On Remakes and Lesser Known War Movies
From Suicide Girl News: Brad Pitt wants to channel Steve McQueen in a remake of Bullitt. I agree that it’s a bad idea. Remakes are a bad idea in general, and revisiting McQueen specifically requires a lot of chutzpah. Can you think of any remakes that are better than the original? I’m sure there are some, just as there are a handful of movies whose sequel outstrips the first (Godfather Part II), and even a few third movies that are the pick of the litter (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Off the top of my head, though, I can’t think of one movie substantively improved by a remake.
At the end of the Suicide Girls piece, the author notes that many may not even have seen the McQueen movie from which his nickname is taken. It made me realize that there are a few great war movies that don’t make the top 100 lists, yet which I’ve appreciated far more than I did the carnage-strewn Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, or Saving Private Ryan.
Three Unsung War Movies:
The Great Escape: great ensemble cast, unforgettable theme song, and the origin of The Cooler King, a critical piece of filmic cultural literacy.
Stalag 17: Surprisingly, NOT the basis for Hogan’s Heroes, whose creators were sued over similarities, and won. Holden thought his character was too cynical, but he won an Oscar for the role.
The Thin Red Line: Terence Malick’s beautiful filmic meditation on the brutal rift that war creates between humanity and nature.
July 12th, 2007 at 6:17 am
i generally do not like remakes that much either. but i love the pierce brosnan/rene russo “Thomas Crown Affair”. love it a lot.
and for war movies: how about “Casualties of War”. i remember really thinking that was good. although i do like platoon and FMJ, i think war IS carnage, i didn’t really like SPR.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Is that the one with Michael J Fox? Thomas Crown Affair was pretty fun, but I didn’t love either the original or the remake, just liked them both.