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Jun 4·edited Jun 4Pinned

I want to make a general comment about this article. My gripe is not with minorities getting film roles, it is with changing history in film renditions of historical events.

I also believe that the agenda is trying very hard to flatten out our culture under the guise of DEI, which, if any of us say anything about that, we are called bigots and racists. This “flattening out” is occurring with ALL races and cultures, not just white.

I do not want to comment too much in my articles about race issues (as well as any other "diversity issue") because it is too touchy a subject and I do not think I could bring it justice in these short-form articles. Once in a while, of course, I bring these things up (as you know) and I will, of course, continue to do that. What is going on in our schools, for example, is unconscionable with regard to most DEI enforcement.

Of course, most of it is big trouble, and most of it, in my opinion, is part of a nefarious agenda to undermine humanity. There is nothing wrong with all of us getting along together, with advocating equal rights, equal value, etc. There is nothing wrong with making an effort to reach out and maybe make a situation, or offer an opportunity, to those who are having a difficult time due to race, ethnicity, intelligence, poverty, personality, physical looks, etc. But as we all know, much of this current atmosphere has nothing to do with helping people in need, and everything to do with the agenda to get us all at each other's throats.

I'll leave it at that...

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Jun 3·edited Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

I am not sure I understand the deal about accents. I will start by admitting that I am quite ignorant about the art of drama (theater, movies). Do they speak with British accents because they are "acting" the accent, or just because they are English actors? If it is the latter, I do not understand the problem. I have watched movies all my life with settings in WWII Germany, China, Ancient Rome... The actors never spoke in German, Chinese or Latin, nor with those accents... they spoke in English with whatever accents they spoke in real life. We "presumed" that if the plot were "real", they would be speaking in another language. But the dialogue is made (or dubbed) in whatever language the audience would understand. I have watched many movies that were originally in English, but they were dubbed to Spanish with "Mexican accent".

The DEI bull***t is another matter; we have become used to it, but it is totally ridiculous.

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At first I believed that they were English (or Irish) actors who spoke with their native accent...but I read an article stating it was consciously decided that everyone have a British accent regardless of their nationality. While watching the series, I am not certain that is true, as I do hear American accents, and even one poor sap had a Russian accent! (I nearly fell off my chair when he came in, he had only one line—he must have studied at the Moscow Art Theatre).

I will not question your experience, as I am certain there are many films out there where everyone acting in it has the accent of their native tongue regardless of the role they are playing...however, trusting only my memory (which is a big risk to start with) I would say that many films I recall they at least make some effort to speak with the accent of the role. Going back to older films, I doubt if they did it all that well...but all actors (that I know of) learn accents...and use them when appropriate.

Since I live in mostly a fantasy world, maybe I am completely wrong...for example, I don't think they spoke with Russian accents in films like "Dr. Zhivago" and "Nicolas and Alexander"....hmmm...

Personally I think accents are as important as native dress and costume if you are trying to convey a particular period or location. I am sure, as you say, many films that are exclusively in one national location dispenses with the accents...but personally I am not sure if that is ever a great idea...

My examples with "The Gentleman from Moscow" and "Chernobyl" I believe were purposefully done in the spirit of the "New Woke World Order"...but maybe not. Along with all of my other complaints, I believe there is an intention to hammer out everything into one flat, nondescript, pancake. Stripping all of it of any sense of location, nationality, period, history, color, nuance, or soul. IMHO...

Maybe the accent part is overkill...

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Jun 23·edited Jun 23

Accents in films is a funny old topic. As a kid I used to love all the films about Greeks and Romans where everyone spoke in a British upper class accent. I also got annoyed by Robin Hood and his merry men speaking in New York Yankee or even semi-Brooklyn accents! However, as you say, the shoe-horning of minorities into white roles for the sake of DIE (sic) is far crazier. Dr Zhivago was a probably unintentional precursor to that. I loved the film and the book but always wondered why a middle eastern man like Omar Sharif was cast as a Russian. However, in the interests of racial equality, I also found Julie Christie a bit out of place too. She is so much the quintessential Sloane Ranger/Chelsea Girl that she didn't really fit in.

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Jun 4Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

As you say... maybe accents are important and appropriate in some instances. For example, if a movie is in English, and the setting is an English-speaking place and time where people spoke with a certain accent, then actors should certainly try to talk with the appropriate accent. But if the movie is in English and the setting is Spain, it makes no sense to have actors speak English with a Spanish accent.

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It does to me...and often they do try to do this. I just watched (for a second time) Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" which takes place during the war in Nazi occupied France. Not only did Tarantino stick with the proper accents, but most of the time his characters spoke in their native tongue with subtitles (which I personally prefer). One of his major characters (a Nazi) spoke fluent French, English, and even Italian...but he was a native German speaker...when he spoke English, he usually did not have much of a German accent...because he was fluent in English he had lost the German accent...

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Yep. I see your point. But maybe in some instances (like your Tarantino example) it may be important to highlight the setting, or appropriate language. In many other instances, it still does not make much sense to me. I cannot fathom watching The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur in Hebrew with English subtitles, or listening to characters speak English with a Hebrew, Egyptian or Latin accent.

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Jun 4Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

As I said at the beginning of my post, drama (theater and movies) is not my area of expertise. I am really ignorant about the subject, although I have watched my share of movies. I just thought about watching "The Ten Commandments" (just one example of probably many). Moses certainly spoke in Ancient Egyptian (however that sounded like) with the Pharaoh; and Hebrew with his people. But Charlton Heston spoke in English, with whatever "American" accent he had. There are probably thousands of similar examples...

But, if you say that for this series they actually purposedly told actors to speak with a British accent, then I fully agree with you. Rest our case.

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Jun 4·edited Jun 4Author

HA! You are funny...no one knows what Ancient Egyptian sounded like. It was an American film, so he spoke with an American accent...

I stick with the point I made about Russians making a movie about the Queen of England would do their best not to have Russian accents...maybe.

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Yes, I know no one knows how Ancient Egyptian sounded like; that was part of my point 🙂 I guess if Russians made a movie about the Queen of England, and the movie was for a Russian audience, they would make it in Russian... I guess they speak Russian with a Russian accent. If they were going to present the movie to an English audience, then they could write English subtitles, or dub the dialogue to English, and of course, they should have native English speakers do the dubbing, not Russians speaking English with a Russian accent. 😅

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

What an incredibly brave piece. Fabulous

To be noted though, French was the first language of the Russian aristocracy at the end of the 18th century.

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author

French spoken with a Russian accent..😆

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

I love the costumes of Bridgerton, but everything else seems terrible to me. I am now noticing the awful treatment of women in this new season. I have stopped watching several times but am then drawn back into the horror. I can’t help myself! I know it is satire but gosh.

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I've settled down with "The Bridgertons" a tad...I see it totally as "alternative history" now...none of it is real...even the costumes are so out there (they are wonderful, I agree) you can see every speck of it as fantasy.

Although anything agenda-driven is anathema to me, and anything coming out of Hollywood is agenda-driven for sure (and I am using "Hollywood" as a metaphor for all film-producing systems wherever they might be in the world) it IS interesting to see what that society would have been like if every race was born equal. BUT IT MUST BE MADE VERY CLEAR by the producers that it is alternative history...

I do not believe "A Gentleman in Moscow" can be presented as "alternative history"...

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

You bring up some excellent points, Todd. Linking as always @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/

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author

Thank you!!!

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

My wife and I just watched this last week. I went into it without having read the book or knowing anything about it. We both like Ewan MacGregor so that was all we were going on.

I didn’t take much offense to the English actors or the seeming DEI roles. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to this crap by now. I mean, how many WW2 movies are there showing Germans being played by British actors with English accents. And the DEI stuff is just the current politically correct bar that has to be complied with in order to get anything made.

I understood from the outset that this was a fantasy story. I mean, the whole premise of sentencing a Count to serve out a life sentence in the attic of a posh Russian hotel told me that this was not going to be any kind of historical record of Russia during this time. The hotel was meant to be an oasis that was surrounded by all the anguish and strife going on in the rest of the world.

What was very interesting to me, and will get me to read the book, was the discussions between the count and his “guard” regarding their impressions of American society. Here is an example I copied from an article I found that gave a review of the book. This was depicted in the series after the two had watched It’s a Wonderful Life together:

“Just look at their Depression,” he said. “From beginning to end it lasted ten years. An entire decade in which the Proletariat was left to fend for itself. . . . If ever there had been a time for the American worker to cast off the yoke, surely that was it. But did they join their brothers-in-arms? Did they shoulder their axes and splinter the doors of the mansions? Not even for an afternoon. Instead, they shuffled off to the nearest movie house, where the latest fantasy was dangled before them like a pocket watch at the end of a chain.” (293)

And that right there crystalized for me what I had been wondering about the mentality of all of those who complied with the mandates and jabs and general insanity that has unfolded over the last 4 years.

So yeah, I guess in general I don’t get bothered by the window dressing with shows like this. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find little gems beneath the surface.

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author

Good points...maybe I made it up, but I thought all good German Nazi movies the Germans had German accents...hmmm???

Wow, what an insightful observation! I think, IMHO, if the series made more of an effort to emulate the feel of the time your insight would have been shared by more people watching.

Regarding American/Soviet working class history, it was really at the time of the first world war that the American worker should have embraced the Soviet ideal...a lot of effort was made with worker's unions in the states to advocate an international Soviet/Marxist ideal. Jack Reed (an American journalist) went to Russia in those early years to try to get endorsement from the Cominturn, but basically failed. By the time WWII broke out, and ended, the US working class were disillusioned by Stalin and Soviet Russia.

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

👉Bread and Circuses!

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author

Yep

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

I feel the same way. I used to love watching the Canadian show the Murdock Mysteries. Even they have gone woke now with interracial marriages and gay and lesbian story lines. This show is set in the turn of the last century so I doubt there were interracial marriages and out gay people!

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OK...so here is another blatant example of my gripe...HISTORY SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED!!!!!

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Literally every single advert - printed or on TV - in the UK has black models or actors to the extent that if they were a true reflection of the society in which they're placed, it would be Malawi or Nigeria. Every brochure for women's clothes has predominantly black models - which is fine for all the dark-skinned, flat chested 6 feet tall amongst us, but doesn't help the diminutive, curvy fair-skinned women (the majority receiving these catalogues) for evaluating whether or not the clothes might suit them! And the shoe horning of black actors into historical dramas has become frankly ludicrous. Black people in Britain before the 20th century would have been a rare curiosity - never seen by 99.9% of the inhabitants of these islands. It's such a jarring anachronism it makes these programmes unwatchable.

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I agree...but I am not sure if there is anything that can be done about the organic, evolving, aspect of this...but the agenda-forced part of it can stop...have you read Douglas Murray's incredible book, "The Strange Death of Europe"??...if not, give it a read...

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Jun 4Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Please do not forget Equity Officers. I know the pendulum swings disproportionately to compensate for errors in judgement, but sometimes it sure feels like a pit with a pendulum! On another note regarding rewriting history, I watched an entire series on Netflix called Rome. Everyone had lovely English assents.

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This is a very touchy topic. And because it is touchy, it is a perfect topic for the agenda to get their hands on. I am not a racist, and I abhor anyone calling me such. We all take the risk of being called racists if we have any opinion about how the agenda is orchestrating all of this. Any sort of forced agenda is against my principles because the agenda is not looking out for anyone but itself.

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Jun 4Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Well put!

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

I’m long since fed up with everything that’s going on in the world right now but how do I boycott everything? I stopped going to movies decades ago, stopped watching mainstream tv but for my live police shows, stopped subscribing to big name newspapers and magazines, stopped patronizing stores that are aggressively pushing the “pride” agenda and stopped buying mainstream products that I know support “woke.” But lately it seems that everyone is competing to be onboard with crazy and it’s become so obnoxiously in your face that it’s pretty much inescapable. Russians speaking with British accents is a new one. Clearly the globalists are pulling out every stop in their effort to piss off everybody. My personal peeve is seeing every other couple in tv commercials and online ads as mixed race. To me the insinuation is that being with someone of your own race is not good enough. I find it insulting to both races and certainly not representing the norm. So - what to do about it? I don’t see any resistance of substance coming from the white population. For the most part we’re peaceful wimps and too used to turning the other cheek. I’m hoping the black folks get disgusted enough and push back. They stick together and get results. In the meantime I take my consolation from spewing on forums like this and reading comments that let me know I’m not alone in my frustration.

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Jun 3·edited Jun 4Author

Boycotting is a noble act...but I am not sure if the time of its effectiveness is past... Boycotting in a civilized time works...now I believe all that is left is downright revolution...and that isn't going to come until people are starving in the streets...and it will be too late for much of anything other than your own personal survival...we may never reach that point either...

I never watch commercial television, but lo and behold, I was in the dentist's office this morning and I saw a commercial...and sure enough, it was a nice mixed family, white guy, black wife, mixed child with white grandma...I can't believe the only commercial I've seen in 10 years or so was as you say they are!! (edit) I must emphasize here that mixed families are of course perfectly fine...but this forcing on the public these sorts of situations in order to appease the agenda's agenda is frightening. I do not have as much of an issue with advertising/marketing, but again, changing history in order to accommodate that agenda is clearly reckless.

I have a lot I can say about this and won't go into it here...only to say this...maybe this "flattening out" of culture and race is bound to happen—it is a natural consequence of an advanced global culture. (I remember growing up in the rural south where all the stray cats were all of sorts of colours and textures, by the time I left for college, they had all become grey longhaired Persian types...the gene pool so totally integrated) ....bound to happen—and if it natural, then of course, let it happen...but it is very sad to know that all humans will become like feral cats...all the same...whatever is a dominant gene will take over. Not only with human body and color variety, but with the cultures as well. All the world's diverse and beautiful cultures, customs, costumes, rituals, and traditions, will all be gone...sad—but again, bound to happen as we evolve...and sadder still, this isn't a natural evolution, it is being pushed on us by the agenda...force feeding us into it. Anyway...more to say, but I will stop there...yuck.

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Yes, it must be quite a shock to see if you haven’t been aware of how the mixed race thing is being pushed on us. And there will be those who go along with it and think it’s wonderful. I hope there are enough pushing back like those of us who refused the vax.

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Debra! You are NOT alone! Where I live, it’s now like being in another country-literally. I’ll be moving soon, so I can get away (a least a little) from the Leftist insanity. It’s time to GO!

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Jun 3·edited Jun 4Author

Again...this is no accident...and my article alludes to this...it is not racist to want to preserve the world's wonderful diversity...I am NOT saying people of different races should not fall in love and get married—of course they should, that is a beautiful thing...but that is NOT the issue...the issue is changing history, wiping out diversity, making everyone the same...this is the intention...some of this is organic, most of it is not.

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That’s exactly what’s being done Todd!

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Jun 3Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Just more Orwellian insanity, like changing the name of Dundas Street because old Henry wasn't a saint. Unlike every other person who has ever existed. The powers that shouldn't be, aka the ruling class, are insane and should be locked up.

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author

Nothing to add to that...

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