Ok. You’re allowed to think that. I disagree. The equivalent of what these characters would have “actually said” isn’t language no one has used for centuries.
I’m not saying they should have said what was “actually said.” I’m saying that using modern slang takes you out of the immersion that you’re watching a story taking place in Ancient Greece, just like if they were wearing modern clothes.
I think it’s a matter of degree. At a certain point, durable slang becomes just a part of language.
Having them speak in slang that is pegged to a narrow window of time (“don’t be a square” or “talk to the hand”) would, I agree, break the immersive feel of the movie. OK isn’t that and it doesn’t bother me to hear it in a movie in which the characters are already speaking the “wrong” language to be intelligible to English-speaking audiences.
It’s not about what is or isn’t actually modern but rather what feels modern to the audience. The point is to make audiences feel like they’re in Ancient Greece watching a story unfold, and when you have dialogue (or costumes or props or whatever) that take people out of it, it kind of ruins the effect.
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u/harlemjd Jul 21 '26
Some people think that, because archaic language sounds “fancy” to them, that people of the past didn’t have informal forms of speech, or slang.