"It's like fingernails on a blackboard, isn't it?"
You said it! Another case where a dialect coach was sorely needed is "Sergeant York." I know some folks from Sergeant York's part of Tennessee, and nobody in that area talks like the characters in the film. I don't know who was worse, Gary Cooper or Joan Leslie.
And then there's the reigning champion of phony Southern accents, "Gone With The Wind." English accents three octaves higher than normal do not equate to Southern accents. The only one who got it right was Hattie McDaniel. She should have been hired as a dialect coach.
Hollywood has managed to get it right in recent years. "Ride With The Devil" was a well-done little Civil War film released around 1999. It was historically correct, and the Southern accents were spot on. Unfortunately, it was another example of Hollywood not knowing how to market what they had. So the film died at the box office.
"Ride With The Devil" ...Unfortunately, it was another example of Hollywood not knowing how to market what they had. "
Musta bin. I never heard of it.
"And then there's the reigning champion of phony Southern accents, "Gone With The Wind."
What did you think of the job Tom Hanks did in Forrest Gump of combining a Southern accent with a "developmentally challenged" accent?