In Reply to: Thanks for your perspective. But I think, depending on your generation, that you're out of posted by tinear on January 22, 2011 at 13:02:40:
If you're in a non-English speaking country with a strong cinema industry of its own, you're going to see far more of those films than you are going to see Hollywood films. Are your icons really going to be the same as those of someone living in the US?
Are you going to get the full impact of Bogie or Davis, to name 2 actors with very good vocal delivery, if you're listening to a dubbed soundtrack, or even if you're listening to the english soundtrack and relying on the subtitles because you don't understand english?
Can native english speakers who don't understand French or Italian, for example, ever get the full impact of great French or Italian actors if they need to rely on dubbed soundtracks or subtitles? I don't think so, and I do think that will adversely affect their judgement of the greatness of those actors.
I don't believe you can expect everyone to agree to your proposition. Linguistic and cultural differences are unavoidable and will inevitably affect people's assessment of who qualifies as a great iconic actor. There are as many, or probably more, such actors outside Hollywood as there are inside it given the size of the many strong national cinema industries around the world and the proportion of Hollywood films included in anyone's total film watching record is going to vary around the world depending on location.
Given that more people live outside the US than inside it, and that the total population of those countries outside the US with strong cinema industries exceeds the total population of the US, then I believe that on a world wide basis more people will disagree with your proposition that Hollywood has a stranglehold on iconic actors than will agree with it.
David Aiken
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Follow Ups
- "…but we're talking iconic stars, world-wide, aren't we?" - David Aiken 15:07:20 01/22/11 (4)
- I meant in the past. After the heyday of Pacino/DeNiro/Nicholson, - tinear 16:08:06 01/22/11 (3)
- But...those actors are all post-studio era stars. - Harmonia 14:16:00 01/24/11 (2)
- I just don't see Depardieu quite making those guys' level. Or any other actor. Heck, I'll throw in - tinear 19:10:17 01/24/11 (1)
- Making al Pachino's level? You must mean dropping to his level. - Victor Khomenko 09:48:56 01/25/11 (0)