time Bond quipped.

LaserWolf

Leading men have to handsome, intellegent and likeable, thus...

I wonder how many people from, what do you all call it? Great Britain? have been to the great 'mercan towns named for where you live. If you have not been to London West Virginia, you real are not qualified to speak on the issue of towns named for where our oppressors lived.

:grin

DB_Cooper

I'd like to know if you 'Mercans have visited the original towns that your home town is named after, be it in England, Scotland, Germany, Egypt wherever.

And what did you think?

I haven't. Please apologize to the 38,000 residents of Boston, Lincolnshire for me, but I don't plan to either.



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