Let’s continue with our review of titles incorrectly translated/adapted into Spanish. This week I chose the mystery crime film Knives out, also accclaimed by the critics and audience. Here in Spain it was translated as ‘Punales por la Espalda’

Even though the title is catchy that’s not the real meaning of the expression ‘knives out’ The knives are out for someone when somebody is ready to blame someone for something or have a grudge against them, often in a way that is unfair. e.g: they missed another final and now the knives are out for the president. The title in the film makes sense because most of the Thrombey family blame Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) of having killed Harlan Thrombey the father figure. She was her nurse and had a close relationship with him. Finally it was found that she is the universal heir so she would inherit all the money. Everybody is against her and it is true that finally everybody looks for their own interest but the title refers more to her and her resilience with the family about these false accusations than the relationship between them.

Suggestion: Possible film title translations should be more in the line of ‘Donde las dan las toman’ ‘Ahora es mi turno’ ‘Todos a por ella’ …There are multiple options to keep the original meaning of this idiom.

In this post I’m gonna write about film titles that were poorly translated into Spanish or they just simply shouldn’t have been translated at all. Here is a list of 10 film titles with bizarre or simply made-up titles that did not capture the sense of the original title.

1 Full Metal Jacket (La chaqueta Metálica)

This is probably one of the worst film titles translated into Spanish and in particular because it was a huge film and behind it was one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of cinema, Stanley Kubrick. In simple words, the original refers to a bullet consisting of a soft core encased in a shell of harder metal (usually copper) intended to wound. You could also break it down into some philosophical meaning but never confusing Jacket (chaqueta) with Bala. Conclusion: the pivotal scene before private Pyle goes nuts, joker sees him in the bathroom loading a magazine.

He asks, “Are those live rounds?”

Pyle says, “ 0.762 mm full metal jacket.” (The type of bullet he was loading)

The emphasis of the movie is what the extreme of war experience does to people including harsh training of military life.

My suggestion

Literally, you’re not going to have a good film title like ‘Bala recubierta de metal’ because the implications of the real meaning are lost. I would translate it as ‘Bala letal’ or in a more philosophical concept ‘El fin de la inicencia’ as the film is divided into two different parts: Training and combat. Training deprives from innocence and combat turns you into a war machine.

It seems difficult in this phase of our lives not to lose faith so it’s important to keep yourself busy and close to your loved ones.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Blog created to shate ideas and opinions about different topics such education, technology or current affairs. In these difficult times I wanted to create my own space to reflect about things which are of interest for me.