'zup, Caesar!
Linguistic Anachronisms in Contemporary Movies and TV Shows
A pet peeve of mine: in producing so-called "period pieces," why on earth would the filmmakers spend millions assuring that the sets, costumes, cars, and other details are appropriate for the time frame yet at the same time spend not one cent getting the language right? A glaring example is the most recent version of The Great Gatsby, which not only got the music wrong-- hip hop in place of "the jazz age"-- the characters sounded as if they just stepped out of a Starbucks. That's just one example of many. Even a current show I admire-- Halt and Catch Fire--takes place in the 1980s, but the characters. all brilliantly defined and portrayed, on occasion use expressions from 2016.
Why can't the writers and directors get the expressions accurate for the time frame depicted? Is it indolence keeping them from properly researching the era, or is it sheer pandering to a youthful audience which, incidentally, often prides itself upon having no concept of history? E.g.: "He's like 'World War II?' And I'm like 'why should I care about that? It's before I was born!"
Weigh in on this, my fellow NitLetters. Or as a Tweeter might say in one of today's Biblical movies--IMHO. . .