In the light of the considerable success of Turkish soap operas dubbed into Arabic dialects, satellite channel MBC is to begin broadcasting on Thursday a select number of films dubbed into Arabic. Foreign movies, predominantly in English, have until now been shown with subtitles, but now the great cinema hits such as Braveheart, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings and Alexander – set to be the first dubbed film to be shown this week – will be made more comprehensible for audiences who feel that subtitled translations are difficult to follow or do not do justice to the original screenwriter's dialogue. According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, the reaction from television audiences is expected to be positive, following on from the popularity of Mexican and Argentinean soap operas which were the first television programs to be dubbed into Arabic 15 years ago. “I think it's a great idea. Other films dubbed into Arabic have had great success,” said 35-year-old Abdullah Al-Husseini, citing the 1981 film “Omar Mukhtar”, the Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed classic titled in the original “The Lion of the Desert”, which told the story of the Libyan leader who fought against Italian occupation in North Africa. “That and MBC1's success in dubbing Mexican soap operas has led to other channels dubbing more programs.” Hassan Al-Shami, 23, however, feels that films may lose some of their authenticity with the loss of the original actors' voices. “Dubbing takes away a lot of the impact of the original, like when we see Mel Gibson in ‘Braveheart', for example, it's difficult to imagine him speaking in a language other than the original, and it's also difficult to imagine an actor's voice replacing his, so I don't think it's a great idea,” Al-Shami said. Apart from the fact that many a native English speaker may find it equally difficult to find credence in Mel Gibson's attempts at a Scottish accent, the extra willing suspension of disbelief required of viewers for dubbed films may be a step too far for some. “I don't know if it will be a success or not,” Mohammed Al-Nufei'i told Al-Watan. “But I'm not sure it's the best way, as there are plenty of German and French films that are not dubbed into English, for example, but instead they use subtitles. I think MBC will see if the move works or not before dubbing any more films than they plan to at the moment.” Journalist and cinema critic Abdul Mohsen Al-Muteiri sees in the move two main advantages. “It will encourage a large section of the public to watch foreign movies, given that a lot of people don't watch films in general and don't like films being in English,” Al-Muteiri said. “Secondly, the films the channel has chosen for dubbing may all be considered classics that inspire the audience.” Al-Muteiri is, however, unsupportive of dubbing in general. “If you look at the dubbing failure of the Nicholas Cage film ‘The Rock', which was dubbed into Egyptian, it was odd and not very believable to see Nicholas Cage bursting into anger in a fit of rather blunt Al-Saeed dialect,” Al-Muteiri said. Despite the incongruity of seeing an American actor express himself in the speech of a section of the Egyptian community often used as the butt of national jokes, Al-Muteri believes that dubbing into Egyptian dialect may have benefits for children's cartoons. “Standard ‘fusha' Arabic may be somewhat tough for children,” he said. Movie dubbing has, however, had rotund success in countries such as Spain, where dubbing actors are often equally as famous as the actors for whom they habitually voice double. “In Spain the dubbing actors are extremely professional and the whole operation of voice-overs is done with great attention to detail,” film fan Arantxa Urquijo told Saudi Gazette. “And even if it weren't done well, non-native speakers of the film's original language would probably gain just as much as they lose but without having to take their focus away from the film itself to read the words at the bottom of the screen. In Spain they dub everything, even comedy series and chat shows, and they do it very well.” MBC has named Thursdays as the day – for the moment – on which at least one dubbed movie will be broadcast, and the channel's website has opened up a forum for audiences to proffer their views on the project as it progresses. __
