Horror remakes: Where do we draw the line? Los Angeles Times Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Movie remakes: Are they really so bad? Entertainment Weekly Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Stirring the pot of controversy with film remakes CNN Take a look at an interesting article we found.
September 24, 2009
In Hollywood, it appears once is not enough.
Mind you, they're not remakes anymore.
The correct term is "reimagining."
And it appears that the "Nightmare on Elm Street" continues, “Total Recall” is recalled, "The Neverending Story" will become even more neverending and “Harvey” (is nothing sacred?) will all have a new life.
Italian philosopher, writer and poet Giacomo Leopardi in the 19th century said, “There are some centuries which presume to remake everything because they know how to make nothing."
Actually, what remakes, sorry, reimagining does is draw attention to the original.
The fairly recent version, for example, of "The Manchurian Candidate" only sent us to reappreciate the original and compare Angela Lansbury’s performance with Meryl Streep’s reinterpretation.
And did we really need another makeover (or takeover) of Pelham 123?
Now, whatever re-word you use, or reuse, one should note that reimaginings are different than sequels, or prequels, which we will cover as a sequel to this post.
("Ocean’s Eleven" was a remake, but every Ocean since is a sequel.)
So what of the so-called “Golden Age?” Did they lower themselves to such behavior?
The answer is they did, but seemed to do a better job. At least the ones I choose to remember.
For example, “The Front Page” became “His Girl Friday” with Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson.
Now, that was a true reimagining.
(Not many realize "The Front Page," forgettably remade in 1974, was a remake of "Gunga Din." Just look at the plot.)
One of my favorites is “The Dawn Patrol,” a remake of the 1930 original. Around dawn is about the only time it's shown.
Alfred Hitchcock’s only remake was “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” The 1956 version of the 1934 original came with existential singing.
"The Philadelphia Story" turned into "High Society"with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Grace Kelly just before she became a real princess.
I always thought "12 Angry Men" should be remade as 11 Men and 1 Angry Woman.
What would you like to see remade, reimagined, reexamined, revised, revisited, redressed or reborn?
I await your replies.
7 almost sacrilegious Hollywood remakes denofgeek.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Ten Hollywood Remakes Worth Watching moviefreak.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
" The History of Hollywood - Los Angeles" hollywoodusa.co. Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Remakes of great movies such as The Taking of Pelham 123, Psycho, and The Manchurian Candidate ar...
Sep. 24, 2009 8:55 AM
Favorite remake?
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"What would you like to see remade, reimagined, reexamined, revised, revisited, redressed or reborn?"
Mr Peterman if you asking that question in regards to Hollywwod Films my answer is a most resounding NOTHING!!!!!!!!!
Clooney is NOT the "NEW" Grant, Anne Hathaway is NOT the "NEW" Hepburn, and Harvey should not be remade with the rabbit being CGI'ed into the film. The charm of Harvey is the fact that all of a sudden you just BELIEVE that the HUGE Rabbit Friend is there... Hollywood Please don't ruin it... The new version of "The Women" was AWFUL Claire Booth Luce & Anita Loos are rolling over in their graves yet today. (I watched 3 minutes of it, before I turned it off)
Now I'm not against a remake if it's done well ~ I like both Philadelphia Story & High Society,The Front Page & My Gal Friday, Even though you KNOW they are remakes their is something about the casting & the way it was all done to make it seem new to the audience. The people running Hollywood today seem to have no clue in how to that. Or they change it TOO much and disapoint the audience even more.
A newer version of a GREAT film made into an alright effort is Germany's Mostly Martha which was remade for the U.S. as No Reservations starring Catherine Zeta Jones & Abigail Breslin It was alright, yet the German version seemed a bit less contrived than the American version...
But then again Maybe I'm just a Film Snob. maybe I just know what I enjoy watching & that happens not to be what Hollywood seems to try to be remaking in todays' market place.
Just think what happens when PIXAR studios, that make the computer generated animations, start to make the remakes; Laurel and Hardy, Marx brothers, Abbott and Costello(who's on First),and then Greatest Story Ever Told,Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green....1984...too many to hate at once....
I saw the Original Ben Hur, with Francis X Bushman ... and actually, it was a good Picture even tho' it was B/W and a Silent Film ....... but I have to admit that the remake with Charlton Heston is a whole lot better ... and I am old enough that I have seen all the remakes that have been done, and my favorite of all Re-Makes is, My Man Godfrey ... where David Niven replaced William Powell ... Actually, both versions are superb in every way ....... I WOULD like to see a few Pictures made again, that had marvelous plots and great Storylines ... but were absolutely and stupidly mis-Cast for some unfathomable reason ... There are so many of them that, I cannot think of any one of them in particular at the moment ... I'm sure at least one will hit me like lightning as soon as I hit "SEND" ....... What I'd REALLY like to see, is someone invent a way to, UN-Make a buncha pictures ... Pictures that never should have been made in the first place, pictures that were a complete waste of Time, Money, Film, Talent(in some cases) and every single thing that goes into the Production of a Picture ... We have all seen Movies that when the Houselights went up, we found ourselves wondering what the hell we just spent two hours doing ??? I've got greasy fingers from the popcorn, and a screaming bladder from the Tub of Root Beer I drank, and one of my back teeth hurts because of the box of Raisinettes I ate ....... and I can't remember a thing about what I just saw, and maybe not even who was in it !!! Rather than engender harsh words at fifty paces, by naming a few of those, I'll just ask that you reflect upon the concept a bit, and see if there are not some Pictures about which you might just agree ....... There are, of course, exceptions to every Rule, and there is no accounting for taste, and we're all entitled ... but y'all all know ....... that there are SOME Pictures, that most of us will agree, absolutely stink out loud !!!
Good morning, Rings90 & RoadYacht! I also have a strong preference for digitally remastering and in limited cases colorizing old original great movies. Some acts are just too hard to follow. Doesn't mean I won't watch "new" movies based upon old scripts. The example that comes to mind is "On The Beach." Gregory Peck, not coincidentally the protagonist in "To Kill a Mockingbird," my favorite lawyer/ethics/professionalism movie ever made. On the Beach was one of the best antiwar movies ever made, and it ratchets into my up close & personal favorite because of my strong fascination with military tactics & technology & situations. I remake was also set in Australia, after the blockheads that run the planet {Eisenhower called them the "military industrial complex"} got us into a situation wherein it became certain that eventually someone would cross the fail-safe point with nuclear weapons, thereby triggering planet-destroying collateral damage from radiation poisoning, albeit on an agonizingly slower death cycle. Remake had aging heartthrob Armand Assante as the heroic submarine captain, whose wife was vaporized along with his kids when United State's missle counter defenses predictably were overwhelmed. His g/f's name I cannot remember, although she had a "classy chassis" .... lol Frankly the red Ferrari that secondary hero Fred Astaire drove, ultimately to his suicidal alternative to government suicide pills, got my vote for Best Mechanical Supporting Actor {I love that Lemans Red fireball!}. Fred Astaire also obviously was quite impressive for his fancy footwork, he helped me learn that as an ordinary flawed wannabe woman pleaser {lol} I needed SOMETHING to distance myself from the competition..... I LOVE this forum, where else could I get away with memorializing my special ironic perspective on life's nuiances? {retorical answer, no response required}. Bert
What would you like to see remade, reimagined, reexamined, revised, revisited, redressed or reborn?
My life could use some of this.... Pretty good plot, nice casting, but it could have been a great story with some tweaking... Is this why we have kids?
DOC NOLAN: I mean this respectfully, my virtual friend, but your biographical sketch is as good as it gets, at least if you set aside the possibility of an afterlife. Don't expect perfection, unless you want to hardwire dissatisfaction into your personal harddrive....jmo You are right on target with your reference to children. Those of us privileged to share the gift of parenthood are merely the custodians of our progeny, held in trust for a greater power {jmo}. They are the ultimate test of whether or not we exercise our free will to prioritize near perfection in the things that we do to enable them to succeed {or fail}. Years from now, they are your legacy. Nobody who matters gives a rat's arse whether your house was bigger, your car faster, or your soul mate prettier than mine. And ask Julius Caesar {the emperor, NOT the salad} about the fragility of power & money. Existential analysis, yours to accept or reject in whole or in part.
RINGS 90- I adore "Mostly Martha"-it is one of the most beautiful, charming, and funny/sad movies I have ever seen. I first discovered Sergio Castelletti in"The Starmaker"- if you have never seen this movie- you MUST! I have to say that they did not botch "No Reservations" as much as I thought they would. What Hollywood does is to cutesy up everything they touch. The people don't look real, especially the women. Don't get me started on plastic surgery either.Once you see European movies you realize how bizarrely plastic American actors look. Not all of them. How cool would it be if a group of directors banded together & refused to use any actor who had been botoxed or surgically altered? The whole face of American cinema would change. On the other hand the remake of the horror film "The Last House On The Left" was great, mind blowing, & terrifying.
BEBE: Perhaps we could temporarily partially subsidize plastic cosmetic surgeons, until such time as they get reprogrammed so as to put their skills to better use. I am suggesting that we facilitate the production & deployment of more family practitioners. Right now their salaries are a small fraction of the combined fees of a skilled plastic surgeon who spends his day unstressfully "fixing" the noses of little rich girls, or in service to personal lucre and patient vanity remove "crow's feet" from the faces of executives of companies like Enron. Crows are probably the smartest birds on the planet, they can instantly differentiate my broom from my rifle as I join my neighbors on Saturday for a few hours of wagering who can klink the most tin cans {proceeds going to charity}. Hell, the crows want the beneficiary of the charity redesignated so as to be the Old Crows Retirement Aviary.....
JALOPKIN: I partially agree with you. I'm now at the point where if I take my kid or a friend with me to see a "featured flick" I first ask EYESTERS to review it for me. Sort of like Siskel & Ebert, except that my Siskel & Ebert also like cool affordable vintage clothes...
"What would you like to see remade, reimagined, reexamined, revised, revisited, redressed or reborn?"
revisited and reborn....freedoms of!!!!!
on the porch with strong coffee, then off "to see a man about a horse"......
good day all. you to bert.
Bert: One of the cool things about film is that directors can shoot and reshoot each scene until it 'comes out right'. Our lives are unfortunately not built that way.... That said, I once offered to write a book (really... a four or five month fulltime project detailing what I've learned from my life-stream) for my son. I was turned down. On the verge of retirement I'm tempted to write it for my grandkids.
Perhaps our own weaknesses and failings are best known to ourselves. Perhaps we expect too much. Perhaps my 'last chapter' will be to write a script, 'The Life and Times of Doc Nolan' -- a work of fiction, but a film based on real events.
And now I find myself thinking of PeeWee Herman's 'Big Adventure', specifically the last scenes described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee-wee%27s_Big_Adventure as follows:
Pee-wee's movie turns out to be a James Bond-style action film, involving James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild, fighting ninjas.
Pee-wee has a cameo appearance as a bellhop, but his voice is comically dubbed over.
After watching the movie for a few minutes, Pee-wee decides to leave, having already lived the real story.
Reunited with his bike (even with his dog, Speck), he rides away with Dottie, and they live happily ever after.
Remakes of great movies such as The Taking of Pelham 123, Psycho, and The Manchurian Candidate are all prime contenders for the It-Wasn't-Broken Award. By and large, theefore, my philosophy tends to be "just say no to remakes". However, Mr. Peterman is quite right about certain remakes so surpassing their originals that we don't even think of them as remakes.
more on the honor rollIn 1931, a mystery thriller was released with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. Ten years later, it was remade with Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. Both movies were called The Maltese Falcon. The adequate original is almost completely forgotten in the shadow of the far superior remake.
In 1922, Ramon Novarro became a star playing the devil-may-care villain in The Prisoner of Zenda. Fifteen years later, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. did a better job in the same role and, fifteen years after that, James Mason was even better yet. I appreciate that some may disagree with that last statement but my taste is very Masonian.
It is worth noting that many original movies are, of course, remakes of work done for other media (as they say at the Oscars, "work previously published or produced). Some of the greatest movies ever made are based on even greater novels. I cannot share most people's enthusiasm for the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird because of my love for the book and the conspicuous absence of the things that the movie left out. The aforementioned On the Beach does not seem to suffer from the fact that no one in the cast is Australian but the book is rich with Australian flavor.
Side note to Bert: In the book of On the Beach, the Astaire character is younger than 30 and says he prefers the pills because he can't bear to destroy the car. But that's not very cinematic so I don't blame the movie for changing it.
In some cases, remakes can surpass originals because they can be truer to their books. There was a thriller in 1960 called Purple Noon which was adapted from Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. It wasn't bad but it wasn't Highsmith. The recent remake with Matt Damon was far closer to her novel. The 1984 remake of 1984 with John Hurt brilliantly matches the mood and message of Orwell's book in a way that the 1956 original with Edmond O'Brien did not. The Guinness Book of World Records says that Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is the novel most frequently adapted to film (40 times and counting). Some of these versions are very good. None are as good as the book. Even Gone With the Wind, for all of its cinematic legacy, has detractors who claim it falls short of the book.
Then, of course, there are movies based on stage plays. This is one case where I have no objection at all to remakes. After all, a play gets produced on stage in many different versions and productions according to many different directors visions. And that is what is meant to happen. No playwright worth his salt would claim that his play can only be performed once and never again. So I have no problem with a new Harvey. It's been done a lot on stage. Why not on film? This is no less legitimate than the eight or twelve movie versions of Hamlet that are out there. While some of those don't work, some are truly excellent and part of what MAKES them excellent is how different they are from each other.
Then of course, you have the superior film adaptations of lesser books and poor plays. Hitchcock made a career of adapting mediocre works of literature into masterstrokes of cinema. Patrick Hamilton's Rope is awful but everyone loves the movie. Nobody reads John Buchan any more but we all love the movie of The 39 Steps. The Lady Vanishes, Suspicion, Notorious, Rear Window, and The Birds are all based on forgettable and forgotten books. Of the master's canon, only Rebecca, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train and Psycho have a literary legacy that holds a candle to the cinematic one.
My favorite movie, Billy Budd, is based on an overrated classic by Herman Melville and my least favorite book, Lord of the Flies, was made into a damn good film by Peter Brook.
It is also worth noting that there was an awful play in the early 1940's that had never been produced when Warner Bros. optioned it. They changed a few things including the title. The play had been called Everyone Comes to Rick's. The movie was called Casablanca.
Yeah....um....what HE said.
Gotta agree about the 1984 remake of 1984 (incidentally, Richard Burton's last film...). I once tried to organize a 'film club', meeting in a friend's house, and showed this film. I gave up on the group when the discussion afterward revealed that no one had understood the implications of the film, and they just considered it a very strange 'entertainment'. I gave up on them then. It's very lonely when one thinks one is surrounded by friends and discovers one is surrounded by zombies (even if they are very pleasant zombies).
Films based on novels that actually succeed are rare. I'd include 'Catch-22', 'Slaugherhouse 5', just to mention two of my favorites.....
Wow, it was a surprising eight hours and fifty-five minutes before the sleeping giant piped up and now, we know how he spent them.
Way to go Pirate!
Any remake today would include Brad Pitt, George Clooney and/or Julia Roberts, all of whom have, perhaps, made one good movie and so bring in money and are cast, and cast and recast ad nauseum. They really lose something special when the personality and selling power of the "star" is considered before the simple question: "Can they act?". The stars of yesterday were so much more powerful and left their mark on their work. The films we remember are memorable as much due to who was in them and how well they performed as the story itself. In their way, the actors performing their craft were exhibiting fine art as much as the great masters did -- how can you remake that?
I'm seconding Shandonista. What DPR said.
I like the way Nora Ephron "reimagines" (why does that word annoy me?) movies. How she uses pieces of them, but creates something totally new around it. Like Sleepless or You've Got Mail.
I'd like to see her parents' screenplay, Desk Set, redone.
I'd also like to see Holiday redone, with Ewan McGregor as the drunk brother.
I'm can't wait to see Extract, which is Mike Judge's idealized version of Macbeth and what he . . . . . I can't even finish that sentence with a straight face.
The End
Consider me what you will but the worst remake ever was "Angels in the Outfield." WHile I do like Christopher Lloyd's acting ability, I did not need to actually see the eponymous Angels. Besides, the original had the Pittsburgh Pirates who still amaze baseball fans with their ability to lose games (17 losing seasons & counting!)
But every now and then some remakes are quite good. Chris Rock's very funny Down to Earth was a remake of Heaven Can Wait, itself a remake of Down to Earth (or was it the other way around?).
What I find appalling is 1980s films being made into TV shows; Eastwick & Parenthood come to mind.
-that & certain children's books. Do we really need a film version of 'Where the Wild Things Are?'
I would like to see a reimaging combo of Apocolypse, Now mixed with Deliverance.
I will, however, go on strike (and spend a whole year without seeing a movie, instead of my current rate of seeing 2-3 movies per year) if ANYBODY tries to remake Casablanca.
I do, however, think someone should redo The Maltese Falcon, but keep it set in the 1940's. They could try to remake The Big Sleep, but the modern Hollywood would turn it into a softcore porn.
I'm a little scared of a reimagined A Clockwork Orange.
Speaking of zombies...Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...*sigh*...some 'reimaginings' should not be undertaken...or rather stricken with the undead.
Michael~ Deliverance was reimagined as "Without a Paddle," a comedy starring Seth Green.
A Clockwork Orange would be outstanding but only if directed by the right person (and not Tim Burton).
Although I will admit to being a fan of the Boyer/Dunne film Love Affair & it's Reimagaining version the ever more popular Grant/Kerr film called An Affair to Remember
Miss Ive ~ Can you imagine Nora re-doing her parents film Take Her She's Mine using today's college world. Actually it would not be too far different from the orignal film now that I really think about it. I love the scene in that film when Mr. Stewart joins the sit in.... I handle Nora Ephron's films pretty well because in them I can tell she has admiration & respect for the classics. In You've Got Mail ~ Megs store was called The Shoppe Around the Corner Which actually was a Stewart/Sullavan film & one of the films Mail was based on along with the musical reimagining version with Johnson/Garland In The Good Old Summertime.
Can someone though PLEASE take away Diane English's rights to Reimagine any of the classics... Thank You...
Also The story of the Maltese Falcon was also remade starring Bette Davis except they couldn't get the rights to use the Falcon in the story so the Prize Possession was the Horn of Roland.. the film is called Satan Met a Lady...
Ummm, smell the popcorn....my heel is stuck to the floor....madam, kindly remove your hat.....now how do you remake the experience of those great Balaban and Katz extravagant movie palaces?The movie was hardly a distant first to the experience of the grand stairway to the darkened balconey, where nascent love may have made the movie all the more memorable....
I don't know if I could handle Holiday being redone ~ Who would play the Potter's/Porter's part? Although Ewan playing the drunk brother ~ that I would pay the $9.50 to see...
What about the Classic Film Noir ~ Laura ~ being redone?
Bebe ~ Am adding the Starmaker to my netflix list :)
I'm going to need to start drinking that dark roast stuff. Maybe then I can begin to imagine re-imagining films.
Why would anyone want anything other than the original, imagined flaws and all? I'm sure I have no idea.
Was Cameron's Titantic better than the previous attempts? I don't think so, although James Cameron referred to himself as "the king of the world" when he received his Oscar for the bejillion dollar grossing movie. I think it stands alone, and it is definitely longer, louder, bigger but not necessarily better than its forerunners. I don't know if the story of the sinking of that ship warrants another remake but I'm sure it will have one, and another one, because it's so bankable, not because the story is worth telling time and time over.
There's so many people out there, so many ideas, so many ways to tell them, why retell what was already told so well?
Or is it just easier to work off an already written script?
It is important to remember that titles cannot be copyrighted and that two movies featuring the same title do not constitute an original and a remake. Moulin Rouge! (2001) is not in any way a remake of Moulin Rouge (1952). Although the title and the historical backdrop are the same, Titanic (1997) is not a remake of Titanic (1953) nor, for that matter, is it a remake of A Night to Remember (1958). To contend that they are makes as little sense as suggesting that all the varied and interesting films set against the backdrop of the Civil War or World War II are, somehow, remakes of each other.
I wouldn't even consider Soderbergh's Oceans 11 all that much of a remake of the old Rat Pack movie in anything more than its most basic premise. The film goes off so much on its own and differs from the other in so many (and, in my opinion, better) ways that it can almost stand as an original work once you get past the borrowing of its structural beginnings.
Rings,
There is a great DVD collection of The Maltese Falcon featuring the 1931 version, the 1941 version, AND Satan Met a Lady. You may remake Holiday and Laura if (and only if) you promise to cast ME as Potter and as Waldo Lydecker respectively.
For some reason, I keep thinking about films that should never be remade, but not because they originals were so great, although they were very well made films, but because they were so disturbing. A Clockwork Orange, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Silence of the Lambs are three that spring to mind. Aside from being a gripping story, OFOTCN was an excellent wake-up call to the nation about the sad state of mental health care in this country - which is good, no question. But it's one movie I only need to see once. As for the other two, since I had a child, I can't stand to watch depraved violence because I worry that some warped person will take the movie as an example of behavior.
Then, of course, there's the whole topic of really bad movies that should never have been made in the first place....many of which actually have sequels. Weekend at Bernie's anyone?
It reminds me of a fellow I overheard in the Blockbuster the other week. He was reading the DVD package to his wife...."hon, they say it's 'relentless'.....I see myself sitting on the sofa, begging 'relent...relent' and the TV saying 'no, it said it was relentless."
Not Laura! Not that!
It needs Clifton Webb, it needs black and white.
It needs a small stage.
Could modern film makers work within a small stage -- and how do they do "noir" in color?
DPR: I hear you. I think I shouldn't have used Titanic as my example. It wasn't the best example. I'm trying to come up with another without hurting my head too much. So far, no success.
But the cartoons,in brilliant color, that exposed many of my generation to the classical orcahestrated music classics, thanks, and a doff of the hat to Buggs....they were just as , if not more so,important to a whole generation.And saturday morning serials, noir, that taught suspense vehicle....lady, could you puulease tkake off that hat....
I don't know about you guys, but King Kong is one of the best remakes ever. And they keep remaking it! I'd love to see a version take place in Chicago (gorilla climbs the willy), or how about go back to New York whenever the Freedom Tower is built and let the big ape go up that thing?
Shandonista ~ For the record I LOVE Weekend at Bernies :) I can though do without the sequel.
DPR ~ If I could I would cas tyou as those parts, becuase I know you have the understanding of what is trying to be accoplished in doing so & have a respect for the great EDward E. Horton & Clifton Webb.
Park4 ~ it would have to be done in B&W Noir just doesn't work in color. The film that came closest to making it work was L.A. Confidential, although I think that had more to do with the way James Ellroy writes then the cimatography.
So here's where we are at the moment. We know that Hollywood has been doing remakes almost as long as it has been doing movies at all. Most of us agree that the remakes from what we now call "The Golden Age" tended to be better than the more recent remakes OF The Golden Age's output. So the natural question is why? Not just, why do we feel this way now? But why didn't we feel this way THEN?
Part of it has a lot to do with time, I think. We live in a time when we can look back and this of a Golden Age. In 1937, when the first remake of The Prisoner of Zenda was being made, movies were such a young art form that there was no "Golden Age" in the public psyche. Moreover, once a movie's initial release was over, the only way to see it again would be in a revival house (not many of THOSE left!). Today, in the information age, with classic DVDs at our fingertips, we are given the ability to resent remakes in a way that simply wasn't available to us before.
It just hit me like a thunderclap... The all-time master of 'remakes': Akira Krosawa! I knew about Ran (based on King Lear) and 'Throne of Blood' (based on Macbeth), but I had no idea how much further his efforts went...... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa#Influences . If anyone here hasn't seen any of Kurosawa's classic films, you're missing an incredible adventure.... (I'm a bit conflicted about 'Rhapsody in August' and 'Tora, Tora, Tora', but I'll let ya'll be the judge of that.)
Doc,
It is interesting how many foreign film snobs like to hail Kurosawas "originals" as being inherently better than their American remakes (Seven Samurai / The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo / A Fistful of Dollars, etc.) because his "Eastern sensibility" is so much more interesting than "American shallowness" and these people seem to have no idea how many of his works are adapted from Western sources.
This is not to say that my opinion of Kurosawa is low. Far from it. One of my favorite police procedurals ever made is Kurosawa's High and Low (based on Ed McBain's King's Ransom) while my favorite film version of the Scottish play is Throne of Blood. But you are quite right that Kurosawa made very Western Easterns.
re: Kurosawa: and that explains why the first trilogy of Star Wars films was so immensly popular among young men; it was nothing more than spaghetti westerns mashed-up with samurai movies!
Where would The J. Peterman Company be without remakes? The 1930's Vintage Black Lace Dress (No. 2584), the 1895 USA Campaign Shirt (No. 2554), the Peterman reissue A-1 Jacket (No. 2508)...don't throw the past away, you might need it some rainy day, dreams can come true again, when everything old is new again...
If I enjoy a great dinner selection at one restaurant, I'm always willing to take a chance and order the same meal at a different restaurant. Sometimes it works out well. Sometimes it doesn't.
All that I ask of a movie is that it entertains me, on any level. That it somehow wrests my attention away from reality once the lights are dimmed; until they are raised again at the end and find me sitting in wonder with my eyes blinking in confusion as I try to recalibrate and reorient myself back into the living world. I must be a simple man ‘cos I'm pretty easy to please or maybe I just allow myself to enjoy ‘lesser' things.
One of my very favorite films is Beau Geste.... The original silent version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTYNCnJlADU
as well as the ‘talkie' remake starring Ray Millan, Gary Cooper and Robert Preston. It made me dream of unheralded heroic deeds, joining the French Foreign Legion, as well as the romance of a Viking funeral.
And then there was The Last Remake of "Beau Geste"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R5TpjFO0UQ
which just made me laugh...but not too much.
What say you to a Marty Feldman Film Fest on thesepia train tonight? Starting and ending with "Young Frankenstein".
The Christopher Nolan's BATMAN "reimaginings"--that word smacks of doublespeak to me--are outstanding. While never a big fan of the campy '80s versions Tim Burton initiated I never thought I'd see a better portrayal of the Joker than Jack Nicholson, but his performance was phoned in compared to Heath Ledgers portrayal.
The most pointless and unnecessary Hollywood remake ever was Gus van Sant's of Psycho, using the original shooting script, the original storyboard, and the original Bernard Hermann score.
Ok I live and work in the cursed Hollywood. Remake the BAD movies the ones that were just off or the timing was wrong. Don't reimgine somthing and make it worse. Maltese Falcon was made 5 times before John Huston did it right.
DZ: In actual fact, George Lucas cited Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress as a storyline and visual inspiration for Star Wars.
Last night on "Top Chef" the challenge was to take a traditional recipe and "deconstruct" it. And I had no clue what they were talking about, "deconstructing" a recipe, so I had to sit through a repeat of the episode the next hour. That's a lot of "Top Chef" but I wanted to know what the heck they were doing and why.
Deconstructing a recipe means to take the key elements of that recipe (tastes and textures and whatever) and represent them in such a way that at the end of all these spoonsful of "tastes" the diner will feel the sensory satisfaction of having eaten the "original."
Plating counted.
So what they did was deconstruct (one example) a classic Shepherd's Pie and represent it in dribs and drabs (bites) and after eating those little bites, the food critic/judge was supposed to have felt like he'd eaten Mom's Shepherd's Pie.
Didn't work. The deconstructionist chef replaced potatoes with pea puree and used too many carrots and overcooked the lamb. I think he was the one who was told to pack his knives and go home.
My question after TWO hours of Top Chef Deconstruction was still: WHY? Why do that? You have the original. You like it. You tweak it, add or take from it, depending on availability and the weather, but basicially, you wind up with the Original, and it is good, as it always is.
Why deconstruct a tried and true favorite recipe when there is the Original? The only reason I can think of is if it's some sort of exercise for chefs in training -- it could be a useful learning tool.
Same for film: why re-imagine the Original, unless it's a learning exercise. The Original is the standard, the re-imagined version can't ever be that, can't match it. It's a copy, edited and revised, but always a copy.
I never thought I'd compare the making or unmaking of Shepherd's Pie with the making of a movie, but there you go.
Peter Lake,
As a part of remake night on thesepia train, I'd like to suggest that we include "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" with a round of Martell Cosmospolitans in the club car.
PL: Therein lies the difference: if I've had something that I enjoy at one restaurant, I'm likely to order it over and over when I dine there. I wouldn't try something new. And if I go to another restaurant, and I see the same entree there that I enjoyed at the other place, I'm not likely to try it, figuring that it couldn't be as good as my favorite in the first restaurant. I'd try something else ...
I bet this has some deep psychological meaning -- but I don't think I want to know what it is. I'm sure I don't want to know what it is.
PAT & DPR- is there any way you both can stop the facial mutilation that is American cinema? Yesterday afternoon in the grocery line I picked up one of the gossip mags & flipped to a page of lip plumped "stars" & I could not believe that I was looking at Nicole Kidman- she now looks like a freak. It must be freakish on film sets. Have you trained your eyes to not bug out & give you away when you see something that is so not right? That's why Diane Lane was such a revelation in "Unfaithful"- a movie I happened to quite enjoy. Her lines & her weariness made her hauntingly beautiful. Lest you think I'm a bitterly aging woman -one of my all time favorite movies is "Stealing Beauty" w/ the fresh, young, innocently beautiful Liv Tyler- it made you reflect on youth because she was the very essence of it.
Kindlee - Your wish is my command ... consider it done. All recommendations are honored on thesepia train.
PARK4 - I think it only increases your already high level of interestingness which is a very nice characteristic to have...... so you can take it off of your "things to worry about list".
For the sepia train's Feldman fest, I would also like to request Mel Brooks' Silent Movie.
Is this seat taken?
On seeing the essay title, I knew Mr. Roberts would have informed, wise comments, and indeed he does; we're in his ballpark.
But so do our compatriots. I can't enrich the discourse except with opinion, and most have been covered. A fine thing it is to learn PeterLake takes requests for movie night on thesepia train, though it shouldn't be a surprise after he even added tea to the coffee offerings in the Club Car. I'll meander down there now, thinking up movies and plays.
Often when I've thought a play or movie second-time-around was a mistake, still I appreciate actors' and directors' desire to take on, especially, classics. And they can go only so far in community theater. I recall the hue and cry when Augusta State university presented one of my favorite plays, Equus. Even brief nudity doesn't fly in the Bible Belt.
Not for nothing do directors ask,"But will it play in Peoria?"
"What would you like to see remade, reimagined, reexamined, revised, revisited, redressed or reborn?"
most of us will get a "re-do" on our next trip to this planet....
Pat,
Actually, it was only twice, but your point is still good.
May I suggest, Mr P, that you seriously devote a day's topic to what garment we'd like to see reappear, either from the Manual, or from beyond?
I second Willie's motion.
I THIRD WILLIE'S MOTION.
EXCELLENT IDEA.
Motion carried....... Action Item assigned to Mr. P
One popular belief regarding remakes that I do NOT share is the notion that they're being done simply because no one has any original ideas any more. This has been disproven in many venues.
Gus Van Sant made his name with quirky, original works like Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting. I don't believe for a minute that he woke up one day and said "Gee, I've run out of ideas. I can't think of anything new to do so I guess I'll have to do a shot-for-shot remake of Psycho in order to have some place to go in the morning."
Steven Soderbergh gained immense acclaim for the low key originality of sex, lies, and videotape before he went on to the bizarrely original films, Kafka and Schizopolis, and the warm charm of King of the Hill. The fact that his recent output has featured remakes of Traffic, Solaris, and Oceans 11 clearly cannot be attributed to a mere lack of imagination on his part.
For Peter Jackson to go from Lord of the Rings to a remake of King Kong or Jonathan Demme to go from The Silence of the Lambs to a remake of Charade requires deeper investigation than the token assumption that "there are no new ideas in Hollywood".
Here is my observation and my subsequent theory:
Every one of these highly imaginative and original directors has, when their remake project was announced, been heard to say in interviews how much he loved the original film. Often, the original film was a major inspiration for said director to go into the business in the first place. So why pee all over the legacy of films they love so much? Once these directors have earned enough clout to name their own project, they have a decision to make. They think about a favorite film and say "Gosh, I wish I had made that movie." And now they can. So they do. And it stinks.
I see the value of breathing new life into a good story that may have been diminished when translated into a bad movie.
I feel it's a bit arrogant to try to make someone else's great movie better.
Either way, if the new movie is good enough unto itself, its audiences are entertained, and it makes a profit because of the good efforts put into it; then it's worth the trip.
I can't think of a single instance when someone forced me to watch a movie that I didn't want to see. If I really loved the original version of a movie, I probably wouldn't bother seeing the remake.
Bert
What does jmo mean?
Another question.
Did anyone else (in the Midwest) grow up on watching "The Early Show"?
It's theme song still runs through my head.
A wonderful study in film history!
Brigid~ JMO means just my opinion, IMHO means in my humble opinion, and you can also say 'just sayin' and the all purpose "bless his (their)heart"
Brigid, the early show music, I think, was Dave Brubeck,Take Five. Query youtube to make sure
Years ago I was given a Maltese falcon statuette by a good friend, which I have always enjoyed. Then I began collecting them. They are quite heavy and make great bookends, or look great all by themselves. I currently possess three, with a habit of giving them away. When I remarked to my daughter that I was going to give a Maltese falcon to her boyfriend (a film buff) she asked me how I knew that he wanted one. The question seemed strange to me and I answered,
"Why would anyone NOT want a Maltese falcon?" to which she rolled her eyes and I wondered if perhaps that I was being strange. It didn't even occur to me that someone would NOT want a Maltese falcon.
Anyway, I think a remake of "The Illustrated Man" is in order. It was pretty well done in 1969 but could use an update.
RoadYacht - I agree! The great movie houses of yesteryear were a great part the whole experience. In my early years I was a denizen of the Nubel theatre in downtown Bellflower California. It was all plush velvet and cavernous inside, with a balcony and a section in the lower back of the theatre that was a little more roomy and plush called the loages I think. Something like that. You had to pay a little extra to sit there.
I'm looking forward to this coming Saturday. In Miami Oklahoma they have refurbished the Coleman theatre, circa 1930's art Deco. Refurbished, and then some. They even retrieved the organ (that was originally built into one side of the stage) from somewhere in Texas, and completely rebuilt it. This coming Saturday at 7:30 p.m. they are showing the silent film "Yankee Clipper", with a renowned organist playing the original musical score of the film. There is always an intermission, and before they quickly dim the lights to warn you to get back to your seat for the second half, one can converse, or wander around, admire the chandeliers, and peruse the movie memorabilia on the walls and lying about on beautifully carved tables upstairs. It's awesome!!
Have fun cruising here!
What about musicals as a genre?
My daughter wishes life imitated this art form!
Singin' in the Rain is one of her favorites.
http://www.classicflix.com/index.php
I want to see more silent film.
Senario and title writers can make a comeback.
Live music can return to the movie theatre.
I just saw a 1934 silent Chinese movie "Floating Weeds" at Krannert Center.
There was a guitar accompianist.
The showing was an outdoor ampitheatre.
Since I had to wait for a place to sit I watched the audience watching the film.
They were enraptuted!
http://krannertcenter.com/performance.aspx?id=20096291858729875414467
Our local Virginia theatre still has a working Wirlitzer organ.
You can hear it today
http://www.thevirginia.org/photos.htm
See the current top 10 silent films here.
http://www.silentera.com/
One of my favorites - The Phantom of the Opera
There is nothing better than watching Brad Pitt and George Clooney in expensive suits. But Ocean's Eleven, I have a hard time seeing it as a "reimagining." The funny, surprise ending of the origianl may seem primitive now but it had a moral.
Tiberius: That sounds like such fun. And your Maltese falcon story is delightful. Just delightful.
Having just enjoyed Kevin Kline (second time) in "De-Lovely," I'm forced to say again the first was not well-done. I'll watch Kevin Kline in almost anything, but aside from that, the film is truer (as "truer" can be after the fact and given Mr. Porter's refusal to grant interviews) to what I've read of his life than the original came anywhere near -- possibly due to the time it was made. but I admit to having been a lifelong fool for every wise, sophisticated word he wrote; every difficult key-change; every unbelievable-range for the human voice unless well-trained; every note. "Every Time We Say Goodbye" is perhaps my favorite, but play me another and I'll claim it, too. Scary we've produced at least a generation who lack frame of reference for many of his most witty lyrics, difficult but rewarding, meaningful scores.
As to "Ocean's Eleven," I too admire the suits, but they never should have bothered, though I like the actors in the remake; the original is THE original, in that case, sez she, blushing at her forwardness.