Reflection

This project has modified my language beliefs a bit. I still believe that what is most important is getting your point across, but I learned that people do not, in fact judge you by how you talk as much as I thought. Sure, there is still some language-based prejudice, but it is minimal.
Like I said earlier, I think it would be interesting to see if movie language affects the amount of money earned by the movie. I would also like to see if people won't watch a film just because of the language in it.

Recommendations

For further research, the interviewees should be people who have affirmed that they like movies and have seen many different kinds. Again, there were too many "I dunno" answers. Also, there should be more questions. ("Do you have a favorite actor? Do most of his/her roles have similar personalities? Do they speak the same way?") 

I think there should me more research done on how movie language (not just cursing) affects box office performance. It would be interesting to see if a movie featuring stupid characters who speak in stupid ways would do better than a movie with actually intelligent characters. 

Conclusion

It seems to me that the way a character talks does partly show what kind of a character they are, but it is not the most important thing. It is easier to see a personality from how the character acts or how others react to him or her. Of the characters that can be easily identified due to their ways of speaking, villains are the easiest. The way that characters talk can help determine what kind of a movie it is (action movies will generally have a lot of cursing and snappy talking, while stoner movies will just have a lot of cursing). However, there are many more factors, such as the plot (obviously), the setting and the characters in general. That last one can be argued because the character can be judged by how they talk, but as I said, the way of speaking is not the most important factor. On the other hand, people do tend to judge characters by their voices and ways of talking, just as they do real people.

Data

Although not everyone actually answered my questions, question 1 was the question I received the most actual answers on (that could be easily graphed). There were too many "I don't know" answers on the other questions to have enough answers. Some of the films that most stuck out to people because of the way the characters spoke were Pulp Fiction, James Bond movies, Once Upon a Time in China, Forrest Gump, and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Some of the answers to question 3 were "No, I don't", Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Eagle Eye, The Miracle Worker, Selena, A Walk to Remember, Save the Last Dance, Baby Mama, and The Little Mermaid. About half of these movies apparently have no villains, while in the movies that do, the villain does speak in a way that identifies them as a villain. Most people could not name some characters in different movies that speak the same way, but some of the responses were "any Jane Austen film" (I should have specified that it should be different actors as well), Bond villains, "young American people", and "important people in gov't." The characters who speak the same way generally have the same kind of personalities.

I did receive an interesting answer to question 5. One person noted that HAL 9000 (from 2001: A Space Odyssey) and KITT (from the TV show Knight Rider) speak in pretty much the same way. Neither of these characters are human, but they are both seemingly all-powerful computers. For comparison, HAL and KITT. (NOTE: The KITT link is actually a website with a large collection of KITT sound files.)

Top right: HAL 9000
Top center: KITT (the car)

Primary Research

1. Do you think that the way characters in a movie speak affects the way a movie is perceived? Are there differences in speaking in different kinds of movies?

2. Are there any movies that stick out to you because of their language? If so, what are they?

3. Do you have a favorite movie or a favorite movie character? If so, what/who? If not, what is the movie you watched most recently?

4. Does this movie have a villain? If so, does the way the villain talk identify him/her as the villain?

5. Who are some characters in different movies who speak the same way?

6. Do they have similar personalities? How so, if so?

Sources

"Go, Fish!" National Review Online. 15 September 2004. 15 October 2008. 
     http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/clyne200409150554.asp

American Tongues. Dir. Louis Alvarez, Andy Kolker. Perf. Polly Holliday, Molly Ivins, Robert Klein, Trey Wilson. 1988. Videocassette. 

 
"2001: A Space Odyssey - HAL 9000 - "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that." Bravenet. 22 Oct 2008.

http://resources.bravenet.com/audio_clips/movies_tv/2001_a_space_odyssey_-_hal_9000_-_im_sorry_dave_i_cant_do_that/listen/

"Multimedia." KITT'S Corner. 22 October 2008. http://kitt_rider.tripod.com/kittscorner/id7.html

Secondary Research

The way characters talk in a movie apparently affects the movie more than you may think, and not in the obvious way (cursing). For example, some people claim that the Dreamworks film Shark Tale discriminates against Italian-Americans because of some sharks in the film who are portrayed as gangsters. These fish all have Italian-sounding accents and names such as "Frankie", "Gino", "Giuseppe", and "Lino", the "Codfather"(har har). They also use Italian-like slang such as "Capeesh?". A poll revealed that 44% of teenagers surveyed expected Italian-Americans in movies to have crime-related roles (or work in restaurants). One of the people concerned about Shark Tale's effect is Lawrence Auriana, president of the Columbia Citizens Foundation, an organization dedicated to "preserving the rich Italian-American heritage". What pushes Shark Tale across the line for him is the fact that it's being marketed towards children.
People's perception of movies seems to be mostly based on language. If a movie has lots of witty banter (Serenity), people will generally expect it to be a more intelligent film than a movie with somewhat less sophisticated dialog (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure).


NOTE: Neither of those last two films were featured in American Tongues, but those are the best examples I can come up with for movies with different styles of speaking.