Movie-watchers, and indeed consumers of media in general, soon learn to detect the subtle differences between British and American products. Readers of hardback books quickly find, as they run their fingers down the edges of a closed volume, that it is smooth for a British book, but often tree-bark rough for a Us one. Why? That's just the way it is.
In the cinema, there's an American quirk that has no British equivalent, or at least none I've detected. Watch the final credits roll on a Us film or TV show and you'll see it. Nicknames. Always. Two or three unknowns in this endless scroll of tiny lettering are allowed to have their nicknames solemnly recorded for posterity, as in Firstname "Nickname" Lastname. But it's only the lower rankers, the assistant key grips, the second transportation captains, the wardrobe technicians – never the really important people.
I first noticed this watching ER in the 1990s,...
In the cinema, there's an American quirk that has no British equivalent, or at least none I've detected. Watch the final credits roll on a Us film or TV show and you'll see it. Nicknames. Always. Two or three unknowns in this endless scroll of tiny lettering are allowed to have their nicknames solemnly recorded for posterity, as in Firstname "Nickname" Lastname. But it's only the lower rankers, the assistant key grips, the second transportation captains, the wardrobe technicians – never the really important people.
I first noticed this watching ER in the 1990s,...
- 7/11/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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