Every bit of news that comes out of Hollywood about song-and-dance films (we really can't call them musicals anymore) is bad news...An unecessary remake of "Gypsy," starring the wildly age-inappropriate Barbra Streisand, who will be 70 in April, as Momma Rose (she'll probably be 72, if and when the film ever gets made)...
Willow Smith as "Annie," its score presumably to be fortified with an anachronistic hiphop sound...
Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Damn Yankees," a project announced so long ago that it might actually be dead now...
Hugh Jackman's threats to remake "Carousel," which is both a musical and a period piece, two genres not exactly beloved among contemporary moviegoers...
A planned filming of "Miss Saigon," which seems a tad dated and inconsequential now...
And, the final nail in the coffin, Justin Beiber's fantasy of doing a reboot of "Grease" with Myley Cyrus.
On the horizon, of course, is the remake of "Footloose," which, if you go by its trailer, now looks like an action film.
Now comes the breathless announcement that Lionsgate has greenlit a remake of the late Emile Ardolino's "Dirty Dancing" (1987).
In her blog, Flickgrrl," for The Philadelphia Inquirer, my friend Carrie Rickey wrote, "'Dirty Dancing' is like 'The Godfather.' It's a classic and you don't mess with it or otherwise try to improve, rethink, or update it." And besides, asked Carrie, "How do you take Eleanor Bergstein's autobiographical story and transpose it to another period?"
The most obvious answer is, You do it anyway.
Clearly, the motivation for this latest Bad Idea is to film two physically attractive, personality-free young actors gyrating aggressively to the original movie's jukebox score (again, fortified with new beats) and ignore the little narrative curlicues that made the original somewhat original.
To elaborate on my response to Carrie's post, while “Dirty Dancing” is not a masterwork like “The Godfather,” it is definitely a populist classic – a film embraced by the average moviegoer, not necessarily the cinéphile.
What people forget - and what Carrie brings to light - is that the film was a shrewd period piece (set in 1962, I believe) and that it had a pervasive Jewishness (Kellerman's Lodge!) that gave it its backbone and color.
The original film was about more than just class differences. It wasn't that simple.
I’m sure these two elements will be discarded in the remake. Only the dancing will remain intact and I’ve a sick feeling that Baby and Johnny (so wonderfully immortalized by Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, pictured) might even be gyrating to entirely different songs in the reboot.
One other thing: The new film won’t have the invaluable Jack Weston as Max Kellerman; Jerry Orbach as Baby's bigoted doctor father or Kelly Bishop as her sexy mother; the terrific Jane Brucker as her princess-sister Lisa, or Lonny Price as the unctuous Neil Kellerman, "the catch of the county" - all of them so crucial to the singular ethnicity of what everyone thinks of as just “a great dance movie.”
7 comments:
Thanks for pointing out the fascinating ethnicity of "Dirty Dancing"…that’s great!
Ardolino's film tends to be underrated nowadays by most movie-musical purists but I love it, especially Orbach's character and his refusal to be fair even when the facts come to light.
Donald- Actually, it's more of a dancial than a musical, and I have always been grateful that Ardolino respected Kenny Orgeta's choreography enough not to slice-and-dice it via editing the way Rob Marshall does to his own stuff. We get full-frame dancing in DD.
Joe: Speaking of Hugh Jackman, didn't I read recently that he was going to star as Jean Valjean in the movie version of the "Les Miserables" musical,directed by Tom Hooper of "The King's Speech"?
The "Dirty Dancing" remake is a bad, bad idea. I know so many people who just adore that movie, and they've passed on that love to their kids, and believe me, they won't accept anybody else in those roles.
I know "The Birdcage" was a huge success, so why not do a movie version of Jerry Herman's "La Cage Aux Folles"? It seems a natural to me.
My favorite musical not given movie treatment yet is "Baby", music by David Shire and lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. Likeable characters, situations both dramatic and comedic that all parents can relate to and some real show shopping numbers. It's about three different couples of varying ages and their reactions to becoming or trying to become parents. No huge production numbers and there are some potential star-making roles so it can be cast pretty inexpensively. I think it would be a great movie. Everyone I know who has seen the stage show just loves it.
Kevin- Jackman in “Les Miz,” directed by Tom Hooper! Yet another bad idea. (The late Arthur Laurents wanted Hooper, of all people, to helm that planned remake of “Gypsy,” which I believe – hope – will never see the light of day.) I agree with you about “Baby,” wonderful show that screams out for filming. I would add “Fiorello,” “I Love My Wife,” “They’re Playing Our Song,” “Promises, Promises,” “The Most Happy Fellow” and especially “Falsettos,” a collaboration by James Lapine and William Finn, with music and lyrics by Finn, comprised of two one-act musicals previously performed off-Broadway - “March of the Falsettos” and “Falsettoland.”
The only thing I didn't get about DIRTY DANCING was mixing actual period-appropriate oldies with newer stuff like the Oscar-winning "Time of My Life," which in composition and production style sounded nothing like a 60s song. Part of what made the film "shrewd," I guess, from a commercial standpoint. :)
For the LES MIZ film, they're supposedly tapping Russell Crowe for Javert. I'm not opposed to a film of that one, though I'm not sure Hooper is a good choice.
Still waiting for Spike Jonze to tackle a feature musical after that brilliant "Weapon of Choice" music video with Christopher Walken.
I think it's already in the can. Previews out now. Never thot much of orig. So no harm, no foul.
I just choked on my lunch. Willow Smith as Annie? I hope this isn't actually happening. The less said about Bieber and Cyrus in Grease the better. For the love of God what is going on at movie studios these days? No wonder so many movies are tanking
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