The arrival of Robert Zemekis’ mo-cap version of A Christmas Carol got me thinking again about the whole “they shouldn’t remake classics” argument. I mean here we have a film that has been remade no less than 37 times over the years, at least 5 versions of which have been in the last 10 years alone and indeed there is another version due next year (according to the IMDB). I mean surely we all have a version we remember watching as a child in the days before all-year-round availability, sat in your front room kept warm by the synthetic glow from the TV. The multicoloured fairy lights twinkling on the artificial Christmas tree, watching Albert Finney in a rerun of Scrooge (1970), or maybe even Michael Caine in A Muppets Christmas Carol and drinking Cherry pop whilst teasing the occasional dry-roasted nut from the bowl. Ah, Christmas!
I digress.
Point being no one seems to really give two hoots if this gets remade, or even other actual classics by the likes of, oh I don’t know, Bill Shakespeare?! I can’t help but wonder why? Is it something to do with the source material perhaps? Literature – lets use Romeo and Juliet as an easy example. We’ve all seen a version of it at some point and people accept that there are many versions, and will most likely be further versions in the future. Is it because it didn’t start life as a film? I’d have thought that this would be much more emotive for readers than film enthusiasts as reading a book is a much more personal experience as it’s only yourself that can see what you see. (Believe it or not, there are some die-hards who despise Peter Jacksons work on the Lord of the Ring films.) And also, stage productions get remade all the time and theatre goers love that. Is it just film goers that don’t have an open mind to these things?
So is this a remake rant? Well kinda, but not so much against remakes, more towards those who cannot accept that remakes happen! I can understand people’s views, in that they don’t want the films they’ve grown up with, know and love to be tampered with (or do they not want their feelings for the film tampered with?), and I think it is all too easy to jump on the band wagon of hate where these things are concerned. I have my favourites like everyone else, like Rocky, Robocop, The Shawshank Redemption, Star Wars, The Godfather, etc and it seems inconceivable that these films could be remade with different actors and directors. But would it lessen my enjoyment of the original if they did? No. I’d certainly give it a go and if I didn’t like what they’d churned out, I simply wouldn’t watch it again. But also consider, by remaking a “classic” and promoting the shit out of it, isn’t there a chance that this could introduce a younger generation to the original and therefore prolonging its life? Remember David Cronenbergs The Fly (1986), that was a remake of the 1959 original – strangely no-one remembers that. Sure 1959 was a long time ago, but in 1986 it was only 27 years ago – so you could say the remake has prolonged its life by a further 23 years – making 50 years in total. The Godfather was made 37 years ago this year, is it time for a remake? I can just imagine the outrage if George Clooney reassembled the Oceans team and made them the new Corleone family!!
Some say that Hollywood is fresh out of ideas and this is the reason behind the influx of remakes over the last decade. I doubt that is true – what is true is that no matter how much a passion film is to us, it’s a business and businesses need to make money. If Mr Kipling made a Christmas cake called “The Nicest Christmas Cake In The World” and it shifted £100million worth of cakes, would they not make the recipe again for fear of it not being as tasty? Would they shite – they’d be ramming it down our throats every year and probably rebrand it as an Easter Cake too!
I remember a time when people used to groan when they heard that a sequel was being made to their favourite film, this may of course been down to the quality of sequels “back in the day”, but they got better! Sure, you still get the occasional fear of dread when they start talking sequels (what can the possibly do with a fourth Bourne film anyway), but generally people go ape shit for sequels now! Every film made has “franchise talk” in the promotion. Maybe the tide will change here too, maybe people will start to embrace remakes/reboots/ reimaging’s… who knows.
What do all you filmtwats out there think?
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