The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, too....2

I don't really know what this is but it's enough of a pop culture phenomenon to permeate past the rock that I live underneath and inspire a previous thread in which I made fun of the title.

Anyway, the critically acclaimed book turned critically acclaimed film is being remade by critically acclaimed director David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network).

With all that acclaim floating around am I the only one that is pissed off?

The phenomenon of Hollywood remaking foreign films for dumb Americans who can't understand subtitles or subtext is a longstanding tradition for those not clever enough to come up with their own ideas. Recently Hollywood has been so tapped for ideas that they decided to remake everything from the last 20 years up to the point where a successful movie needs to be redone again every three or 4 years now- a practice that has been almost universally panned by film critics.

So why the hell would one of the most creative directors of the past decade, whose last film was considered by many to be the best movie of last year, stoop to the lowest form of film making and rip off a movie that someone else allready made?

I'm reading the book right now, and I thought the first movie was just incredible. It really can't be outdone, and it shouldn't be made just so idiots don't have to read subtitles.

The director is good though, and it's going to be made anyways, so let's hope it's directed well and puts a new perspective on it. It's really unnecessary though, I completely agree with you.

I never saw the problem with remakes. A good story, concept, narrative... this takes its unique place in a culture or individual's mind when it is first conceived, or perceived. Once done, it cannot be done again by something else with the same impact; similar things will be compared against it, and even if they match the original's overall quality, they'll not match it's glory because that spot in our cultural frame of reference has been occupied before they got there.

Production skills and techniques, however, are interchangeable and develop rapidly... and when a concept that's had a big impact to you has been executed in a way that seems inadequate by current standards, that's painful. It feels like it deserves better than to suffer, even just relatively, from the time it was made in.

This might be difficult to relate to for people that aren't creatively active in the field in question, or otherwise... but I know from my own creative projects that once you start looking at something technically, you start seeing potential; a projection of an idea and all the things you know can be done to actualize it. When the discrepancy between that vision and reality grows too wide, and unfavorable towards the current reality of things? You can't just leave that alone. You have to make it happen. Especially if the concept is dear to you.

I imagine that's the driving force behind most art.

Whether you succeed in improving an existing work is another thing, of course, but beauty is always highly subjective and nothing should be lost if the new version doesn't appeal to some people. The point is that you're honoring the original work by not trying to replace the parts that don't need an update, while still lending your skills and resources to its greater aesthetic glory.

'Course, merely redoing a work in another language is rarely an improvement. You do have to have something to contribute beyond a larger audience.

I liked The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest better. Unfortunately, my dvd copies are dubbed into English already, makes me kind of sad. I don't go to movies any more anyway, so I would be pissed, but they're not getting my money anyway.