Modernize - Blog Posts
To remake, or to definitely not remake
Films that just remake the original (Red Dawn 2012), I don’t see the point of, why wouldn’t I just watch the original? Yes, sometimes we get confused because we’re stuck in our modern world (when first seeing a Walk to Remember—it never made sense why the doctors gave up so easily but I figured it was just what’s “in the script”, until I learned that the original story was set in the 1950s). Remakes that take the older film (Dial M for Murder, Rear Window) and bring it into a new time with technological or societal, or political changes (A Perfect Murder, Disturbia) are not ripping off the ideas of the original but re-creating it.
I did not see Dial M for Murder and A Perfect Murder on the same night as usual with remakes but over the same weekend, giving time to reset my mind and put the movies as their own. In Dial M for murder, the husband’s plans are set in motion because he discovers his wife’s affair and doesn’t want to lose his lifestyle as he has just retired and feels betrayed. The resolution mostly happens because the husband messes up, not because of the watch or even that the wife lives, that he clears up pretty quickly—and even confuses leads the wife into giving confusing information so she looks guilty (whether intentional or not). But with ample opportunity, he doesn’t clean up the messes he could have changed, that would have let him get away. This is the same with A Perfect Murder, where with a little more patience, the husband would have gotten away with it.
In A Perfect Murder while the affair is still an issue, the main reason for the murder for the husband is his money issues at work, not really caring about his wife’s betrayal but as a way to come off clean about the murder. An added level that I didn’t care for (thou mostly out of pity for the wife—thou I guess she doesn’t deserve it) is in A Perfect Murder, her boyfriend gets involved while in Dial M for Murder he fights and fights to clear her name. What I do like, is that while in Dial M for Murder the police mainly figure out what happened, in A Perfect Murder the wife figures it out—saving herself twice.
Neither movie would be the same without the aspect of the key as the switcheroo, as both were simple and, I believe, brilliant stories. In the remake, there were the updates and changes of cellphones, characters’ intention and how the crime was solved—but the main thrill and suspense was kept, but this doesn’t always happen. I’ve seen both Red Dawns, 1984 and 2012 and I didn’t really understand the point of a remake. It’s not updated to a modern time and while the characters have more camaraderie, there is also less story, somehow. It’s just not worthy of a remake, and many agree.
PS-- I love how we know everything, but don’t know how it will all piece together or turn out