Are We That Old?

A couple years ago I worked with a high school senior who informed me that he had never seen a movie made prior to 1998. Even his mother (my boss) told me that she had never gotten around to showing him The Wizard of Oz. How do you go through 18 years of life without seeing that movie? Anyway, over the last couple of decades there have been remakes of various movies, such Bye Bye Birdie (of which there is now supposed to be a third in 2011), Sabrina, Romeo and Juliet, The Parent Trap, Annie (DH & I differ on which of the two is better), The Phantom of the Opera (this one, however, I'm extremely glad they finally filmed as an ALW musical) and Father of the Bride, just to name some that come immediately to mind. Some of these movies received a more modern twist or even a new interpretation, and, admittedly, a few had numerous movie interpretations made, especially as technology improved (I'm talking the difference between silent films and "talkies," not black and white versus color). Not too long ago, DH informed me that Adventures in Babysitting is supposed to be remade, and I just learned that Zac Efron passed up the chance to star in a remake of Footloose. Now, I completely understand that the movie world has seen numerous advances in special effects, and even our reality lives have seen technological advances over the years (one can easily date a movie based on the size of a computer or cell phone, assuming either are even present), but there is something to be said about viewing a movie in its original format. If a producer really wants to "update" a movie, then make like LucasFilms and Paramount and re-edit whatever special effects you want.

Maybe DH and I are just old fashioned. After all, we rarely watch current television (he's addicted to The Office [which is actually an American remake of a British show, but that's a whole other issue] and now Parks and Recreations), preferring to purchase DVDs of television series, some dating back to the fifties. I even insisted on maintaining the integrity of Bewitched by not purchasing the colored versions until the series was actually shot that way (black and white to color always looks odd, anyway). Or, maybe I just think that writers need to start coming out with more original films, or turn to more books if they have run out of original story ideas.

While linking the above films, I not only remembered that there was an, um, interesting take on The Wizard of Oz in the eighties or nineties, but also decided to see if there were any plans to, gasp, remake this amazing film. Perhaps my former coworkers will take the time to see the 2010 release.