Saturday, February 26: Mississippi Mud
THE SAME OLD STORY
by John M. Floyd
Something that we don’t often see is a rewritten version of a previously published novel or short story. (It does happen, of course: one example is the longer edition of Stephen King’s The Stand, which appeared twelve years after the original.) But a remake of an old movie is a common occurrence these days, especially with the advent of special effects that were unavailable in the past. Also, I’m sure there are folks in Hollywood who think it’s easier and cheaper to piggyback on an already proven idea than to have to come up with something new. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strangely), these second efforts often fail to match the originals.
Anyhow, I thought it might be interesting—or at least a different path down Memory Lane—to take a look at a few remakes.
Note: Some movies have different titles but the same storylines. I think three of the best of these were Heaven Can Wait (made from Here Comes Mr. Jordan), The Magnificent Seven (from Seven Samurai), and You’ve Got Mail (from The Shop Around the Corner); but others less well known are Pale Rider (suspiciously similar to Shane), Last Man Standing (from A Fistful of Dollars, which was itself a remake of Yojimbo), The Last Samurai (Dances With Wolves in the Far East), and Outland (High Noon in outer space). The remakes in the following list are those that kept the same, or almost the same, titles.
Remember these . . . ?
Not as good as the originals:
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
The Getaway (1993)
Lost Horizon (1973)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Sabrina (1995)
The Poseidon Adventure (2005)
Psycho (1998)
Breathless (1983)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Stagecoach (1966)
The Time Machine (2002)Better than, or at least as good as (*), the originals:
True Grit (2010)
The Thing (1982)
Cape Fear (1991)*
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Cat People (1982)*
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)*
King Kong (2005)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
As always, these are my opinions only. I know folks who think the 1998 version of The Thin Red Line and the 1933 version of King Kong were among the best movies ever. I don’t.
One more thing: the films I’ve listed are those that I’ve seen and remember well. Other remakes (The Lady Vanishes, The Omen, The Hitcher, Rollerball, Mister Roberts, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Vanishing Point, On the Beach, The Longest Yard, Alfie, The Karate Kid, Miracle on 34th Street, etc.) are as yet unwatched by me—but they’d have to be pretty good to surpass the originals. I also didn’t include any movie versions of TV series.
I hope all this brings back some memories. What are some of the movie remakes that you enjoyed? Did any of them make you want to stand up and cheer? Did any make you want to dig out that barf bag that you saved from flying Delta? Can you think of some films that should be remade, but haven’t? Maybe the second (or third) time is the charm.
Usually, though, I think it’s better to leave well enough alone.
John,
I agree with the parts of your lists that I’ve seen, but I’d add The Shining as a movie whose remake didn’t come near the original. It wasn’t that the remake wasn’t well done–just that the original was so far superior. Your lists brought back memories of when and where (and with whom) I’d seen most of them. Good way to start a Saturday morning!
fran
Fran, you’re right: The Shining (mostly because of Jack Nicholson) would’ve been hard to match, although I thought even the original movie wasn’t quite as good as the novel. (I’m a Stephen King fan, through and through.)
JLW also mentioned King Solomon’s Mines and Tarzan and the Apes–those remakes didn’t hit the spot either.
If you are going to count “suspiciously close”
you might want to include the Coen’s Miller’s Crossing and The Glass Key. The Coen’s film was MUCH better.
Today must be movie day in the blogosphere. Patti Abbott has a post on the Best Supporting Actor nominees with a great link to previous winners.
On Women of Mystery I have a link to a New York Times article that claims (cross your fingers) that Hollywood is beginning to realize that they shouldn’t ignore the older moviegoers and are starting to produce movies to attract us into the theaters.
BTW, I just read your story, “Where’s Emily” in the Feb.21 issue of Woman’s World. It was a real treat.
Here are the links:
Patti
http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2011/02/best-supporting-actor.html
Terrie
http://www.womenofmystery.net/2011/02/hollywood-may-finally-be-catching-on.html
Terrie Farley Moran
Just to add my two cents. . . Much as I like Robert Mitchum, I was disappointed in the two British adaptations of THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL MY LOVELY. Both are sort of remakes of earlier noir versions, one with Bogart and the other with Dick Powell, both of which were better films.
Regarding “Cat People,” I recently held the two versions against each other. I fondly recalled the 1982 version with the Georgio Moroder soundtrack, the hallucinogenic filmwork, the David Bowie theme song, and most importantly, the seductive Nastassja Kinski. (And while I’ve always appreciated the film work of the earlier team of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur, their movies always put me to sleep).
Imagine my surprise when I found that the 1942 version of Cat People held up much better than the 1982 version. The script was more intelligent, and Simone Simon was fantastic. Moreover, I stayed awake.
Rob and Steve — Good points! As it turns out, I wound up overlooking several remakes.
As for Cat People, there were things I really liked about the old AND the new versions. I will say, though, that the ’82 version was mucho spooky. The opening credits alone were enough to scare me silly.
John, you make me realize how many good movies I’ve yet to see!
I happened to prefer the most recent version of The Thomas Crown Affair, probably because of the plot update.
I like Ira Levin stories (especially This Perfect Day), and while I can’t say I preferred the remake of The Stepford Wives, I appreciated it for what it was.
I have mixed feelings about a couple of other films, each with four versions.
I liked some of the remakes of (Invasion of) The Body Snatchers. I also liked some of the remakes of I am Legend, especially Charlton Heston’s Omega Man, which not only radically changed the story, but slipped in religious symbolism at the end.
Finally, I liked the remake of Red Dragon (Manhunter) at least as much as the original.
I wish it had occurred to me to mention Red Dragon, Leigh. There are parts of the original version (Manhunter) that I enjoyed a lot, especially the scene with William Petersen and Dennis Farina when Petersen is watching the home videos and finally puts all the clues together — but I think the remake is probably the better film. Especially the surprise ending.
As for Thomas Crown, I think the reasons I so love the first (1968) version are (1) McQueen, (2) Faye Dunaway, and (3) the fantastic soundtrack. I’m a sucker for great music in a movie. But I think almost everyone but me prefers the Brosnan/Russo remake.
As Fran said, any discussion of movies makes me recall when and where and with whom I first saw them.
Thanks, Terrie — I’m on my way to check out those links.
(Thank you also for the kind words about my Woman’s World story last week. Glad you liked it!)
Can’t wait to see the Oscar show . . .
John, you said Sabrina (1995) is not as good as the original, and I agree with you.
EXCEPT for the score. You know who scored the remake, right? If you don’t already own the soundtrack album, try to get it. It’s stunning.
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrina-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B000002G4G/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1298806003&sr=1-1
You are correct, Josh — the Sabrina remake’s soundtrack is outstanding, and yep, I remember who did it. I’m a fellow John Williams fan. Another movie I remember not liking was Seven Years in Tibet, but Williams’ music made it entertaining.
I was also surprised when I realized Williams wrote the scores for Valley of the Dolls, Jane Eyre, Goodbye Mr. Chips, SpaceCamp, Home Alone, etc. They aren’t his best-known achievements, but his music’s always great.
Funny you should mention HOME ALONE, John. The limited expanded soundtrack album was released by La La Land Records just last year! One might easily think this is a silly kid’s movie (and in a way it is), but John Williams’s music is really incredible. Wonderful Tchaikovsky-inspired Christmassy score . . . I recommend this to anybody who enjoys good (orchestral) music!
http://www.lalalandrecords.com/HomeAlone.html
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the new Karate Kid and how good it was!
Glad to hear you say that, Jeff — as a result, it’s now in my Netflix queue.
I’ve always thought taht any list of bad remakes of good movies is incomplete without The Longest Yard.
The original, with Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert, was a real crowd-pleaser in 1974 (I think) because it had characters you could care about, both positively and negatively.
Adam Sandler’s redo of 20whatever (I can’t recall and I don’t feel like looking it up) followed the original, structure-wise, but everyone (including Reynolds, incredibly enough) was just phoning it in. My friends called it “The Longest Yard Telethon”.
Mike, that one will NOT be in my Netflix queue. Thanks for the info — I sort of suspected it’d be a stinker, but you verified that.
What about WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)? I kind of like this one . . . and not just because of John Williams’s nerve-jangling score. I think this movie is underrated, and certainly a lot better than THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008). The original movie THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953), while good, does appear a bit dated by today’s standards, especially the special effects.
Man I can’t believe I forgot War of the Worlds. Yep, I liked the remade version a lot more than the original, even though I thought it had a few slow parts in the last half. You guys are reminding me of some darn good movies that I didn’t even think about.