To dub or not to dub . . . . . that shouldn't be the question

Some folks refuse to watch a movie that has subtitles, or so I’ve been told. They insist that movies in any language other than English be dubbed, because they can’t be bothered reading anything on screen.

I find this viewpoint baffling. In fact, I’m reluctant to watch a film or TV show that is dubbed. How better to destroy the credibility, the allure, the very character of a foreign film if everyone in Rome or Moscow or Istanbul appears to be chattering in English?

Here are two cases in point.

A while back, my wife Liz and I settled in to watch Marseille, a French television series starring Gérard Depardieu as the embattled mayor of that city. The acting, the pacing and the script were solid, but thanks to dubbing, Depardieu and everyone else on the show prattled en anglais.

To make matters worse, the dubbed version of Marseille doesn't even feature the accented English of native French speakers. Instead, we suffered through the disorienting experience of watching a show set and shot in France in which the entire French cast sounded like transplanted Iowans.

We didn’t bother with the second episode.

Compare that to Borgen, a television series that has been described by Slate magazine as “the Danish West Wing.” This political drama, which is in Danish with English subtitles, explores the world of Danish politics following the election of Denmark’s first female prime minister. 

Liz and I zipped through all 10 episodes of the first season because the series is so compelling. It isn’t fun to watch despite the fact that it’s in Danish, but rather in part because it’s in Danish.

Now, I don’t claim to understand Danish, although I eventually came to recognize the Danish words for “hi” and “bye” and “yes” and “no” and “prime minister.” To be honest, I don’t even like the sound of Danish all that much. Like Swedish and Norwegian, it's a North Germanic language. No offense to the Danes, but Danish sounds harsh to my ear. I much prefer French and Portuguese and the other Romance languages. And English, of course.

But Borgen is a Danish series. It's set in Denmark. It stars Danish actors speaking the Danish language. It’s about Danish politics. It features handsome shots of Copenhagen, including Christiansborg Palace, which houses the Danish Parliament, the Danish prime minister’s office and the Supreme Court of Denmark.

Why would I want to see such a thing bastardized by robbing it of what lies at the very heart of every culture: language? Could there be anything more absurd than watching Danish politicians, bureaucrats and journalists who seem to have been raised in Chicago?

Put another way, shouldn't the characters in The West Wing and House of Cards be portrayed, with subtitles, as Americans speaking American English, even if their antics are being viewed in Serbia?

As they might say in Denmark: Ja!