by Shonokin » Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:16 pm
I agree David.
I think "new adaptation" is fitting. The title of the article I posted the link from says it's about a "remake" of Hitch's THE BIRDS when in fact it sounds like it is a new adaptation of the original short story. That is different.
Van Sant could have made a new adaptation of Bloch's PSYCHO but he definitely opted for the cheap imitation of Hitch's movie.
I don't mind homages if they're good, as mentioned before in this thread stuff like Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars or personally I like Last Man Standing quite a bit.
As to the idea of remakes not making a difference to anyone, of course they do for all the reasons mentioned already. The more Van Sant PSYCHO type movies there are out there, the less the newer generations know about the Hitch PSYCHO type movies. I think it's a shame. And I'll never say oh well it doesn't affect me. In the end I think it affects everybody whether they realize it or not.
There's already so many people with no clue who Hitch is, it's mind numbing and horrifying. Not really because they don't know who HE is in particular but because that means they likely have no idea about any director or movie they haven't seen on youtube. That is a loss of a part of our culture. In the cosmic scheme of things it's not that important, there are cultures actually losing their languages at an incredible rate. That is of more cultural value than old movies for sure, but it's STILL a piece of our culture, no matter how inconsequential.