I'm sure there must be a number of fans of this movie out there who after seeing it in theaters, quickly went out and bought the DVD afterward. I bet like me, the first thing you noticed is that something is up with the subtitles. They are not exactly how you remembered them in the theater. It seems Magnolia (the company releasing this DVD) decided to dumb down what subtitles they did have without the already existing fans in mind. I don't understand the thinking behind this at all since people who aren't going to watch a movie with subtitles to begin with aren't going to suddenly watch it now just because it reads easier.

Here is an excerpt from what someone wrote on iconsoffright.com who goes into greater detail on the matter.

Source

About 20 minutes into the screening, I was absolutely horrified.

The subtitles had been drastically changed since the last time I saw it, and dare I say... had been completely dumbed down? Sure, the basic gist of what the characters were saying was kind of there, but missing completely was the dark humor, subtleties and character nuances which made the movie so powerful and a favorite amongst audiences last year. I tried to carry on and ignore it, hoping that only a few of the translations were off... but... I was wrong. Just about the intent of every single line of dialogue was completely off and ruined the movie.

It became so frustrating, that I stopped the US DVD, got my original screener copy & we continued by watching that version instead. I realize now that sadly for everyone else out there, they don't have this option.

What's exactly wrong? How bad could it be? Let me walk you through it with a series of screengrabs from the original screener cut, and the recently released US DVD/Blu-Ray...

Original:

New:

Original

New

Original

New

You could do a run down of the entire movie but I think you all get the jist of it.

One good bit of news is someone finally brought this to the attention of Magnolia. The problem is, we the consumers who have already purchased our copies, completely unaware of this mistake have to miss out.

Here is the statement issued from Magnolia:
Source

"We've been made aware that there are several fans that don't like the version of the subtitles on the DVD/BR. We had an alternate translation that we went with. Obviously a lot of fans thought we should have stuck with the original theatrical version. We are listening to the fans feedback, and going forward we will be manufacturing the discs with the subtitles from the theatrical version."

"There are no exchanges. We are going to make an alternate version available however. For those that wish to purchase a version with the theatrical subtitles, it will be called out in the tech specs box at the back/bottom of the package where it will list SUBTITLES: ENGLISH (Theatrical), SPANISH."

I recommend that everyone who is a fan of this movie e-mail magnolia and let them know that the no exchange policy is a bad idea. I don't want to have to double dip because of a mistake made by them, and if this becomes something to expect from their company then who is going to want to buy from them anymore?

You can e-mail them at: dvd@magpictures.com