Why don’t you pass the time with a little solitaire?
I love cultural elitism. And you can find it in all its glory over at La Scena Musicale, where Norman Lebrecht discovers the wonders of DVD in Scenes From a Revolution
To have and to hold every film that guided your artistic and emotional maturation, through adolescence and beyond, is something many will find irresistible. Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Tarkovsky and the Ealing comedies are equally on offer. What was formerly part of a romanticised past, glimpsed infrequently on late-night TV, has become urgently present (perhaps the perfect present). The eternally elusive turns up in plastic boxes.
What this means, in cultural terms, is that film now takes its place beside literature, music and visual imagery as an art that can be owned and bookmarked. Where once you had to visit a cinema or spool through half a mile of clunky videotape in order to access a seminal scene in an essential movie, you now zone into it on DVD as quickly as finding a name in the index of an artist biography.
Granted, Lebrecht is a little bit behind the times – this kind of raving over DVD’s has been going on since well before the format even became available for public consumption. As the next big thing, DVD’s would make movies more affordable (which they have – slightly), make the release of older films easier (which they have – a cheap quality DVD is much more watchable than a cheap quality VHS ever was), make the home movie experience more exciting (commentaries and deleted scenes, anyone?), as well as making our teeth whiter, our girlfriends prettier, and our country stronger (well, you can’t have everything).
And this included talk about the boon DVD’s would provide to the academic study of film. No more cueing up videotapes or seeking out obscure films on 16mm prints for your basic film class, and no more VCR’s eating the school library’s last copy of Un Chien Andalou. Chapter markers and the less-fragile (though still somewhat fragile) media would make DVD’s a common part of classroom learning, while commentaries and special features could be used to add material of further academic value.
So Lebrecht may not be visionary. It’s hard to blame somebody for that when they’ve just finally caught up with the rest of us, however – we can forgive Lebrecht’s “Oo, shiny!” response.
What really caught my attention, however, was this segment:
It will, for instance, make it that much harder for Hollywood to remake its own milestones when half the world has the originals to hand for instant comparison. The Manchurian Candidate (1962), with its dream cast of Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh was unlikely to be bettered by Jonathan Demme’s 2004 reshoot with Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep. But if anyone had foreseen that the original DVD would be around in the public hands, Demme’s studio would never have raised the finance, let alone the enthusiasm, for an otiose update.
If you’re like me, you probably have to look up the word “otiose.” I did it for you. It means “producing no useful result,” “being at leisure,” and/or “lacking use or effect.” Those could also be re-stated as “futile,” “idle,” and “functionless,” according to Webster’s. But “otiose” sends people scurrying for dictionaries, so it must be the better word for this situation.
I will agree with Lebrecht that there are an awful lot of remakes out there that don’t live up to their originals. I’ve reviewed at least one such movie over at the Anvil & Sprocket. But I think his example is poorly chosen and his prediction is overly-optimistic. 2004’s The Manchurian Candidate is possibly one of the better remakes in recent memory and successfully updates what was an old-fashioned Cold War scare flick into a film that plays off of modern concerns without taking the obvious track. Viewed side by side, 1962’s and 2004’s Manchurian films stand as skillful suspense films and as a single document of the shift of social concerns in the four decades between their releases. Lebrecht’s view of the movie however gives away his prejudice with his statement that “its dream cast of Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh was unlikely to be bettered by Jonathan Demme’s 2004 reshoot with Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep.” Lebrecht doubtless knows that there are no good actors in Hollywood any more and that the only thing produced by the modern film industry is tepid pablum ready for consumption by the masses. Give us the good old days, dammit! I want to see Matlock! _Maaat_lock!
Okay. Maybe that last statement was a trifle unfair. But it was fun.
What Lebrecht has missed in coming late to the field of DVD praise is that Hollywood’s remake machine has exploded since DVD’s became the industry’s weapon of choice. What better way to make people buy the 1962 The Manchurian Candidate on DVD than to have a remake coming out in theatres? If anything, the prevalence of DVD fuels further remakes. Go to a studio, offer them a remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the dollar signs dance in their heads as they consider the money-making potential of your movie released to theatres combined with the release of a super-packed special edition of the original on DVD.
And it works on many levels. I own Willy Wonka on DVD and will eventually own Tim Burton’s version, as well. I own the first because it’s a part of my childhood and I bought it as soon as it hit DVD – and I may even invest the money in the new deluxe edition. The remake brought about the release of a new edition of a movie I loved, and tickets were sold to the remake and a DVD sold of the original.
At the same time, a rental of the remake of Rollerball sent me hustling to the store to pick up a copy of the original, hoping to erase the soulless action-packed, leather-clad redo from my mind and remember the solid acting James Caan brought to a movie that could have been another Charlton Heston disaster. I hated the remake and it inspired a desire to get and hold onto the original.
As more and more classic movies are slated for release to DVD, you can expect to see the number of remakes hitting the theatres to grow. It’s just good marketing.
By the way – speaking of remakes, you might want to check out Joss Whedon’s film remake of his own TV series. Serenity (rated a Keeper over at A&S) is the film based on the short-lived TV space western Firefly (also rated a Keeper – me likey the smart sci-fi). The TV series has been available for a good while on DVD, and while Serenity has disappeared from most theatres Universal has just announced that it will be released on DVD on December 20th.