i'm sure there are many foreign movies out there that got very bad subtitles on R1 but they didn't get as much attention as this one.

You know, I watched the alleged "bad" subtitles the other day. There are really only two or three awkward lines, no more than any other typical foreign-language movie. For the most part, they seemed to fit the amount of dialogue being spoken and the tone of the scenes just fine.

Meanwhile, based on the Icons of Fright comparisons, there are several instances where characters on screen only speak one word that the "good" subtitles translate as an entire sentence.

Frankly, I believe Magnolia's explanation that the disc utilizes a more literal translation than the theatrical subtitles, which seem to me like the translator attempted to make the dialogue more poetic in English. One of the movie's strengths is its blunt, matter-of-fact tone, and I fear that flowery dialogue might only dilute that.

Bottom line is that the subs on the current BD aren't what I read in theaters, and to not offer up a replacement for fans who bought this on day one expecting that is total bullshit.

Disagree.

As someone who saw this in theaters twice; I (amongst others) prefer the theatrical translation over the DVD/Blu translation.

If the current subtitles had been used in theaters, you would have liked the movie just as much as you do now, and wouldn't have ever suspected that anything was wrong.

All translations inherently make compromises and lose nuances of the original language. Perhaps the theatrical subtitles are a little better in some respects, but I bet they have their own share of problems that native Swedish speakers would object to.

Based on all the hysteria around this disc, I expected the subtitles to be totally incoherent, like a bad Asian bootleg that had been translated from the original language to Chinese and then to English by people who don't speak any of those languages natively. That's not the case at all.

As someone who's watched a lot of foreign movies over the years, these are nowhere near what I would categorize as "bad" subtitles. I've endured much worse.

If the studio is going to press new discs with different subtitles, they ought to offer an exchange program for existing copies. I'm totally with you there.

Epic thread.

Color me happy that I didn't pick this up before hearing about these dumb asses screwing it up the way they did.

This was a movie that really blew me away when I saw it. I'll pick this up only after I see the next release has the proper theatrical subs.

Until then I have other ways of seeing the original film, and that will have to do.

Has any time frame been given for when the updated discs would be released?

Really Glad I decided to wait on this one almost blind bought it day one but resisted the urge now i am really glad i did

I'd suggest being COURTEOUS instead.

well this sucks.....i hadn't heard of this problem at all and my blu ray of this arrived just today from Amazon. fuckity fuck fuck. now what?

frequent the forums more sir!

Not to those of us who read the novel.

The theatrical subtitles are similar to the writing used in the book. The sequence where Hakan yells "Eli!" in the locker room and it's translated to "I'm trapped" is ridiculous. That tiny bit carries a lot of weight and it's lost in translation in the incorrect subtitles. The film has a lot of subtext (likely because of the origin as a weighty novel) that is lost with the bad subtitles. Sure one is capable of "understanding" the film... but I can "understand" a cropped pan&scan movie with network edits on broadcast television too... it doesn't mean it's the ideal way to view a film or to truly appreciate the artistic merit of the piece.

Of course some people might not have even noticed or wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't visited this site. That's like saying we didn't really notice how much we were missing when we used to see Pan&Scan movies on cable twenty years ago, or that music replacement isn't such a big deal for video releases of theatrical films, etc.

The point is that the subtitles do not reflect the theatrical experience.

I too will wait until the replacement discs have made their way to stores.

For those who are waiting, isn't this like a Catch-22?

They aren't going to produce new discs until people buy up current inventory ... but people aren't buying until the new discs show up.

There isn't a planned recall and they said "going forward" they will use the theatrical subs. Considering their attitude, I don't think they're going to go out of their way to put the new discs out any time soon.

It's just a sucky situation overall.

But people aware of the subtitle issue are a very small minority of the people who plan to buy the release, less than 5% perhaps. And then only a percentage of them probably care enough to wait or complain.

Yes, but how big of a seller would it have been otherwise? It only made $7 million worldwide.

Of course, the book wasn't written in English either. What you read was a someone's translation as well.

It would be interesting to see comments from someone who speaks and reads both languages fluently as to whether or not the new edition is a more accurate translation or not. Disregarding all opinions as to which version of subtitles is preferred by the majority of people, I would be very interested to hear which is the more literal translation. It may very well be that the theatrical subtitles are overly wordy and are not really accurate translation-wise, even if they do a better job of conveying the story.

It's available on demand currently on Netflix (in both SD and HD).

And guess what?

It has the original theatrical subtitles.

I fucking hate Magnolia. I guess I'll be trading in my disc and just stick to watching it in 720p on my XBOX 360 with Netflix on there.

True. Although I have a hard time believing that the english translation of the novel "added" character subtleties like the playfulness between Oskar and Eli (I live here. In the jungle gym) that weren't in the original swedish version of the book.

In many cases with newer popular novels translated to other languages the author is involved in the translation process.

How is it that Magnolia/Magnet has not made any new statements as to this debacle? Is there really no timeline for the new discs to hit the stores?

Debacle? A few hundred people complaining about (to them and many) a non-issue? And they gave a timeline already, when the current supply is exhausted.

This may be a "huge" issue to some of us here, but to them, it's a scant percentage of their customer base complaining about something they shouldn't be complaining about.

really? i shouldn't expect to get the same subtitles i saw in the theater?

I didn't say that at all.

okay i read it again and i see what you're saying...magnolia doesn't think they've done anything wrong.

It simply doesn't make much sense. I appreciate that Magnolia has at least addressed the issue, but the fact that the are promising to inevitably solve it does in and of itself admit that it was a problem.

Trevor, do I take it that you actually agree with Magnolia's stance that this is only a minor issue to a scant few bloggers who will get up in arms about anything?

Frankly, initial supply doesn't seem like it will run out any time soon. This is a niche title so by complaining that it's the bloggers that are making an issue of this is pretty much the equivalent of saying that it's the niche market itself for this DVD that are the problem. This film was probably only a success because of the festival circuit and the blogger buzz.

A timeline is fine, but at this point, they should attempt to give some sort of date, because right now it's the equivalent of saying the correction is never coming out in the foreseeable future.