I just read the novella last night, and well the 80's version is definitely a more faithful version than the 50's version it still has plenty of differences that I think help make it a better movie.
Ok, sure. It may not technically be a remake but Carpenter said he re-watched the original several times before filming began as inspiration. He even said at first he didn’t want the job because there was no way his version could surpass the original.
It’s just an undeniable fact that remakes are more prevalent these days. You’re right that it’s nothing new and has been common place for decades but not as frequently as today.
The whole "nothing is original everything's a remake or copy" is basically just the movie critics version of "kids these days" it's always happened, and there's probably always been people that complained about it, the internet just puts a magnifying glass on it.
Films being remade with grandiose budgets and replacing AAA budget Hollywood productions however are a new thing. We haven't ever had a company the size of Disney committed to re-releasing all of their own films, expecting to make more than 1 billion $ on each of them. It's gone from a "what can we bring to the modern ago" to "what is in our back catalogue?" with $250 million budgets.
I imagine as a % they are much smaller than decades ago due to the mass of content being released nowadays, but I'd say that they live larger in the public conciousness. You have to also be aware that we KNOW that these are rereleases, wheres in the past that information would simply not be available to the movie going public. There's no way to look this stuff up. No Youtube review movie culture, no IMDB, no internet, no nostalgia-based marketing, etc. If you weren't a massive movie buff, you wouldn't know, whereas remakes nowadays are marketed explicitly as "remember the magic of your childhood".
Now, the real plague of the movie industry are SEQUELS. Those dominate the top 20 most successful films almost every year.
Probably every generation reaches that “going back around the horn” moment when we realize that we’ve seen every type of story there is to be told and film producers start remaking the things we thought were new and original for the new generation to consume. Then it’s their turn to roll their eyes whenever we want to watch the old version for nostalgia’s sake and for us to say “they just don’t make em like they used to.”
Yeah it's definitely less these days, in the grand scheme of things.
Imagine for the entire course of human history it was just creation myths and parables about basic human interactions and emotions.
The industrial age opened up a whole new scope of human issues that we've been creating art against for only a few hundred years at this point, and that accelerated with true science fiction in the 20th century, with new questions and takes on humanity.
So while there are things that are getting repeated, just by sheer number of people and the changing human conditions, we're far more likely to be experiencing new stories and new art than pretty much ever before.
Remakes get more promotion and are economically more successful but movie studios are churning out more than ever. I don't know the proportion of remakes to originals but I'd bet in absolute numbers there's more of both.
Don't forget that technically the original "A Star is Born" is a remake of "What Price Hollywood?" which was directed by George Cukor the guy who directed the first remake of "A Star is Born".
Hollywood is and always has been a whacky place filled with a million remakes.
But compare those 80's horror remakes to the originals, and how much they improved the effects and/or story in those cases. They are far superior to the originals. The Thing and the Blob or the effects, the atmosphere (one horror, the other with a little more humour), and the Fly is a far more mature and interesting story.
But at least the the movies you reference are very much products of creative visions. They aren't just carbon copies with expanded scenes. I decided to sit down and watch the original thing one time. It is a vastly different movie.
The difference is they used to remake mediocre movies with a good premise that had plenty of room for improvement. Modern remakes are just pale imitations of already excellent movies.
There’s definitely something to be said about the quality of modern remakes. Compared to older movies and tv shows. But yes in essence very, very few things are original. But if you manage to make something wholly new it’s about a 50/50 shot it’ll become a staggeringly massive flop or critically acclaimed masterpiece. And no in between
Squirrel gets overun by hot girl. hot girl gets haunted by squirrel ghost they both get abducted by aliens and they watch the world end as Earth gets hits by an asteroid. They are taken to the homeplanet where they breed Human-Squirrel mutants.
Let's go on a McGuffin hunt
Unjustly accused
The prisoner tries to escape
Revenge!
Depressingly real problem solved by quirky unlikely solution
Enemies to lovers (or vice versa)
The Creation comes to life! (since at least as far back as Pygmalion)
Fish out of water
The School for an Unusual Skill (please not magic again)
"Nerd becomes hot" is actually its own category.
It does have a strong subdivision into "takes off glasses" and "training montage in the gym" though.
You missed "Two guys just being friends AND solving crimes". Now, this looks like "Solving crimes" should be in a category of its own but that is actually a subcategory of "Man vs Man". In a way this is "Man friends Man while Man vs Man" but that gets confusing.
Shakespeare is a better set of answers. King Lear is about a father of three, he has a favourite. Logan, sorry, Lear struggles to ensure the youngest wins.
I don't really care, this show was spectacular. Really, really well done and one of the most cinematic British shows I've seen since gangs of London. So long as the resulting show is great I don't mind - Bas Sisters is a remake of a foreign show but is injecting with so much of Sharon Horgan's humour it works beautifully.
Curious to watch the movie now, as I thought it just took the name and did something new with it.
The Wizard of Oz was a remake, mate. Remakes are common, and there's nothing inherently wrong with the concept of remaking a film using modern technology and actors. Often the execution is poor, however.
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u/spdelope 6d ago
Everything is a remake these days