Chernobyl HBO Miniseries

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Dr. Funk, May 6, 2019.

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  1. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Agree to disagree.

    It was a Sky production (English). Is there a Russian equivalent of Jared Harris? Maybe, but the Russian government would never sanction a series of this nature. I’m happy with what we got.

    HELL YEAH (in Texan)
     
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  2. Yeah, I know it was a British production, but there are tons of Russian actors all over the world, living in freedom. Most of them are damn good. I never meant that it should be a Russian production.

    The Borris guy sounds pretty good. Harris, not so much, though he's a great actor.

    At any rate, I'm pretty much over it. The initial shock is what took me out of it. Now, I'm in it because it's pretty well made; moreover, captivating.
     
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  3. GreenDrazi

    GreenDrazi Truth is beauty

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    Based on Putin’s response to the series, it’s probably best that no Russian actors were used.
     
  4. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Yeah, but it doesn't mean that they aren't susceptible to polonium-210 poisoning!
     
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  5. dougotte

    dougotte Petty, Annoying Dilettante

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    This is heresay that's never been documented. It might or might not be true; best not to perpetuate it as if it's definitively true.

    Chernobyl (miniseries) - Wikipedia

    "Higginbotham and others also say that the widely reported "Bridge of Death", used by Chernobyl spectators all of whom later died, is an urban legend, and Higginbotham has spoken with someone who was on the bridge.[29][30][31]"
     
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  6. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    Shin Godzilla is inspired by Fukushima. Where as the orginal Godzilla films were really about WWII and the dropping of the two atomic bombs they reframed this new Godzilla film against Fukushima, in terms of the devastation and the incompetence of the government.
     
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  7. The second quote was about a stalker where it was documented that they died of cancer due to exposure of toxic chemicals so that’s not a myth.
     
  8. The film Stalker I should add.
     
  9. Ha! Okay, then Polish and Czech actors then. These guys do wonderful Russian accents.

    Actually, I think it was Paul Ritter's fault. His scenes are so early and so incredibly British that he was the biggest offender.

    Anyway, I need to finish this up. It's high quality television.
     
  10. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    I 'cooled-it' on the 'why British accents' complaint when I saw all those cars, trucks, busses; all quite authentic....
    Everything looked so REAL, that accent thing was just a minor irk..... telling the story was more important.
     
  11. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    About the "Russian accent" option:

    Chernobyl (miniseries) - Wikipedia
     
  12. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    Apparently the three volunteers who waded into the radiated water as “divers” to turn off the water valves all also survived with treatment.
     
  13. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, that ultimately doesn't matter, yet my point of contention is that they cast the wrong actors. There are very good points here, of course; actors could possibly "act the accent." British actors, that is. If, on the other hand, they had cast Eastern European actors - like I had mentioned Polish and Czech actors - then they really would not be acting the accent. Mazin mentions not casting American actors, that they could potentially pull the audience out of the story, yet they cast British actors who could potentially pull the audience out of the story. It's a bit like he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

    I wonder if this show really needed the star power in the likes of Jared Harris, Emily Watson and Paul Ritter? I'm not so sure that they did. Watson, in the two episodes I've seen, is fantastic, though.

    Poor Jared Harris gets hung in Mad Men and now Chernobyl. Ouch! :)
     
  14. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    A nice comment from the director. Shows why he’s a good director.

    “What we found very quickly is that actors will act accents. They will not act, they will act accents and we were losing everything about these people that we loved. Honestly, I think after maybe one or two auditions we said 'Ok, new rule. We're not doing that anymore'”


    Also shows why I think Some foreign language directors make lousy films when they do an English- language production - they don’t have the ear for it
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2019
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  15. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Of course the show would (possibly) be better without the familiar faces you mention, but those actors are managed by extremely powerful agents with relationships at HBO and many studios. Could be wrong but I suspect the entire "the British are coming" arc in Mad Men was written into the series under direct influence of Harris' agent just to get him into the show for a couple years and then have him commit suicide when other opportunities proved more attractive.
     
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  16. Rufus McDufus

    Rufus McDufus Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Polish and Czech accents aren't the same as Ukrainian. Ukraine uses an East Slavic language and the other two West Slavic for starters. It may sound authentic to western ears but would still be incorrect.
     
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  17. Yes and they disclosed that at the end of the final episode along with the deaths associates with those standing on the bridge.
     
  18. I was fine with all three. Harris along with Watson brings nuances to his performance which make me forget I’m watching Jared Harris.
     
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  19. Well, of course they don't sound the same (well, a bit the same), but to the Western ear, as the showrunner pointed out, he had his actors try "a vaguely Eastern European" accent, but this, too, lead to "acting the accent." The Western ear would also include the British, where I think the Eastern European accent would have served just as well for British viewers. The object would be to create the illusion that the people are neither American, British, nor affecting a faux accent. This goes back to casting, as they had to wrong people trying for the wrong accents.

    Bottom line, it's a British production, and they wanted to keep it in-house. Cool.
     
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  20. a customer

    a customer Forum Resident

    Location:
    virginia
    Great series . Did what it was supposed to do. Expose or remind us of the greatest man made disaster in history.
     
  21. fabre

    fabre Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
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  22. Well of course he’s going to say that. He’s publicizing a competitive series. I thought the HBO series was pretty damn meaningful.
     
  23. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    I simply don't understand the statement of staying away from American actors as they "could pull the audience out of the story". Why? As I pointed out, much earlier in this thread Stellan Skarsgárd's character does not speak even remotely in a British accent. So, what would be the big deal about using Americans?

    Anyway, this whole accent thing to me is silly. The show was great and, as I pointed out, very early on in the thread, the language is in English regardless. Who gives a damn if the accent is British? Now, I can see wanting to keep it uniform but with Skarsgárd they don't even do that.
     
  24. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I noticed the accents early on, but it wasn't at all a problem. On a related note, there were other...discontinuities, shall we say. There were scenes where a voiceover is completely in Russian with no subtitles. Why? Seemed odd given that everything else is in English. Also, the signage and newspaper print was in Cyrillic (rather than English). I can understand the latter moreso than the former.

    But again, these are just things that I noticed as I was watching, but had no impact on my enjoyment of the series at all.
     
  25. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    I commented on that as well. The newspaper text is in Russian. The loudspeaker informing people they need to evacuate Pripyat is in Russian. I guess the idea was to keep the viewer engaged and informed that this is Russia (the Ukraine better said), but just that. The language spoken by the characters, however, was English. I had no problem with it, either.
     
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