I can be rather possessive about things that aren’t really mine. Movies from my teenage years are an example of this. Eighties classics like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing and Footloose, just to name just a few, were great and in opinion should not be messed with.
But enough time has passed that some of these movies are being remade (last year it started with The Karate Kid – I wonder if people remember the remake as well as the original – wax on, wax off is still being quoted to this day). On October 14 a remake of Footloose will be released and I have a problem with that. The original movie was great the way it was, why remake it? And we all know the remake will never be better than the original.
It seems obvious that Hollywood can’t come up with new story ideas for movies so they have to remake an old movie, make it a little bit different, make changes that would “modernize” the story. It goes along with a recent trend of making movies based on television shows (usually not very good television shows). But what these producers don’t understand is that these movies don’t need modern makeovers, they were really good the first time around.
For this Footloose remake, Ren moves to a small town in Tennessee (not Utah) after his mother dies (she’s alive in the original) where rock ‘n’ roll is banned. Apparently they use some of the same dance sequences from the original (Ren still dances in the barn, teaches Williard how to dance, and, of course, the big school dance) and three songs from the original (Footloose, Holding Out for a Hero, Let’s Hear it for the Boys and Almost Paradise). A virtual unknown is playing Rena and a former ballroom dance with not a lot of acting experience is playing Ariel. But really, what kind of expectations can there be?
I heard that they were going to remake Dirty Dancing and I felt like a piece of my heart was breaking. All these movies from my teen years were part of my life. I saw the over and over again, heard their music was heard almost every day and they have been staples in pop culture. People from my generation can tell you exactly who Ferris, Baby, Maverick, Duckie and Mr. Miyagi are without skipping a beat. We know all the words to Simple Minds Don’t You Forget About Me and the late-great Patrick Swayze’s She’s Like the Wind.
Okay, so maybe these movies aren’t Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz or Casablanca but they were good enough the first time around that they don’t need to be remade.
But enough time has passed that some of these movies are being remade (last year it started with The Karate Kid – I wonder if people remember the remake as well as the original – wax on, wax off is still being quoted to this day). On October 14 a remake of Footloose will be released and I have a problem with that. The original movie was great the way it was, why remake it? And we all know the remake will never be better than the original.
It seems obvious that Hollywood can’t come up with new story ideas for movies so they have to remake an old movie, make it a little bit different, make changes that would “modernize” the story. It goes along with a recent trend of making movies based on television shows (usually not very good television shows). But what these producers don’t understand is that these movies don’t need modern makeovers, they were really good the first time around.
For this Footloose remake, Ren moves to a small town in Tennessee (not Utah) after his mother dies (she’s alive in the original) where rock ‘n’ roll is banned. Apparently they use some of the same dance sequences from the original (Ren still dances in the barn, teaches Williard how to dance, and, of course, the big school dance) and three songs from the original (Footloose, Holding Out for a Hero, Let’s Hear it for the Boys and Almost Paradise). A virtual unknown is playing Rena and a former ballroom dance with not a lot of acting experience is playing Ariel. But really, what kind of expectations can there be?
I heard that they were going to remake Dirty Dancing and I felt like a piece of my heart was breaking. All these movies from my teen years were part of my life. I saw the over and over again, heard their music was heard almost every day and they have been staples in pop culture. People from my generation can tell you exactly who Ferris, Baby, Maverick, Duckie and Mr. Miyagi are without skipping a beat. We know all the words to Simple Minds Don’t You Forget About Me and the late-great Patrick Swayze’s She’s Like the Wind.
Okay, so maybe these movies aren’t Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz or Casablanca but they were good enough the first time around that they don’t need to be remade.
If we can re-make movies so easily and frequently, how do we get to re- make parts of our lives that we don't like?!?
ReplyDeleteGood questions. Wish I had the answer....
ReplyDelete