Hollywood loves recycling. More & more ‘original’ material is overlooked in favor of reinvention. Films inspired by novellas, short stories, biographies & the like rule the day. Look no further than the recent Academy awards where Fences, Lion, Hidden Figures, Jackie & Best Picture winner Moonlight were all proof of this. Look back over the past 15 years or so & you’ll find the trend consistent with other notables like Spotlight, The Big Short, 12 Years a Slave, Life of Pi & Lincoln to name just a few. Now this isn’t a new trend. & Let me say a bunch of these films & their source materials I found worthwhile. The issue, rather, is how many reimaginings & sequels do we need to experience before the value of fresh content is regarded as having the most valuable again?
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Since the mid-2000s, Hollywood has tightened up on the ‘risks’ of developing unproven material. By the way, risk, in this case, means money. Enter the tent pole era: where superheros, decades-old spies, sci-fi reboots & classic modernizations are the norm. Of course, original content is still produced –be it independently –& gets its chance to draw audiences through the content distribution platforms that continue to grow (thank you!) & by strutting their stuff in the film festival gauntlet where they may still have a shot at major distribution by potential buyers.
The thing about film (as with any creative endeavor) is it’s always built on the works & ideas of others. Not necessarily intentionally, but inescapably. Influence is a necessity for invention. Almost always the middle man between the desire to create & the act of creating is mimicry. Remember when you were eight & really wanted to draw a ‘life-like’, three-dimensional house? Or heard that song with the solo you just had to learn? Yeah. That was you copying your influence –that inescapable first step. We’re always searching for the next Picasso or Michael Jordan or Orson Welles.
It seems, then, that Hollywood’s infatuation with the ‘safeness’ of reinvention is fundamentally rooted in humanity. The myths, folklores, urban legends & fairy tales we propagate generationally. Reinvention is important. Efforts to do so can help squeeze the most out of us as creators. But it’s also the path to mediocrity if it’s used as the endgame instead of the starting point. That’s what separates the originators from the rest. The greats always introduce their own view of what their influences before them had done. No doubt there are hundreds of great artists in this industry who fail to realize their potential because of the industry’s apathy towards the value of their unproven work.
Director/scribe Damien Chazelle, encapsulated this point beautifully in his Oscar-winning film La La Land: two musicians, Keith (played by John Legend) & Ryan Gosling’s Sebastian are talking about the seeming demise of Jazz. Keith says “How’re you gonna be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist?”
An interesting question. The answer to which separates the good from the great. The talented from the brilliant. The regarded from the gifted. The resources, tools & ‘in vogue’ factors available will always change (hopefully for the better). But the geniuses are the ones who maximize & often are at the cusp of that very change. Those are the filmmakers, artists, craftsmen, writers, thespians & athletes that are always remembered first.
As much fun as the next Bond & Transformers films will be, perhaps it’s time for the leaders of the industry to put their attention back on helping writers & filmmakers create great, purposeful, inventive stories over entertaining set pieces that promise to break to box office but offer little other value to anyone.