wolfman

Do American remakes of British films like The Day of the Jackal and The Italian Job damamge the British film industry. Do they tarnish the origionals? what do u think i wud like to hear.

DB7

No I don't think so, there's an outcry when they're released but over the passage of time they're judged on their own merits - and largely forgotten about.

Both of the films you mention have little incommon with their predecessors - Jackal was a clumsy film with Bruce Willis in some laughable wigs and the Italian Job was more akin to Oceans Eleven in Minis. And Stallone's Get Carter will be in the bargain bin within 12 months.

wolfman

grated they may not be huge hits but they are still there and add to a generation that is drowned by films that support american culture. my fear is that a generation will be brought up that will watch the remakes because they are easier to relate to while not watching the origionals because they support a british culture. could this over time reduce the ability of british film makers to get thier work made without having to include american hegemony in place of the origional ideology...or am i just being paranoid?

Gibbie

From this side of the Atlantic - DB7 is correct.

I have not seen one of these remakes. I have already seen merged DVDs offered with the new and old Italian Job versions.

One thing - the Mini is very popular here. I went to my old university town today and saw a pizza restaurant with a delivery car - A Union Jack Mini.

Also note, over here a lot of us who don't watch TV or the movies like we did as kids (hardly at all!) and watch old movies - there is a huge market for oldies and originals. They probably don't talk about that in the papers.

Wolfman, as in previous threads, I don't think it is so much hegemony (real US culture and Hollywood culture sometimes are at total opposites), as it is that the moviemakers have run out of ideas and can only pillage the past for a fast buck. If you remember, in much of the 80s and 90s there were movies that reused golden oldie songs for movie titles and themes ("Baby It's You", "Twist and Shout").

I guess you could call these times the pillage period. Next era will be the bin period, right DB7! wink

Gibbie

wolfman

thank you for your feed back, im doing research for a coursework project. its nice to hear an american point of view, hope you dont think that i was attacking you.

Gibbie

I didn't take it as a personal attack. You should note that a large number of Americans are not in lock step with Hollywood's zeitgeist. I once knew a Hollywood writer who told me about the trauma of working on films these days.

Hollywood revisionism should be short lived, as these films generally fail, except reviving the interest in the Mini Cooper.

Hollywood moviemaking is more about making cash than art or entertainment. I recommend looking at the production companies and researching their quotes as to why they did these revisions. Even still, these will probably be PR quotes. If you can find a director's interview, better.

Best on the paper.

Gibbie

dar111

Why would a remake of "Ladykillers" be considered wrong on principle whereas a remake of "Midsummer Night's Dream" would be OK?

Gibbie

English lit movies are considered culturally ok to redo if the context is kept, but redoing original films is a form of cultural revisionism. More recently, there has been a strong anti-Anglo revisionism in movies and literature that tones many pictures politically - as a result, they lose the point of the story while co-opting it.

But, most are probably just raiding the past, because they have to make money and are trying to update classics with the hope that it will work.

Please note: there is a definite trend here that is uncomfortably repetitive.

Gibbie

DB7

Which film version of Midsummer Nights Dream would you consider a classic?

DB7

I think so. If you look at a film like Gaslight from the 40s, they remade it and tried to have the original print destroyed but it still stands up as the superior version.

If you take the case of The Ladykillers, it will have to contend with the almost yearly airings of the original on CH4 and the Coens earlier and far more original films overshadowing it.

Many of these films will slip away to join the 74 version of Brief Encounter with Richard Burton and John Carpenter's dreadful Village of the Damned.

Steve Crook

I do like the 1935 version with Jimmy Cagney & Mickey Rooney.

That could be considered a remake because there was an earlier version in 1909. But I think that the 1935 version is probably the definitive version that all the others are trying to emulate.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS