In the past few weeks, I’ve learned of at least three planned remakes to films that I’ve either enjoyed, loved, or been curious about. This is nothing new. This is the world we live in now. The post modern self referentialism which become the homage culture (Tarantino, I’m lookin at you, you video clerk dirtbag) of the 90s, which begat a nonstop around the clock remake/reimagining/remix world. And don’t forget the reboots…
Someday soon, fan fiction will be considered literature. You’ll see Matt Laurer interviewing prominent slash fiction authors, who will deliver powerful diatribes about while Dr. House and some asshole from Stargate SG-1 needed to bugger Spike from Buffy and what that means to the society. Matt Lauer will say, “My God, that’s fascinating, you’re really got your finger in the genitalia of the zeitgeist!” and DarkAngleLUV2369 will say, “I know, Matt. This is what they want.”
Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-Wook, is a 2003 film from South Korea, based on a Japanese manga (I guess all manga is Japanese, but whatever) by Nobuaki Minegishi from the late 90s. The film diverges slightly from the manga, but both are essentially about a man locked up in a private jail for a matter of years (10 in the manga, 15 in the film) by persons unknown for reasons unknown. When he gets out, his life ruined, this man sets out about finding out the reasons for his captivity and getting a little payback.
Sadly, that description alone doesn’t even begin to tell you why this movie is brilliant and it’s not helped by the fact that my opinion of the film rises with each year that passes since I originally saw it and each succeeding viewing. I’ll also say that Roger Ebert summed the film up nicely, calling it a “…powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.” Also, it contains one of the greatest fight scenes you’re lucky enough to get in a movie:
and a nasty bit of revenge that’s revealed at the end. This movie is done in a pure comic book style from a framing sense, an almost Alan Moore-ish sense of blocking and use of repeated imagery, and is amazing.
Fascinatingly though, it’s being eyed for remaking by none other than Steven Spielberg and Will Smith, and it’s shocking because… well, this just isn’t their kind of film. Spielberg is a genius, one of the few truly brilliant filmmakers still alive and in his extended prime, and Will Smith is always a crowd pleaser (Hancock was horrible but it gave you a nice insight into how the Fresh Prince would like to treat his fans on a regular basis), but again, this just isn’t their kind of film. Spielberg, maybe, I could see tackling this. Smith? No. And certainly not as a Scientlogist, Big Willie Style.
But Will Smith says that they have no intention of remaking the film, merely readapting the original manga for big screen American audiences. That’s something else entirely, not particularly interesting to me, and feels kind of akin to someone saying, “Hey, you know that French film Amélie that everyone’s seen? Well, now we’re going to remake it…”
They Live, directed by John Carpenter, released in 1988 and… Well, has anyone not seen this movie by now? This movie is a fucking classic, as a B-action film, and as a C-level comment on American satire. One of the many diamonded jewels in Carpenter’s cap (a man who’s filmography is no stranger to remakes), and a level of quality that he hasn’t acheived in decades now. I guarantee that if you haven’t seen this film (and if you haven’t, then really, what is wrong with you?), you’ve at least seen this brilliant fight scene before:
I know this because it was redone/”homaged” nearly shot for shot in the new classic South Park episode “Cripple Fight” as the knock down drag out tussle between Jimmy and Timmy:
That’s just good stuff right there, let me tell you. And unshockingly, They Live is being considered for remake treatment. It’s being remade by the same people who did the remake of Dawn Of The Dead back in 2004, which was actually not that bad of a film, much better than it deserved to be, but sadly launched the career of Zach Snyder upon us all. But have no fear about the They Live remake, it’ll surely be handled by someone with no understanding of the evils of consumerism, the tyranny of the manipulated spectacle, and the fetishism of commodity, and lacking that brilliant fight scene that captured the angst of a suffering lower class. And surely no presence as sharp and powerful as Keith David. When it comes to us to chew bubble gum and kick ass, it’ll be all out of kick ass.
Let The Right One In, a 2008 Swedish romantic horror (“romantic horror,” what a lovely name for a genre, as opposed to “horror romance”) directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and yes, snatching a title from a Morrissey song (actually, the Morrissey song is “Let The Right One Slip In,” because… well, it’s Morrissey).
The film is about a bullied young boy in the suburbs of Stockholm in the 1980s, alieniated from the world until he meets a mysterious girl who moves into his building. She’s got a dark secret and just may be the answer to his prayers.
Regardless, the film (which may or may not include any fight scenes, I should point out, since I included that about the previous films)(I’m also reminded of Tarantino’s quote about the slow pre-production phase of Kill Bill: “I’m going to take a year off to write the fight scenes,” that pompous fucker) just opened up in American in extremely limited venues not too long ago and there’s already a deal in place for it’s American remake, to be helmed by Matt Reeves, who directed Cloverfield. Having not seen the original yet, but desperately wanting to, and having enjoyed Cloverfield (which could be called a very American-ified remake of Godzilla, a response to 9/11, the same as Godzilla could be a response to Hiroshima and Nagasaki) probably more than anyone anywhere, I find myself not having such a huge problem with this bit of needless remakery (not that it matters if I have a problem, cause it’ll happen anyways), but I still think I’d like to see the original first.
I feel like Hollywood learned it’s lesson with films like Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels and Amélie, in that if you let the American public see these movies first, then they might be a little hostile to immediate remakes. That’s why a Spanish film from last year, REC, had it’s remake rushed into production before the original even saw release in it’s home country. The remake is entitled Quarantine and I think it’s already come and gone in theaters.
Like I said, I’d complain more, but it’s not entirely the fault of the people remaking these films, whether they be classics, beloved, or just plain shit. In fact, really, they’re just responding to the people’s spirit of recycle, re-use, remake, because seemingly, this is what they want.
