First though, brilliant monologue and brilliant performance.
But I noticed two different streams of text, one towards the top of the screen and one lower. The one at the top seemed to be close to verbatim, although at one point the text at the top was typed as "abroad" when the spoken word was "abode." So even that wasn't perfect.
But the closed captioning text lower down deviated significantly from the words spoken by McKellen. It was strange and seemed to simplify the speech, maybe to make it more understandable to a modern audience.
Here are examples from the text towards the top and the text lower down:
Upper text towards the top (actual words McKellen spoke):
"Grant them removed"
Lower text:
"You want to get rid of the immigrants?"
Upper:
"Grant them removed that this your noise have chided all the majesty of England.'
Lower:
"do you also want to shout and riot and ruin this country's dignity?"
Upper:
"Imagine that you see the wretched strangers"
Lower:
"Picture the 'horrible' immigrants"
This was in just the first minute or so. It goes on. My question is why? Why add that simplistic interpretation as a second captioning? At one point the lower captioning used the word "airport."
It not only debased the language but at times altered the meaning.
My guess, only a guess, is that some well intentioned person thought this would be helpful to people who might have a hard time with the language of Shakespeare. I'm also wondering if AI was used. A simple prompt like "make this speech more accessible to modern listeners."
If so, that seems like another subtle way AI creeps into how we think about things, appreciate language and history. I don't see that as an overall positive.
Anyway, brilliant monologue.
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