Saturday, September 08, 2007

Movie Remakes, Evolution, Cycles.....

I can often be heard complaining, "Why do they produce so many movie remakes? A blindfolded person could go into any library, pick out four books at random and find four new plots for movies. Why are we subjected to remakes, sometimes even more than one remake?"

My most recent complaint came up as I looked at our cinema's current listings:

"3:10 to Yuma - For Pete's sake! That was a crusty old western. Why did they need to remake that one? And Russell Crowe is nobody's idea of a character from the old west....(grumble grumble).....His face is too podgy. The old west needs craggy, lean and mean, they didn't have McDonald's and high fructose corn syrup in those days!"

HeWhoKnows sighs patiently and says, "$$$$$$$."

"But.....but..."

I decided to ask Google, who landed me upon a site which had nothing to do with Hollywood.
Science Daily. Extract from "Life - the Remake".

"If the history of life were to play out again from the beginning, it would have a similar plot and outcomes, although with a different cast and timing, argues UC Davis paleontologist Geerat Vermeij in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Evolution at this level, like the rest of history, is predictable, perhaps more predictable than people want to imagine," Vermeij said. "Many traits are so advantageous under so many circumstances that you are likely to see the same things again and again..........Vermeij argues that some innovations, such as photosynthesis, plant seeds, mineralized bones and even human language are just such good ideas that they would reappear, although at different times and in somewhat different forms."

After reading this, I started thinking about astrology, then I managed to answer my own question.

We are made up of cycles, here on Earth. Everything is a cycle. I ought not to be surprised about remakes. They will be as inevitable a part of life on Earth as the turning of the clock or the seasons, or the Moon's waxing and waning. Hollywood moguls probably don't realise exactly why, of course, all they care about are the $$$$$.

Planetary cycles often bring with them a remake of our own life story, especially in the case of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto cycles. Our lifestyles can be remade, our life stories re-written - different cast, different setting, variations in plot, but with us always in the starring role.

To be fair, some movie remakes, like some planetary cycles, have been worth sitting through. Bringing a classic story such as "Ben Hur" up to date for a new generation, with modern technology, bigger screen, and technicolor was well worthwhile, back in the early 1960s. I'd feel pretty annoyed though if they tried to produce yet another version of it.

I'd be miffed to have to live through another Pluto to Venus transit, too!

Enough is enough, after all.

2 comments:

  1. There's even a remake of Hairspray...well, it needed it.

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  2. Did it? I didn't see the old version. The new movie was quite a curiosity in itself. John Travolta playing a woman - it reminded me of British pantomime.
    Good fun.

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