More proof originality is dead in Hollywood
- Thread starter 23skidoo
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You know, logically speaking, wouldn't proving originality to be dead in Hollywood require you to show every film was a rip-off of something earlier, not just one or two high-profile examples? I mean, you could contradict the thesis with any one clever, creative, or novel studio film from the same era as these examples.
I can't believe Virgil writing a spinoff of the Iliad. It seems like that's all that's being written about. I mean, Odyssey was OK, but do we really need another one?
Inception anyone?
Doris Day and Rock Hudson actually made only three movies together: Pillow Talk, Send Me No Flowers, and Lover Come Back (which was basically a remake of Pillow Talk). But each of them made similar pictures with other co-stars (Doris did two with James Garner).
How does the same two actors making three romantic comedies, two with essentially the same plot, in the span of five years contradict my point about Hollywood having a long tradition of finding a working formula and repeating it multiple times?
^^ I wasn’t trying to contradict your point, sorry if I gave that impression. It’s just that some folks have the idea that there was a whole slew of Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedies, something comparable to the nine movies Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney made together or the sixteen Andy Hardy movies.
And what about that Shakespeare hack? Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV, Henry IV (Part 2), Henry V . . . enough with the sequels!
And now they're spinning Falstaff off into his own sleazy sex comedy? The Merry Wives of Windsor?
Talk about milking a cash cow . . . .
I'm not sure if everyone is actually fine about the state of movies in Hollywood or if they are just trying to argue for argument's sake.
I think belief that Hollywood is dramatically different than it's ever been is misplaced. The biggest change was the introduction of summer blockbusters, but I think that has to do with the fact that it's cheaper to produce those types of movies than it was when King Kong came out.
Inception was a prime example of how derivative Hollywood can be. I mean the whole "is it a dream, is it the real world, we can only tell by a totem" thing is so cliche it was done on Voyager.
How about: neither. Does that work for you?
In fact, not only that, but Shakespeare was not the first person to tell the stories of Henry V, Macbeth or Richard III, among others.
I usually don't count adaptations from other media to be unoriginal. I count if Hollywood is just repeating itself.
^ Fair enough.
doubleohfive
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Originality isn't dead in Hollywood, its just that those of us who still have it aren't being hired to write/direct/produce as much as we'd like.