bluegopher
10-23-2002, 10:24 PM
Recently released thrillers The Ring and Ghost Ship are both not the sole version of their material. In other words, they are remakes of earlier films. The Ring is a remake of the heralded 1998 Japanese film, Ringu. Ghost Ship is a remake of a 1950’s film of the same name. While both films are done well enough so that you won’t be hearing many complain about them being rehashes of earlier material, they bring up the question of whether remakes are a good thing that allows more people access to good stories or a bad thing that encourages a lack of creativity in Hollywood?
The first camp that doesn’t mind the presence of remakes will most likely point to the fact that American remakes of foreign originals such as The Ring and Insomnia (Remake of a Norwegian film) make perfect sense because “Mainstream audiences hate to read subtitles.” The camp will also point to the fact that many remakes take their own creative spin on the material such as Tim Burton’s reimagining of Planet of the Apes or last summer’s Mr. Deeds. Also, they will most likely use the reasoning that, in the case of remakes of classic American films, that audiences love a familiar story and will see it again to compare it to the original. Another often used argument in favor of remakes is how there are remakes that are made of not so classic films that end up being better than the original version.
The detractors of the practice of Hollywood remaking films also have their fair share of arguments. They often say that American audiences don’t mind reading said subtitles because, if they really did, how come Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon grossed over 128 million at the domestic box office? To the argument that remakes take an original spin on old material they point to the needless 1998 shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho by director Gus Van Sant. And, to the claim that some remakes are better than the original they draw attention to 2002’s dreadful Rollerball remake, a remake of an already mediocre film that still ended up being much worse than the original 1975 film.
In conclusion, there are good arguments made by both the staunch supporters of Hollywood-produced remakes and the detractors of such films. In the end, the remake ritual is likely to continue unheeded as long as there is a sizable audience who will pay to view something old made anew.
The first camp that doesn’t mind the presence of remakes will most likely point to the fact that American remakes of foreign originals such as The Ring and Insomnia (Remake of a Norwegian film) make perfect sense because “Mainstream audiences hate to read subtitles.” The camp will also point to the fact that many remakes take their own creative spin on the material such as Tim Burton’s reimagining of Planet of the Apes or last summer’s Mr. Deeds. Also, they will most likely use the reasoning that, in the case of remakes of classic American films, that audiences love a familiar story and will see it again to compare it to the original. Another often used argument in favor of remakes is how there are remakes that are made of not so classic films that end up being better than the original version.
The detractors of the practice of Hollywood remaking films also have their fair share of arguments. They often say that American audiences don’t mind reading said subtitles because, if they really did, how come Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon grossed over 128 million at the domestic box office? To the argument that remakes take an original spin on old material they point to the needless 1998 shot-by-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho by director Gus Van Sant. And, to the claim that some remakes are better than the original they draw attention to 2002’s dreadful Rollerball remake, a remake of an already mediocre film that still ended up being much worse than the original 1975 film.
In conclusion, there are good arguments made by both the staunch supporters of Hollywood-produced remakes and the detractors of such films. In the end, the remake ritual is likely to continue unheeded as long as there is a sizable audience who will pay to view something old made anew.