Well, it’s no longer just movies that have that familiar feeling. It seems anymore that everything in our culture is either a remake, a repeat or a sequel of some kind.
The White House is occupied by a another president named George Bush. We are at war with Iraq a second time. We are worried about Iran once more, and a bearded man over there stirring up trouble. And on the home front, the state of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s marriage is making the papers once again, thanks to a recent New York Times article on the subject — I mean, really, has anyone even thought about that topic since 1999?
Out at sea, there’s the Queen Mary 2, big sister to the Queen Elizabeth 2, both of which are remakes — if that’s the right word — of two ships called the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth (nobody has rebuilt the Titanic yet, as far as I know).
And speaking of ships, yes, I did see “Poseidon,” which shortened both the name and the plot of 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure.” Yes, the special effects were spectacular. Yes, the remake was fun. But what was the point? The original holds up just fine, except for the 1970s wardrobe.
On the pop charts, the band Oasis is the new Beatles. Madonna has lifted a disco beat from ABBA on her newest album. Every couple of years, jazz fans welcome the arrival of a “new Sinatra,” as in “Michael Bublé is the new Sinatra” (as was Harry Connick Jr. before him, which makes Bublé the new Connick who was the original new Sinatra).
Does Sept. 11 have anything to do with this? That terrible day certainly figured into why George W. Bush was elected a second time, and, depending on whom you believe, why we’re in Iraq again and why we’re casting a nervous eye on our old bugaboo Iran.
But maybe the rest reflects our desire for any kind of reminder of pre-9/11 America, for better or worse. One pundit pointed out that the Times story about the Clinton marriage takes us back to the days when Americans thought of the presidency and didn’t think about war and terrorism.
Why anyone, however, would want to return to the days of Monica Lewinsky and Ken Starr and the messy exposure of private lives is beyond me, except that Monica is more fun to think about than Osama bin Laden.
New artists cover old songs because a lot of people are fond of remembering the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s (or, for that matter, the Sinatra years). Or maybe a lot of those old songs were simply better. And when a group like Oasis is compared to the Beatles, it’s a compliment, I would think. I’m not sure what’s behind Hollywood’s thinking as a far as movie remakes, unless it’s because the originals are proven ideas, though it seems the rehashes just end up alienating fans of the very films that are being done over.
“Can’t repeat the past?” the title character in “The Great Gatsby” asks. “Of course you can.”
And so we do.
Stephen Kopfinger is a staff writer for Living. Write to him at skopfinger@lnpnews.com.
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