Remakes
This four-day-old Lewis Beale/Reeler piece about the do's and don'ts of remakes ("Re-made in the USA") is sensible and well-written, but the ultimate pearl of wisdom was delivered years ago by the great John Huston: "Don't remake good movies -- remake bad ones!" Or, to follow the train, "Don't adapt brilliant books that are praised by Michiko Kakutani -- adapt pulp and give it a bit of soul and embroidery."
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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 20, 2007 at 12:10 PM
comment #1
Joshua Mooney
says ...
Two fine examples of this sage advice about pulp fiction must surely be "The Godfather" and "The Graduate." Oh, and "M*A*S*H." I'm sure there are many others.
Nice point.
Posted by Joshua Mooney
at April 20, 2007 1:06 PM
comment #2
Craig Kennedy
says ...
The first expample Beale uses is Halloween. Even the edited-for-network-television version of that one scared the bejeebus out of me when I was a little kid. When I heard it was being remade I groaned, but when I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. The fact is, audiences aren't scared in the same way they were 25 or 30 years ago. I'd still prefer they make something original, or at least dress up something old and pretend it's original, but I'll at least be curious to know how Halloween turns out.
When I first saw the trailer before Grindhouse, I thought it had promise, but part of that is there's something scary in a primal childhood way about Michael Meyers in that damn spray painted Shatner mask. In any context, he still kinda freaks out the kid inside of me.
But then I watched the trailer again online and it wasn't so hot.
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at April 20, 2007 2:04 PM
comment #3
le corbeau
says ...
Or as Andrew Sarris said, "There are more great movies from the novels of W.R. Burnett than from the novels of Dostoevsky." Indeed, Huston himself proved exactly that point-- his movie from a Burnett novel (The Asphalt Jungle) is far superior to his movies from Melville, Carson McCullers or God....
Posted by le corbeau
at April 20, 2007 3:31 PM