Note to Self: Rethink Remakes/Recommend Red Dawn

Hey reader!

You’re probably expecting this to be an intelligent rant about how Hollywood is running out of ideas. You probably want me patronize you with nostalgic references to cinema classics like Gone with the Wind, Star Wars, the Godfather, Lord of the Rings, and a maybe few underrated independent films for all my hipsters out there. I could ooze disgust at this current era of 80s movie remakes that tend to make movies like Footloose seem like High School Musical. I could encourage you to join me in a mass boycott of any and all remakes, re-releases, and 3D touch-ups.

I could do all of that, but I’m not going to. A month ago, I would have, and I probably would have received the metaphorical pat-on-the-back from the people who actually read my blog. However, I just realized something a couple weeks ago that made me take a step back, made me realize how far I had lodged my head up my ass.

So let’s talk about Oliver & Company. It’s a great cartoon movie by Disney that makes the story of little Oliver Twist digestible for young children. Oliver is a tabby cat, and the Artful Dodger (“the Dodge”) is a streetwise mutt who runs a rag-tag gang of canine pick-pockets. If you were born in the late 80s or later, this was probably one of the first videos that your parents bought you.

I remember seeing this movie in theaters with my dad. It was one of those special moments that aren’t necessarily important, but they stick out in your mind for some reason. In the haze of my early childhood memories, I clearly remember my dad and I  sitting in the top row (the best row) of the Gahanna Cinema 16, watching the lovable characters getting in and out of scrapes and singing fun songs along the way. I complained that a particular scene from the previews was nowhere in the movie (don’t give me that look), and my dad laughed at my precociousness. We purchased the video, of course, but this is how I remember watching that movie.

I was perusing Yahoo! News a couple weeks ago, reading a scintillating article about the hottest cat names of 2012, when they mentioned the name “Oliver” was fading out of style. However, it was once popular after the 1988 release of Oliver & Company.

Pause.

It couldn’t have been released in 1988, because I wasn’t even born yet! I turned to Wikipedia for some back-up only to find that, though the movie was released in theaters in 1996, its original release was in 1988.

And there it was. One of my favorite childhood memories was the result of a re-release. I wasn’t devestated, but it did make me think twice about cursing remakes and re-releases as a way for studio execs to make money by resting on their laurels.

Don’t get me wrong; that is true. However, movie-goers who are too young to remember the originals don’t know that. Who am I to criticize their chance to go to a theater with their family and see a great movie? Something I was able to do as a child.

And while we’re talking about remakes, let’s just acknowledge the fact that almost everything is a remake, even our so-called classics. For instance, Pyramus and Thisbe is an ancient story about two lovers from warring families who die due to an unfortunate misunderstanding when they were trying to elope. This story was re-told countless times until it became Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet. This was re-told  until it became West Side Story. Piggy-backing on that theme, you get Grease and  High School Musical. This is just one example, but take a classic from any generation, and you’ll find that it is simply a tale retold. If it didn’t come from a book, it came from another movie, which may have come from a book/short story/poem/play.

Most societies have now adopted writing systems to record their history, but I think that humans remain fascinated with the oral tradition. Civilizations that depended on oral history would train storytellers to remember cultural epics word-for-word until they could recite them by heart and pass it on to the next generation. That’s how you get the Odyssey or the Illiad from a blind poet. Our ancestors considered storytelling the best way to pass down their history or to teach values that were important in that culture. If a new event or idea surfaced in the cultural conscience, it was added to the storytellers’ tradition and passed on.

Movies are our new storytellers. Though you get occasional sparks of creativity and ingenuity, you still have to sit through countless retellings of stories your parents remember hearing. I’m starting to think this isn’t such a bad thing. Moreover, I would posit that you need the countless retellings to initiate that spark of creativity, because maybe creativity isn’t creating something out of nothing. Maybe it’s just using the materials you were given in a way that nobody else thought of before. Each story gets retold, edited, and passed on until it becomes a thing that stands alone from its original. It’s the main theme of the universe: energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed and re-used.

So is Hollywood going through a creative famine? No. From the inception of the film industry, for every Gone with the Wind, you still had countless crap. And when it comes to remakes, ask yourself: Am I upset that they’re remaking this, or am I afraid that they’re going to do a bad remake? (lookin at you, Footloose)

Do what you want: see the movie/don’t see the movie. But my early New Year’s resolution is to give remakes and re-releases a chance. Next April, yours truly will be going to see Jurassic Park…in 3D!

I had one more thing to say….What was it?

….

Oh yeah! “…/Recomend Red Dawn.”

I recommend Red Dawn. The remake. No, it’s not going to get an Oscar, but it is very entertaining and engaging. Josh (from those of you who remember the Nickelodeon show Drake and Josh) has shed some serious pounds and come into his own as an actor. He and Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor aka the hot blond guy) are believable as older brother and younger brother. Take your kids and see it.

Gypsy Out.