There'll be another one along in a minute (a remake, that is).

As I've opined before, "a blindfolded person could go into any library, pick out four books at random and find four pretty good new plots for movies. Why are we so regularly subjected to remakes, sometimes even more than one remake?"

There is a reasonable argument to be made that many movie or TV remakes focus on true classics of fiction, stories which would be more easily accepted by new generations of viewers if produced using all benefits of modern technology, modern production values and modern sensibilities. Although....overlaying an original time-line's sensibilities, which must have played deeply into the stories is likely to skew results in ways never envisioned by the stories' authors, decades or centuries ago.

Each year brings another crop of remakes - or at least brings a new crop to the notice of this blogger. We've recently watched a mini-series remake of Anne of Green Gables, re-titled Anne with an E. The famous children's novels from 1908, by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery are source material. Never having read the original set of books, and never having seen any earlier film or TV versions, the stories were new to me. When something like this happens, I feel less annoyed about remakes, but only for a short time. When I recall that someone, not too long ago, had the nerve to re-make Ben Hur (again), my ultra critical mode returns.


I've read that a remake of the movie "Beaches" is in the works, "for a new generation". Sigh. My comment to husband - "If they dare to omit Wind Beneath My Wings the film will flop - and will richly deserve to do so! Also in the wings, or already airing somewhere on TV or streaming, are remakes of Dirty Dancing and The Handmaid's Tale.

Here on Earth, all things are cyclic. I ought not to be surprised, or annoyed 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 stories, especially in the case of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto cycles. Our own lifestyles can be remade, our life stories re-written with different cast, different setting, variations in plot, but with us in the starring role. I can attest to this, personally!

Re-inventing the Wheel - or Ourselves?

The friends that have it I do wrong
When ever I remake a song,
Should know what issue is at stake:
It is myself that I remake.
( William Butler Yeats)

So....Walt Disney Studios have dredged up and dusted down the Lone Ranger and Tonto ? They have, quite rightly, faced some criticism for casting Johnny Depp as Tonto . If they'd wanted a big name star to "put bums on seats", why didn't they cast Depp as the Lone Ranger, for goodness sake, and choose from hundreds of available bona fide Native American actors to play Tonto?

I recall reading in a local newspaper, some time before the movie was released, that Johnny Depp had visited a town here in Oklahoma, about a half hour drive from us, and had met with some Comanche tribe leaders. They gave him, his makeup and costumes their approval, I understand. Whether they were being polite and kind as most Okies naturally are - and didn't want to upset their visitor isn't clear.

I wonder whether kids of today will enjoy the film as much as kids of yesteryear enjoyed the tales of Lone Ranger and Tonto? I somehow doubt it, but suspect many cinema seats will be filled by parents and grandparents enjoying a spot of nostalgia.

Remakes: love 'em or hate 'em, they're with us always. There's another on the horizon now : John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Stephen Spielberg is attempting to secure the rights to produce a remake of the 1940 movie, though he has said he would not be directing a remake. I'm not sure what to think about this. Part of me wants the old classic left alone, but part of me realises that younger generations, used to top class cinematography, CGI etc. may not wish to watch a creaky old film from 1940. It's a story which deserves - demands - telling and re-telling though.....as long as it's done properly, with the right actors. Unknown or little-known actors would be best, I think - big starry names could kill it, or worse, draw ridicule towards it.

No movie, however well-made could ever equal the pull of emotion found on the page in the words of John Steinbeck:

The two men squat on their hams and the women and children listen. Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlarge of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate--"We lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we" there grows a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If from this problem the sum is "We have a little food," the thing is on its way, the movement has direction.

Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket - take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb.This is the beginning--from "I" to "we."

If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive.But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezesyou forever into "I," and cuts you off forever from the "we."

And

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Christmas the Re-Make

Christmas. It's one giant re-make really isn't it? We follow roughly the same pattern, year in, year out, with tweaks here and tweaks there to adjust our mistakes in former versions of the celebration. Eg: decide not to give auntie Sylivia so much sherry this year; leave the turkey roasting for an exta hour; make sure the tree is firmly anchored so as not to fall over - again; wear layers you can discard without appearing to attempt a seasonal striptease.....and do not, under any circumstances mention "you know what"!

I can often be heard complaining of movies and TV, "Why do they produce so many movie remakes?" A person wearing blindfold 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? Just the other day I read of an upcoming remake of Dickens' Great Expectations (and, hellfire! They've changed the ending!)

Here on Earth, living creatures, trees, plants, climate, and the old spinning rock itself could be said to be the product of cycles and re-makes. Everything is a cycle, many things are re-makes. I ought not to be surprised about movie and TV remakes. They are as inevitable a part of life on Earth as the turning of the hands of a clock or the run of seasons, Christmas - and the Moon's waxing and waning. Hollywood moguls probably don't realise this, of course, all they care about are the $$$$$$$.

Planetary cycles, especially those of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, often bring along a remake of one's own life story, and - back to the current season - the kind of Christmas each year brings. Hoping that passing readers experience a good re-make this time around. If, for any reason Christmas turns out to be less than magical this year, we always know that there'll be another re-make along in 12 short months.

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.