I recognise the songs

 

West Side Story

1961

A December 20th article in The Guardian asks the Headline Question,

Have we witnessed the death of the Hollywood remake?

some Reader Comments

~  It was always a risk to make something that in the first incarnation was pretty much pure style.

Remakes tend to be more about the story than style.

~  The original West Side Story does not play well to the younger generation -- my 14-year-old loved the new one though.

~  The problem with West Side Story is it's old fashioned.  I know it was heralded as a great musical and the original film was good but the young generation are not interested in something that basically is a million miles from life today.

~  I wanna see this but will wait.  My mum played the soundtrack when she cooked.  I recognise the songs.

The original was on TV a couple of Christmases ago.  I put it on and from the opening shot above New York, looking down on the grid of streets with the sounds rising up then to the introductory first number my kids were transfixed.  

        They didn't know what they were watching, they couldn't comprehend this idea of a serious musical on screen.

~  There are apparently only seven plots in the world, so how "fresh" is any drama?

~  Surely the pandemic and streaming services have changed everything.

Cinema is going to really struggle this decade and there may not be many left by the end of it.  Certainly the big chains are going to struggle.  Small independents that still offer an experience (and a drink) will probably survive.  That's probably a good thing.

~  The neoliberal world has produced plenty of money but little artistic creativity in film.  Layers of management dictate what gets made and keeping the narrative within politically safe parameters shuts out differences in expression.  

        Films are endlessly rearranging the past and preventing the future from being born.

~  What about the 1970s?

~  Hollywood has been bereft of new ideas for 20 years.

~  Not to mention that movies actually used to look like something, now it's almost all CGI to the point of absurdity.  Look at the remake of "Murder on the Orient Express."  At least "Harry Potter" used a real train.

        I think the golden age of movies is the mid 50s to the mid 90s.  Big screens, big film, no CGI.  Sets were actually built, not conceived, and there was craftsmanship involved, not just technical skills no matter how impressive they are.

~  You could be describing the golden era of music as well, for probably the same reasons.

~  I'm not complaining.  My wife and daughter have gone to see it, leaving me to watch football catch-ups over a couple of pints

~  The simple truth is it will always be less risky to the investor's mind to back a remake than an original.

Which is why we get so much utter crap.

~  The average person who would go to see this is also not likely to go to the cinema at the moment.  Young people aren't interested in West Side Story or Steven Spielberg.

~  Young people don't go to the cinema.  They watch Youtube while TikToking on their phone and washing their hair.

~  The film world has been a regurgitator of old tat for a long time now.

~  It's about time, Broadway take note.  It's been a model used far too long.  Where's the newness and originality of today.  Let's hope that it changes.....how many years of the Lion King for example.

~  21st century Hollywood movies are created by shallow, greedy people (producers) whose only concern is how to make a profit.  Their goal is not to create great art or even good entertainment.  

They have contempt for their customers and continually underestimate our intelligence.  

They think, "This crap is good enough for the peasants."  

Occasionally, one of these films turns out to be quite good due to the covert efforts of the director and the editor, underlings who struggle to do good work without having their spirits crushed by their mercenary bosses.  

You can see the results if you scroll through the offerings on streaming movie channels:  99% of the films available are crap, just as the producers intended.

~  I'm not interested in remakes and the words 'movie franchise' make me grit my teeth.

~  "Have we witnessed the death of the Hollywood remake?"

No.  Next.

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