policy, politics, poetry, and pop culture

I Believe in Yesterday

August 14, 2011 3:16 pm

There is art


and architecture

that can’t be duplicated.

And as we’ve seen before there are movies that no one should try to duplicate.

It’s’ blasphemy to redo the coming of age chic flick Dirty Dancing, the movie in which a privileged girl develops a political mindset different than the typical “gonna save folks in some poor country” mindset she started out with. A movie that allowed the girl to blatantly persue (sexually), her man of lesser social status, not only sleep with him, but to dance with him, flaunting it at the nobles.


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33 Thoughts on “I Believe in Yesterday”

  1. jakeNo Gravatar on August 14, 2011 at 6:48 pm said:

    Seriously, look what happened to Psycho. ;(
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  2. gNo Gravatar on August 14, 2011 at 7:02 pm said:

    I haven’t seen a decent movie since Ghostbusters, so I’m with you on no remakes. They destroyed Carrie and The Vanishing too.
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  3. indeterminacyNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 9:01 am said:

    I never saw a remake that excelled or even came close to the original. Last night I was astonished and proud of my son: he wanted to watch a movie, so I picked out a stack of dvds, mostly new films, and he picked out The Third Man and Stalag 17. I promised to get him “A Foreign Affair” next, another Billy Wilder film, relatively unknown but brilliant.

  4. Chris-The FoldNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 10:36 am said:

    Bourne Identity was a great remake.
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  5. DougNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 12:06 pm said:

    That wouldn’t be on my list of sacreds, but I might have been too old for it. Come to think of it, I never saw the original so maybe I’ll find the remake bracing and illuminating?

  6. piaNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 2:45 pm said:

    There was something about Dirty Dancing that was so original and wonderful it can’t be duplicated. another movie came out that year, Sweet Lorraine, that was supposed to appeal to older people who knew the Catskills during its glory years but my parents said it was nothing compared to Dirty Dancing

    Did the remake to Footloose come out? I love Kevin Bacon so I never planned on seeing that–I don’t believe in remakes. Can’t imagine anything like Casablanca being remade
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  7. kaitNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 8:24 pm said:

    I agree that it’s one that shouldn’t be redone. They are remaking Footloose, due out this fall I think. I don’t care as much abut that one.
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  8. johnNo Gravatar on August 15, 2011 at 10:59 pm said:

    I’ve never seen that movie but I’m determined to do so soon.

  9. KarenNo Gravatar on August 16, 2011 at 12:03 am said:

    I agree with Pia. From everything I know about the Borscht Belt, I mean the Catskills resorts in their heyday, DD was pretty accurate. The movie, though, was actually filmed at Mountain Lake Conservancy & Hotel in Pembroke, Virginia. I think that’s near West Virginia.

  10. KarenNo Gravatar on August 16, 2011 at 12:41 am said:

    Although now that I think about it, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort closed in 1986 so DD may have been a tribute to that sad day.

  11. jacobNo Gravatar on August 16, 2011 at 12:47 am said:

    Films are not making as much money as they used to. Hollywood is desperate, they have a couple of keepers a year. I guess it’s desperation.

    DD was a chick flick with guts, a great movie for what it was. I’ve seen it and I’m sure a newer version will destroy it.

    As has been said, remakes of pretty great movies usually fail.

    You can only have the time of your life once or else it’d be called “one of the times of my life”.
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  12. BoneNo Gravatar on August 16, 2011 at 8:13 am said:

    I had no idea they were remaking that. Of course, I didn’t see the original until the late 90′s.

    Some things just shouldn’t be messed with. I know I’d be pretty peeved if they remade Dumb & Dumber.
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  13. BennetNo Gravatar on August 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm said:

    Don’t get me started on movies….but alright, since we’re on the topic – FINE!

    Right now the EVERY studio could stop making movies, and still survive on DVDs, and Blueray profits of Mary Poppins, ET, and everything else but up & coming directors manage to pull up survey data for investors that dancing, nostalgia, and everything else is trendy money making gold.

    Unfortunately under the current economy the biggest box office recoups are remakes which isn’t the industry’s fault entirely since it is the general public’s appetite in box office $$$ that guide the industry.
    As I note this, I’m looking forward to new versions of The Thing, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Superman: Man Of Steel and still no Voltron.
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    • cooperNo Gravatar on August 17, 2011 at 11:10 pm said:

      No, No…not The Thing…
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      • BennetNo Gravatar on August 18, 2011 at 12:42 am said:

        I wasn’t interested until I heard that the studio completely junked Ronald D Moore’s script. I absolutely hate how he undermines original formulas, into his own selfish futile heap of dung. The new director claims to be loyal to the original, which I could never forget. I might wait for video. I dunno, or like usual maybe I’ll wait until week 2, if the reviews aren’t too bad.

        BTW…Dirty Dancing, I never once watched it all the way through. I’m sorry. No girl forced me to, so I didn’t. Yes, I’m afraid that is how it works.
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      • BennetNo Gravatar on August 18, 2011 at 3:40 am said:

        Just checked IMDB, and Dirty Dancing is set for release in 2013. That’s a bit too far back for it to be on the books, or as a serious project. They need a script, and judging from opinions, already I doubt anyone wants to be credited for screwing it up. Often times directors change their minds, or leave projects.

        2013 is too much time, allowing for it to possibly be completely scrapped several times before then.

        I think they could also be waiting to determine if it would be worth it, depending on Footloose’s financial gain. If Footloose bombs, you can bet there is no way they’ll pursue such a project.
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  14. EsotericWombatNo Gravatar on August 17, 2011 at 5:51 pm said:

    With the advent of home theater, cheap cinema-quality cameras, and digital distribution, I feel confident that film as an artform can survive even as the major studios go diddling about the mausoleums looking for a quick buck on the foreign market (which is most of the impetus for familiarity in Hollywood).

    My only experience with Dirty Dancing comes from having worked at Blockbuster when the sequel came out, and thus being subjected to the same clip from the original being played ad nauseum each time the promo video cycled back.

    I’m often in favor of rehashings and re-imaginings (as a theater person and a student of Shakespeare I’m constantly mulling them over in my head. Ask me about my idea for the Twelfth Night sometime), but I have little hope that this one will have any merit, ignorant as I am of the source material.
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  15. KarenNo Gravatar on August 18, 2011 at 2:00 am said:

    Wow!! Thanks for the reply, coop.

    Rip Van Winkle fell asleep in Stony Hollow. That’s in Westchester County, which is not quite the Catskills but awfully close. Tim Burton directed “Sleepy Hollow” in 1999. According to IMDb, “Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of 3 people with the culprit being the legendary apparition, the Headless Horseman.” Johnny Depp was Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci was Katrina Van Tassel.

  16. protagorasNo Gravatar on August 19, 2011 at 4:53 pm said:

    G3A through G3c.

    Pointillistic unfurlment brought to concretistic apocryphals.

    The light enligtenments cascade of thoughtfalls.

  17. Billy FlynnNo Gravatar on August 20, 2011 at 10:09 pm said:

    I agree with you, some things should never be re-done, that’s why they retire jersey’s in professional sports. Now on that subject, I had to see if there were ever any good remakes and I was quite surprised, these are some of the best:

    Scarface, Cape fear, The Departed, A Fistful of Dollars, Ocean’s 11, A Star is Born, Heaven Can Wait, The Italian Job, Thomas Crown Affair and 3:10 to Yuma…

    Who knew?

    http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/04/15/best-movie-remakes/

  18. Jason P.No Gravatar on August 22, 2011 at 4:19 pm said:

    Hey, they are doing Fright Night over again…it was a crap movie the first time. Hollywood is nearly depleted of ideas. (But I got one for them…read my last blog post…think an opening soliloquy given by Nicolas Cage. Mix some of The Paper Chase, Wall Street I and II, and Something About Mary…that’s my pitch.)
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