The Top 10 Film Remakes
By James Oliver
Inspired by the Coen Brothers’ True Grit, we present our Top 10 Remakes. Remakes often get a bum rap from film fans – and if you’ve ever suffered through Michael Winner’s disastrous take on The Big Sleep you’ll know why. But, as the following list attests, not every remake is a dud.
Eschewing movies where the filmmakers went back to the original source (so no The Maltese Falcon, True Grit or His Girl Friday), here are ten (well, twelve) of the very best...
Buy the Top Ten Film Remakes on DVD & Blu-ray, from just £5.99
10. The Thing
John Carpenter's magnificently paranoid re-imagining of The Thing From Another World (directed by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby) incorporated aspects from the original short story (Who Goes There? by John W Campbell) Hawks didn't use. But Carpenter was such a Hawks fan (Assault on Precinct 13 is a semi-remake of Rio Bravo) that he was sure to tip his hat to the old master.
Here's the brilliant trailer:
Click here to buy for £5.99
9. Heat
No studio was interested in Michael Mann's passion project, a script about a driven cop and a methodical robber. So he accepted an offer to make it as a TV movie, LA Takedown. It's rubbish. Flash forward a few years and Mann – by now a Hollywood prince – had the opportunity to do it again, properly. The result – Heat – might be his masterpiece.
Here's the only clip we could really use. "So, here we are. Two regular fellows..."
Click here to buy for £5.99
8. Breathless
What was Jim McBride thinking?? Surely he didn't think he could get away with remaking one of the great cornerstones of world cinema? Predictably, the critics disembowelled this remake of A bout de souffle. But with its neon visuals and allegiance to pop culture, Breathless channels Godard better than those fusspots realised. A neglected film deserving of more respect.
Click here to buy for £5.99
7. The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Hollywood routinely remakes foreign language movies (e.g. The Vanishing) but the traffic isn't exclusively one way, as The Beat My Heart Skips shows. Jacques Audiard relocated James Toback's tale of a man torn between becoming either a mobster or a concert pianist from America to France and cast Romain Duris to fill Harvey Keitel's shoes. The results were very much acclaimed, unlike The Vanishing.
Click here to buy for £6.99
6. Obsession
Brian De Palma is a director who polarises film fans and rarely more so than with this re-imagination of Vertigo. Detractors fancy it as little more than pastiche Hitchcock but they're wrong. Rather, it's a crucial example of De Palma's intelligence: a remake (or reincarnation...?) of a film 'about' re-making (or reincarnations...?). It's also uncommonly stylish...
Click here to buy on Blu-ray for £17.99
5. Fritz Lang's Indian Epic
When he was a baby director, Fritz Lang watched with horror as his pet project – a sprawling two part adventure set in India – was taken away from him by its producer, who wanted to direct it himself. Forty years on, Lang jumped at the chance to do things his way. The phantasmagorical results have been much criticised over the years but are, in fact, ace. So there.
Here's a saucy dance from part two:
Click here to buy for £13.99
4. The Man Who Knew Too Much
The first The Man Who Knew Too Much ('the work of a talented amateur' according to its director) was obviously a film dear to Hitchcock's heart: it was, after all, the beginning of his artistic maturity. The remake ('the work of a professional) is equally important as the clearest representation of some of his key themes. It's also got one of his greatest set pieces...
Click here to buy for £5.99
3. Springtime In A Small Town
Little known in the west, Fu Mei's Spring in a Small Town is one of the great classics of Chinese film, a tender tale of love and regret. It's a big film to remake but Tian Zhuangzhuang was equal to the job. This new incarnation is beautiful and perhaps even more heart rending than its illustrious predecessor. One of the best films of the past decade.
Click here to buy for £6.99
2. The Magnificent Seven
Some cineastes get quite upset when Hollywood remakes foreign-language flicks but in the case of Seven Samurai, there's something quite appropriate about its Western relocation: after all, Akira Kurosawa was massively influenced by the genre. And while obviously indebted to Kurosawa director John Sturges created a film that manages to stand on its own merits. The music's not bad either...
Click here to buy for £5.99
1. Rio Bravo / El Dorado
OK, a blatant cheat at number one: Rio Bravo isn't a remake – not an official one at any rate. But since (a) Howard Hawks claimed it was his attempt to correct what he hated about High Noon (which makes it a sort-of remake, yes?) and (b) it's one of the most entertaining films ever made, that's good enough for me. Always Hollywood's most efficient recycler, Hawks rejigged Rio Bravo a few years later and called it El Dorado. It's not quite as good as Rio Bravo but it's still enormous fun.
Buy Rio Bravo for £5.99 / Buy El Dorado for £5.99
Compare and contrast these two scenes. First here's Rio Bravo:
And El Dorado:
NB. We've limited ourselves to choosing from titles currently available in the UK
What did you think of the selection? Let us know below
Film Listing
Fritz Lang, 1959
£15.99
Fritz Lang's Indian Epic
A two-part adventure epic from the legendary director Fritz Lang, comprising Der ...
Alfred Hitchcock, 1956
£5.99
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The only film Hitch made twice and critical opinion still rages over which is the...
Jacques Audiard, 2005
£6.99
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (1 Disc)
Audiard's remake of James Toback's classic 1978 film, Fingers, presents a memorab...
John Carpenter, 1982
£5.99
The Thing
Released to little critical or commercial success in 1982, John Carpenter's The Thing has become ...
Howard Hawks, 1959
£7.99
Rio Bravo
A classic western which served as the inspiration for Assault on Precinct 13, this yarn in which ...
John Sturges, 1960
£6.99
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is one of the last of the Big Westerns, and sees seven very good men go up ...
Tian Zhuangzhuang, 2002
£17.99
Springtime In A Small Town
An assured return from Zhuangzhuang with his first film for ten years. Beautifull...
Howard Hawks, 1966
£5.99
El Dorado
El Dorado brings a distinctive sixties flavour to this tale of male camaraderie and comedy in the...
Michael Mann, 1995
£7.99
Heat
Along with his massively accomplished The Insider, Heat remains Michael Mann's masterpiece, a big...
Alfred Hitchcock, 1956
£6.99
The Man Who Knew Too Much (James Stewart Collection)
The only film Hitch made twice and critical opinion...
Jim McBride, 1983
£6.99
Breathless (McBride, 1983)
A remake of Godard's seminal nouvelle vague film A bout de souffle (Breathless) t...
Howard Hawks, 1966
£5.99
El Dorado
El Dorado brings a distinctive sixties flavour to this tale of male camaraderie and comedy in the...
Michael Mann, 1995
£9.49
Heat (Double Play)
Along with his massively accomplished The Insider, Heat remains Michael Mann's masterpiece, a big...
Alfred Hitchcock, 1956
£6.99
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The only film Hitch made twice and critical opinion still rages over which is the...
John Carpenter, 1982
£13.49
The Thing
Released to little critical or commercial success in 1982, John Carpenter's The Thing has become ...
Jacques Audiard, 2005
£7.99
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Audiard's remake of James Toback's classic 1978 film, Fingers, presents a memorab...
Michael Mann, 1995
£17.09
Heat
Along with his massively accomplished The Insider, Heat remains Michael Mann's masterpiece, a big...
John Sturges, 1960
£13.49
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is one of the last of the Big Westerns, and sees seven very good men go up ...
