Art and Culture # 85
When is a Remake Enough?
-For the Uncensored!
This is probably the most debated question in all of modern thinking. The complicit idea that a studio will always think of ways to enhance a story through the visual technique create new opportunities for film, books, or even a new translation into a language. The Godfather, one of the most popular films of all time, has been ultimately released through DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K standard throughout its fifty year release. The consequence of re-release or remake becomes an ultimate question of revitalizing a series for a newer audience on different platforms. The idea of games being remade is a tricky subject to tackle. Very much like films and celluloid being reissued on new platforms in order to achieve higher quality film grain or have the ability to clean up cobwebs that a 50 year movie couldn’t have changed due to a setting that was unfeasible to accomplish the perfect lighting or technology capable of cleaning up film grain.
(the most quintessential scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather was obsessed with light and dark that the producers were so mad that the film was too dark. Which is now its stapled perception of the film itself)
But for many people, including myself, the novel, itself introduced crime noir with a sympathetic but also touching portrayal of a crime family that would spawn and redefined the gangster genre for years to come since its release.
Video games themselves face the same trouble. What is perceptive in gaming culture is that graphics, ultimately, are about giving the story more facial texture, and motion capture performance more depth. For the Last of Us Part 1, due to be released on 9/02/2022, it’s an odd bag. Is this merely a cash grab? The PS4 “Last of Us Remastered” definitely deserved the title of cash grab than the Part 1 remake. The quality of life between both games have their quirks. And to some who complain that Tessa is now unpretty in the remake is a good question.
No buts, but to merely claim that Tessa is not pretty is absurd. Tessa and Joel were both older when they were in the beginning of Last of Us Part 1, beaten down by survival after the arrival of the Cordycept virus annihilating half the planet. Having to survive can beat your body up over time, as both Joel and Tessa wouldn’t appear so shiny in the PS3 version. So it does create some questions about what Part 1 is willing to achieve in order to call itself a “remake.”
(J’s Review has a good perception while he is biased, but still enjoyable)
Question is, will gamers merely pay more money in order to have a “better looking” version just like many film buffs will sneer their eyes at a new remaster of the Godfather. It’s a complicated test of an audience willing to see a vision changed over time. It’s no different as to when Charles Dickens changed the ending of Great Expectations, in order to have a happy ending to the serialized version. But he didn’t call that a remake. Just a careful edit. And that’s the edit everyone knows.
For many, a remake is odd. Why would you remake Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, the Godfather, or even Last of Us, because film is a different medium than one of a novel. A novel can experiment in language, but also be simple, too. William Peter Blatty, for the 40th edition of the Exorcist, found his writing terrible, and rewrote the book entirely. I wouldn’t want a rewrite of William Burroughs cut up novels to make sense, that were meant to experiment with story and style. So, the question to answer is that it comes to a personal bond that audiences and players have with a book, novel, or movie’s lasting impact. Sometimes they are good, and they are bad. But all of this requires time and a legacy’s perception. Who is to say what will stay and go? As everything moves in nanoseconds these days, maybe remakes do serve a purpose. But the human animal is perceptive and cunning, and you can’t fool everyone.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 19 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His newest book, The Voices Are Alive is out now: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/the-voices-are-alive/hardcover/product-mvggdg.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. If you do Subscribe and pay, as well so you can get my articles in your inbox every time, and access to the paid articles that some readers won’t get to see or access after the articles and books go private. If that doesn’t tickle your pickle, I am also selling merch from t spring, if you want to help support me in other ways. I sell hoodies, shirts, phone cases, and trying to find something there loved ones would like. Link is here: https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/too-many-strings-not-enough. https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/duck-fuckery. https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/headless-corpo. Every little bit helps, thanks for reading.