AP Film Studies: Déjà View

Our Facebook and Twitter feeds tell us a lot about the world. If we vaccinate our children, they will grow tentacles. Obama once ate a kitten. And Hollywood is perhaps the most prolific sexual predator this side of Dr. Huxtable's office.

"Hollywood has run out of ideas," people moan. They moan so loudly they forget some of the greatest films of all time are remakes.

Take Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1956 "wrong man" adventure, The Man Who Knew Too Much (Laurelhurst Theater; May 22-28), which was the director's remake of his own 1934 film. Largely lauded as one of the Master of Suspense's greatest yarns, it's a classic through and through. James Stewart gives a wonderfully paranoid performance; Doris Day pulls double duty as a Hitchcock blonde and a songstress; and it's set in gorgeous Morocco.

The film was met with cheers. Hitchcock didn't receive any complaints from Depression-era cinephiles that he had violated their childhood memories of the 1934 version. In revisiting the espionage tale of mistaken identity, Hitch improved his original in every way imaginable—the performances are stronger, the music was instantly iconic, and the Cold War lent further credence to the suspense. 

Of course, only Hitchcock could aptly remake Hitchcock (sorry, Gus Van Sant). But The Man Who Knew Too Much is just one of many classics in which auteurs cribbed from older films. John Huston's classic The Maltese Falcon is the second go at Sam Spade. Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Seven Samurai became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven. David Cronenberg and John Carpenter improved B-movie classics like The Fly and The Thing. Even Martin Scorsese got into the remix game, scoring a hit with his Cape Fear remake and an overdue Oscar for The Departed, a riff on Infernal Affairs. 

These examples are typically ignored in debates dominated by recent redo failures like Carrie, Robocop, Total Recall, Clash of the Titans and The Wolfman. 

Will Poltergeist be better than the original? Probably not. Ditto for the upcoming remake of Point Break, which was already remade as The Fast and the Furious anyway. 

Will they be affronts to your childhood? No. Because no matter what Hollywood does, your childhood is safe and sound in old VHS and DVD collections. They'll probably sit next to True Lies, Heat, Some Like It Hot, 12 Monkeys, His Girl Friday and a dozen other movies you pretend aren't remakes. 

Also Showing: 

1. Church of Film presents Jacques Rivette’s pirate fantasy Noroît, inspired by Thomas Middleton. North Star Ballroom. 8 pm Wednesday, May 20.

1. Hecklevision takes on the video-game adaptation Double Dragon, which rivals Super Mario Bros. as the worst video-game movie ever. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Wednesday, May 20.

1. Filmed by Bike returns for its 13 year of two-wheeled cinema. Hollywood Theatre. May 22-23. See HollywoodTheatre.org for full listings.

1. Cinema 21 provides its monthly Tommy Wiseau dose with The Room and an episode of his impossibly awful—even by Wiseau standards—sitcom, The Neighbors. Cinema 21. 10:45 pm Friday, May 22.

1. It’s shocking that George Lucas hasn’t revisited his 1962-set breakout film, American Graffiti, and digitally added sideburns to at least one character. Academy Theater. May 22-28.

1. Never mind the questionable hockey moves in The Mighty Ducks. Why would a judge sentence a convicted drunk driver to mentor at-risk ghetto kids? Hollywood Theatre. May 23-24.

1. Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket might seem like two films stapled together, but damned if they aren’t two of the best Vietnam movies ever. Century Clackamas Town Center. 2 pm Sunday, May 24. 
3. Profile Theatre opens up its cinematic sock drawer for a showing of Hysteria, the story of how the first electric dildo got a bunch of Brits’ knickers in a bunch. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Monday, May 25. 

WWeek 2015