The case for remaking great films

Afew weeks ago, news broke that Paramount was planning to embark on a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo with a starring role for Robert Downey Jr. You are forgiven if your reaction is one of deep scepticism. What can possibly be gained by remaking a film widely regarded as the apex of the art form? What director today can step into the shoes of the Master of Suspense? And who would ever mistake the star of Iron Man for Jimmy Stewart? 

Gut reactions of this sort remind us of the scorn with which remakes in general are usually – sometimes unfairly – met. After all, remakes are considered by all fair observers to be inherently synthetic and unoriginal, right? In remaking a movie, filmmakers plunder existing stories, characters and brands, usually with proven box-office appeal, in order to foist new – yet strangely familiar – versions on the public. As far as the cynics are concerned, Hollywood imagines audiences’ memories to be so short, and their grasp of movie history so limited, that they will lap up multiple versions of the same film time and again, like Pavlov’s dogs munching on popcorn.