Cyprus-Forum.com

[Vertical]

Yesterday I saw the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". It was a nice comedy about a Greek-American girl with a huge family that decides to go against the will of her father and marry a non-Greek guy.
In order to make this movie funny they exaggerated .. A LOT.
This movie was a great success in the US. I wonder if the people that watched it there realized how exaggerated the situations were in the movie.
I can see families that will have a problem when their kids marry non-Greeks (or non-Cypriots in our case). But have you seen any families even close to the way the Greek family is portrait in that movie?

[Rikos]

Hello Vertical,

I actually only saw this movie 3 weeks ago. I agree is was a very good comedy.

To your question, would the average American think the exaggerated attributes of the Greek family were just that - exaggerations?

Oh, Lord. I hope so! Certainly we Yanks cannot have gone off the deep end to expect this is the idealogy, customs, habits, and home decor of anyone we might see in Greece!

Then again, in all honesty, might there be just 1 family in Greece that closely resembles the family in the movie? And might there be a few (ok, more like 500) Americans who would actually believe this is how the average Greek family lives? I think you'll find the answer to those questions is "Yes."

But let's face it. Out of almost 300 million people in the USA, we have about 1 million that cannot find the USA on a globe or map of the Americas. About the same number cannot tell you which countries boarder the USA (that would be Canada/north and Mexico/south). There are a lot of people here. Some are very smart, some are very stupid. Most are just people like you will find everywhere.

The movie also portraid the young man's parents as being very stoic, conservative, and disapproving. They had nothing to say in conversations. They just sat there uncomfortably. This too, is an exaggeration. I can't think of any married couple that would act like that. But the quiet, withdrawn nature of his parents provides a very rich contrast to the loud, happy, outgoing nature of her family.

It is indeed a wonderful movie, and I liked it so much I bought the DVD.

Now, about that new movie being released, "The Gospel of John." It's touted as being faithful to the original text. Being a seminary student myself, I would have to ask, first, which text? The movie is in English, so it can't be too original. Then there's the issue of the actors' accents. They all sound as though they came from Cambridge in the UK. Absolutely perfect upper class British citizenry! And where are Jesus and his followers doing there laundry and washing their hair?

No, it's just Hollywood that repackages it to make it sell. Many Americans (and other nationals) might not think too hard about what they see and casually accept some things as if they were true. But then, that's what Hollywood is supposed to do - if you leave the theatre complaining that it just wasn't real, then Hollywood didn't do there job right.

Right?

[Aris]

I believe there are more Greek families than one that have several of the charactiristics that the heros of that movie had. Some families here and in Greece are indeed a lot more conservative than the average European family. That can be good or bad, it always depends on the occasion.

I lived in Florida for 4 years, and americans are by no means stupid. Still, they have their week points(like all of us), geography is one of them.

I saw a program with Jay Leno that asked college students that play football for their universities to tell him with which countries the US borders. Most of them indeed didn't know!

The "The Gospel of John" is not in Cyprus yet. Usually movies come with some (or a lot) of delay here

[eracles]

I know many families in England who are of the 'marry a good greek girl/boy - or else' mentality - seems some families who emigrated in the early 60's have kept the same 'village' ideals - and the fear of shame upon the family While the people in Cyprus have actually become a lot more liberal in their attitudes

[Noname75]

I know many families in England who are of the 'marry a good greek girl/boy - or else' mentality - seems some families who emigrated in the early 60's have kept the same 'village' ideals - and the fear of shame upon the family While the people in Cyprus have actually become a lot more liberal in their attitudes

Probably the people you will find on the internet are more liberal than the average Cypriot. Sure, the movie was made in a funny way (it is a comedy!) but it is a fact that the majority of Cypriot parents would prefer a Cypriot bride/groom for their children.

[Hristos]

That's how it is with every race, some to a further extent than others

[coredump]

Well, they exaggerated of course a little bit The movie is really funny indeed.
Also I have heard that similar movie named "East Is East" is even more funny though I did not see it yet (it's about Pakistani man living in the UK) - imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/

[coredump]

2Vertical: If I would you I would not pay too much attention to what US people could think about your (I'm not a greek or cypriot) nation's habits or whatever else because as Aris already said geography is one of their weak points. Just check out their world map at this link http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/kungfu/wo ... sa2003.gif

[coredump]

Uh. Just realized that it's a 3 years old post :-/

[Piratis]

"East Is East"

I watched that movie. It is quite funny, but I wouldn't say it is similar to MBFGW.