TinnedGoods.com Article Criticizing American Remakes

[abner_mohl]

http://tinnedgoods.com/2010/11/11/u-s-a ... aptations/

U.S.A. & The League of Adaptations
I Want You...r Creative Ideas

Something always puzzles me, and probably always will. Why on Earth do those working on American TV and film feel compelled to adapt the brilliance of foreign on-screen ventures and make either inferior or identical versions for themselves?

Over the years the targets have largely been the Far East and Great Britain. Films including The Departed, The Ring and Dark Water were Hollywood makeovers of Far Eastern films Infernal Affairs, Ring and the Japanese film of the same name respectively.

When it comes to the UK, sitcoms are by and large what the Yanks try to nab, with varying degrees of success. The most successful piece of cross-Atlantic thievery came with The Office: An American Workplace. If you need to be told what this is an adaptation of, then you’re thick or having a bad day. Albeit, original writer Ricky Gervais did have a hand in the adaptation, you have to question the need for American networks to replicate the show rather than take a deep breath and actually air the original in a primetime slot and give it a decent amount of marketing.

Of course, this never really happens. American TV is exactly that – schedules almost exclusively consisting of American TV. This criticism is not borne out of jealousy because British TV cannot dream to lay out equivalent claims, in a fairly cosmopolitan world surely we can all learn to appreciate foreign productions, even if we have to read subtitles, especially when we don’t?

Let’s not as Brits pretend to be entirely innocent, but the difference is we appear to engage in entertaining influence rather than sheer mimicry. Recent British sitcom The Trip hints of inspiration from Curb Your Enthusiasm in a world where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play themselves in a semi-fictional world in the same vein as Larry David, the difference being that their programme does not build up to farcical embarrassing situations throughout the episode, nor does Steve Coogan inspect the visage of suspicious characters before saying ‘Okay’ and wandering off.

Many would argue that cult hit and personal favourite Being Human was produced off the back of the vampire phenomenon struck up by the likes of Twilight, True Blood et al and they would have a point. Take into consideration that British TV has never really produced a Buffy type TV show for the 18-30 year-old market then we can see a lot of American influence. However, Being Human is rife with reference to British pop culture and is a lot more original than the majority of supernatural dramas doing the rounds.

The irony of comparing Being Human to American drama? It is in the process of being adapted for American channel Syfy with Mark Pellegrino (Jacob from Lost) included in the cast. An American adaptation of a British show with some American influences. Just watch the original series, yeah?

Go to the cinema now and you will see another American adaptation of a foreign production featuring vampires: Let Me In. By all accounts it’s rather good, but Swedish original Let The Right One In is a contender for the greatest vampire film of all time, and was released a whole two years ago. Simon Oakes, the producer of the remake said

The story was so great, so beautiful, that it should be seen by a bigger audience. So I was always saying to myself, people in Manhattan have seen it…in New York, in Chicago, in Chelsea, in Notting Hill, in London but no one in Glasgow or Edinburgh or Bristol or Idaho or Pittsburgh has seen this film…Then it came down to, how do you achieve that? By paying homage to the original.

It is indeed a powerful argument that with American finances, marketing power and command of audience that more people will be familiarised with John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel and the original. The problem I have with this is that as producers, writers, directors etc. of fictional material, surely there is a pressure to keep things fresh and original. Oakes’ quotes are incredibly ignorant of foreign culture considering he assumes that this film was somehow considerably less accessible in Glasgow or Edinburgh than London, as if these two cities are cultural vacuums. Producing this film will extend awareness of the story but surely he and the studios involved wanted to cash in on the vampire wave, and couldn’t be arsed to think something original up themselves.

This is for our arthouse-loving brothers!

Is the need to continuously reproduce foreign films a self-perpetuating process? Hollywood believes that American audiences can’t take films with subtitles, notices a good production elsewhere and tries to cash in with little creative effort. American audiences aren’t exposed to culturally diverse content, rely on big-budget American productions for entertaining content and struggle to build more cosmopolitan tastes. Repeat cycle.

The argument about remakes reared its necessarily ugly head again recently. Fittingly objections came from a Swedish director, Niels Arden Oplev who slammed the prospect of forthcoming Hollywood remake of his film Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with the remake being directed by David Fincher. Oplev said

I know a lot of Academy members have seen the film and liked it because every time I go to LA I meet so many people who have seen my version of it. Even in Hollywood there seems to be a kind of anger about the remake, like, ‘Why would they remake something when they can just go see the original?’ Everybody who loves film will go see the original one.

In an ideal artistic world the praise from academy members would lead to some fruition, but Oplev shouldn’t hold his breath. A foreign language film has never won Best Picture at the Oscars, which is pretty appalling when you consider that these are awards supposedly decided based on merit rather than an X Factor style phone-in. In 2003 the incredible Brazilian film, City of God was not even nominated for Best Picture, apparently an inferior effort to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Seabiscuit. In 2006 Pan’s Labyrinth was not deemed worthy of a Best Picture nomination. The winner that year? The Departed.

Surely so many Americans feel heavily patronised by the awful idea that they can only appreciate things produced by their compatriots? British channels are not awash with foreign language productions, but we do not seem to feel the need to adapt everything foreign and successful either. If BBC tried to recreate House, Lost or The Wire surely this would be greeted with immense incredulity?

It is often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. People are often wrong. Citing something as an influence is probably the highest form of flattery, blatant unapologetic imitation is plagiarism.

[wolfshadow]

I do agree with quite a few parts of this. I think that Hollywood would do well to try to curb the television and remake craze they seem to be stuck in. I think part of the problem comes from the need for everything to make money and its success being based on how much money it makes. Since movie making is definitely a for profit business, what makes more sense for them - creating a localized version of a movie or show that was proven successful elsewhere or taking a risk on a new idea that is unproven? This is also a big reason for the onslaught of needless sequels *did we really need a 3d Jackass?*

There is one argument for remakes that I do agree with, that it can help the original material reach a wider audience. Some of my favorite films in the last 10 years were introduced to me due to the remade version first. Some of the others were due to me looking for films similar to the originals of the remakes I had watched.

While I can certainly see a good reason for remakes, it sure would be nice for a good movie that comes from a slightly original idea for once.