I’m all for remakes, especially if they’re of good foreign films that the vast majority of people haven’t seen yet (and let’s face it, if they haven’t seen it yet, they most likely never will unless they remake it).
News has come out about a remake of the German film “The Experiment” that sounds just fantastic to me. Here’s the synopsis for the film:
“Das Experiment, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, centered on a group of ordinary men recruited to take on the roles of guards and prisoners as part of a research study and examined how the effects of assigned roles, power and control affected the participants. Brody will portray the de facto leader of the prisoners while Whitaker will play a guard who’s corrupted by the power he’s given.”
NICE! The cast for the film is lined up and just signed Adrien Brody to play the lead (I like Brody very much, but he’s yet to impress me the way he did with his Oscar performance). The rest of the cast includes:
Forest Whitaker
Elijah Wood
Cam Gigandet
Not bad! I’m up for seeing this for sure.
(source: ScreenCrave)
I would think that the issue here wouldn’t be just about remakes in general but about Hollywood neutering or softening the social criticism of the original. From what I understand Das Experiment has an “outsider”, anti-government theme to it. So the problem is that Hollywood will almost inevitably cheapen the film’s message. I mean, think about how cool Hollywood tends to make violence, no matter what. It’s like impossible for Hollywood to criticize violence without glorifying violence because of their “edgy” filming techniques. I could see a character at the end of the film intimating that “Violence is bad! And anyone is capable of it! It’s bad how violent humans can be to each other once they’ve given positions of power!” But what does that matter if the preceding two hours has been a series of scenes that make violence look cool?
I agree with John that films like The Departed prove that Hollywood can do a great job of remaking foreign films. The idea of bringing a good foreign story to the English-speaking masses is also somewhat noble. HOWEVER, unlike The Departed, Das Experiment seems to have a clear, strong social message. Hollywood’s track record shows that they will almost undoubtedly screw that up.
What movie doesn’t have an anti-government theme?
I thought of the Stanford Prison experiment when I saw the synopsis for this.
There’s no point to remake this movie. The original is great and if people can’t deal with subtitles it’s their problem. It’s not really the kind of movie that’d benefit of having a bigger budget.
But if a movie was badly executed because of a lack of budget then in some case a reamke is worth it.
Most people I know don’t care about seeing the original movie when they see a remake of it. Also foreign movies are more and more available for rental than ever before these days.
You hit the nail on the head, but on the opposite point you are trying to make. People that don’t want to watch a foreign film in subtitles is their preference, and thus the remake is being made for them. Plain and simple. Obviously there is an audience for such films, as they continue to make them and make money off them. I’m all for anything that spreads a good story to more ears personally.
Agreed, a good story should be enjoyed by the most people possible.
I’m not against remakes at all but sometimes it’s better to leave things as they are but in the end it’s capitalism at work here.
Hollywood studios buy the rights of these movies because they know (or hope) they will make money by remaking them. It’s logical when you look at it that way.
Getting slightly off topic here……
Oh yeah, one more thing, you said that remakes will make people watch the original. I don’t think so. I saw Quarantine at the movies a few months ago, and then i found out it’s a remake of REC, a spanish movie. But now i don’t want to watch it because i already saw the Quarantine. Now, i hear REC is much better then Quarantine, and i’ve been stripped of watching the original for the first time. Why would i watch it now when i know the whole story, the ending, everything? Remake ruined a good movie for me. And yes, i would find out about REC sooner or later and i would rent it.
Then you’re in the minority. I know a LOT of people who check out to original The Ring and The Eye after seeing the North American remakes.
Sometimes people want to check out the original before seeing the remake anyways.
John is right that a lot of people check out the originals after seeing the remakes, but some people even check out the original BEFORE seeing the remake. Good example is “3:10 to Yuma” (not a bad film in my opinion). But to follow up with HB’s comment about how there’s no point in seeing an original if you’ve seen the remake…not true. Again, in “3:10 to Yuma” there are some significant differences. “Death Race” and “Death Race 2000” is also original-to-remake, but both were good films. John Carpenter and Rob Zombie had different visions of how “Halloween” should be made, and in a lot of ways RB’s version was creepier for the more modern teens of the 1990’s to undoubtedly the 21st century.
I think remakes are a good idea (especially for action movies) because of how different the technology is today than it was before, thus we have more room for creativity in remake films of today than we did in the 70’s per say.
Not all remakes, or sequels for that matter, are fantastic. I agree. But that shouldn’t stop people from looking into the originals.
Oh come on. John, you’re like the only guy on the planet that thinks that remakes are a good idea. As i said earlier in a different post, remakes are a LACK of ideas. Remakes and reboots are all that’s wrong with hollywood today. As for your list, all of those movies have original scripts and if they suck, well, at least they tried. Remakes are ROBBING someone elses ideas. Like you say piracy is stealing, i think remakes are stealing. Stealing someone’s hard work and transforming it into something idiot-friendly. Now tell me that’s not utterly wrong.
Huggy,
If you think “creativity” and ideas are only in the basic concept of a movie, then I don’t know what to tell you.
If there were no remakes, there would be no The Departed, no Scarface, no Lord of the Rings and so on and so forth. Remakes are not from a lack of ideas. Original movies 90% are just rehashed concept ideas anyway.
So anyway… I’m still waiting for you to give me one real authentic REASON they should’nt do this remake.
And for the record… I’ve never said remakes are a good idea… I’ve always said (and correctly I might add) that they CAN be good and that there’s no reason not to do them if producers so choose.
“Oh come on. John, you’re like the only guy on the planet that thinks that remakes are a good idea”
I think remakes are a good idea….I mean its not like the original is hurt in anyway.
Psycho. There you go.
so you’re saying that because there is a bad remake, that’s a reason they shouldn’t make remakes?
Wow… ok… CATWOMAN. There, they should never make comic book movies.
Shrek the Third. There, they should never make animated films.
Deuce Bigalow European Gigalo. There, they should never make comedies.
The Happening. There, they should never make original movies again.
Sorry man, pointing out a bad remake is not a REASON to not make remakes. Try again.
John, why are you so passionate about non-movie lovers who can’t stand watching non-english movies? Why does it makes you so happy for them to see a crippled version of good movies? And please don’t play ignorant, you ARE aware that MOST of remakes do indeed SUCK compared to the original. Yeah, sure, there are FEW exceptions, but only few.
Hey Huggybear:
Ever heard of “The Departed”? You might have. Won the Oscar for best picture. It’s a remake of the Asian film “Infernal Affairs”
Yes, “most” remakes suck… but guess what, “most” movies (original or remakes) suck in general anyway.
Give me one good reason why they shouldn’t make a remake? If the story is good, why not attempt an English version to share? Name ONE SINGLE drawback to making a remake. Go.
Why a remake, the german one was a raw example of a briliant thriller. Adrien Brody is good , and i think he will play the part well but will it not end up to be The Jacket 2 for him. The Jacket sucked, lets hope that hollywood doenst screw up another classic.
John – if you saw the original one you would agree this will end up to be a bad movie or at least a waste of a big budget.
Hey Kevin,
What the hell are you talking about?!?! I mean, you’re totally entitled to your opinion, but tell me one thing so far (cause all we know right now is the cast) that points to this being a bad movie?
I saw “Das Experiment” years ago and I thought it was an excellent thriller. Unfortunately, as Johns says, if you haven’t seen it by now, you probably have never heard of it and are never going to see it.
When I first saw it, I tried to persuade a lot of friends to watch it but 0% of them did. Maybe they were put off by a foreign language film or couldn’t be bothered. Nonetheless, an English Language remake (which I hope will be done well) would do the original justice and might just encourage others to see the original.
Vanilla sky comes to mind, which many of you may already know was a remake of the Spanish original ‘Open your Eyes’.
I really want to use The Jacket for this example. That movie also sucked big time by being too much hollywood. I just want to say – I know this from the start that i wont work. You dont touch good movies that dont need a remake. Movies like Halloween or Friday the 13th – Oké, But i dont want to see Der Untergang to be remade with Christopher Lee as freaking Hitler. It just wont work.
What the hell, John, you can’t read so subtitles are a problem to you? :)
Just watch the original.
Huggy,
I watch tons of subtitled movies… but MOST PEOPLE DON’T. The vast majority of people don’t.
And since it’s not like it’s in theaters, none of them will ever see it. So there is nothing but up side potential for a North American remake.
> just deal with the subtitles en enjoy the original.
But it’s not in Engrish!!1!
Dumb idea, just deal with the subtitles en enjoy the original.