Remaking Yourself

About 2 years ago, I saw a fantastic film at TIFF called Starbuck.  Of course, I included it in one of my TIFF recap blogs.  It was from Quebec, it was hilarious, and it hit a soft spot too.

About a year ago, I heard that they were going to do a Hollywood remake the film.  I was appalled.

About a month ago, I saw the trailer for Delivery Man and recognized it IMMEDIATELY.  It was almost word for word exactly the same as Starbuck.  I was kind of crushed.  But then I found out that it was co-written and directed by the same man who co-wrote and directed Starbuck.  So this wasn't the work of evil Hollywood, it was a guy who remade his own work.  Naturally, he had to make some changes to accommodate the North American market (Soccer?  Who plays soccer?).  But from the reviews I've read, it's identical to the original.  I admit, I'm not the biggest Vince Vaughn fan, but if you can't see Starbuck, I guess you should go see Delivery Man.  It appears that my wish of a wide release 2 years ago came true, sort of.

Should you remake yourself?  And I'm not just talking about films, I mean in a broader sense.  Taking some part of yourself and changing it.  As with everything, I suppose the answer all depends on the circumstances.  I mean, if the change is for the better, then that would be ideal.  But who's to say what's better?  And how would you know that it's better?

Uh oh...getting too philosophical again.

During this whole Delivery Man/Starbuck incident, I was watching The Women on TV.  Not the 2008 Meg Ryan remake, but the original 1939 black and white (with some random colour) version with Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford.  Having seen both, it's hard to tell if the original or the remake was the better version.  The social norms were so very different, and I have to say that the feminine ideals and attitudes of the 30s were really aggravating at times.  But the film, in terms of how it was shot, made sense in the 30s.  You could believe that having absolutely no men in any of the scenes was entirely plausible.  The 2008 version was hard to swallow because it felt odd that you couldn't see a single man in all of New York City.  But then, right after the film ended, they showed The Opposite Sex, which was yet another remake of the same film from 1956, except that not only were there men in the film, but they had turned it into a musical.

I believe the saying is, leave well enough alone.

"Well you only need the light when it's burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow"