Subject: Remaking films: Never a good idea, period.
Claim:

1) There has never been a good remake. Every time a director tries to remake a film, they try to contrast with the old film by showing how society is different today (whether consciously or subconsciously), and it ends up being their personal gripe with society instead of a tribute to a classic.

2) Actors generally try to play the characters from the original movie, when the script is calling for a different person entirely.

3) Hollywood can’t come up with any new ideas, so they use ideas over and over until the audience is tired of them. (Sometimes a movie has been remade 4 times!!)

Evidence: “Around the World in 80 days”. This is a horrible remake.

” “Around the World in 80 Days” is the realization that we live in more violent times in 2004 than we did in 1956…” (Ventre)

Clearly the aim of the film was to entertain with action, but it also made the suttle claim that the world is not a safe place!

Assumption: A sampling of remakes will stand as a good example for all remakes.

Subject: Remakes are a good thing for society.

Claim:

1) Updating classic films with more current attitudes and beliefs makes them more understandable for the public.

2) Remakes are a tribute to classic films, and they keep them alive for new generations.

3) Actors can look at how the original movie played out, and try their own twist on the characters to make the movie different and fresh, while keeping with the original themes.

Evidence: “Scarface” is a remake of a 1936 film about gangs, but to update the movie, Al Pacino plays a Cuban drug lord. It is an entirely different take on what it means to be a “gang”, but it made for a better movie because people could relate to it. (Especially if they were keeping up with the most recent episodes of Miami Vice!)

Assumptions: All remakes are intended to honor an older film by updating it so that the public can relate.