Here’s a medium take, most of human culture across its history has consisted of the same stories told anew. The only problem now is that the gatekeepers of our culture are moneyed interests, and the influence of shareholder interests and oligarchs means we end up watching the colour and life fade from our culture in realtime as capitalism declines.
Slightly hotter take - this one may be the consumer’s fault. They keep making them because 1. copyright expiration, and 2. people keep fucking watching it! This is such an easy thing to use your wallet as a vote on.
Last year, an amazing movie called Juror #2 came in the cinemas. Not a remake (to my knowledge) or sequel of any kind. I watched in the first week of release in my country. I had to go to a less-well known cinema because the main ones did not even show it in that city. And once there, we were in a small watching room that wasn’t even full. One week into release. Meanwhile, Gladiator 2 down the hall was in a nearly sold-out, much larger room.
I love shitting on big corporations like many lemmings here, but in this specific instance, I think the consumers are at fault. Movies are not a necessity. Pirate them if you really want to watch a remake/sequel, and pay for original stuff. Companies keep making nostalgia slop because people keep paying them for it. It really is that simple.
Read “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. Myths repeat through cultures and influence every story that follows. We’re constantly recycling
Campbells work has been debunked by a lot of researchers, not only it cherry picks data; it pushed the lie that his little structure is universal while ignoring a lot of cultures and and traditional story structures that pay no attention to it. It is a very popular story structure in the mainstream west because it is very manipulative towards the audience. It is great for selling an unambiguous product. Frank Herbert hated Campbell to mention a modern author; The Dune novels have thematic elements that go against the hero’s journey on purpose.
Here’s a medium take, most of human culture across its history has consisted of the same stories told anew. The only problem now is that the gatekeepers of our culture are moneyed interests, and the influence of shareholder interests and oligarchs means we end up watching the colour and life fade from our culture in realtime as capitalism declines.
Slightly hotter take - this one may be the consumer’s fault. They keep making them because 1. copyright expiration, and 2. people keep fucking watching it! This is such an easy thing to use your wallet as a vote on.
Last year, an amazing movie called Juror #2 came in the cinemas. Not a remake (to my knowledge) or sequel of any kind. I watched in the first week of release in my country. I had to go to a less-well known cinema because the main ones did not even show it in that city. And once there, we were in a small watching room that wasn’t even full. One week into release. Meanwhile, Gladiator 2 down the hall was in a nearly sold-out, much larger room.
I love shitting on big corporations like many lemmings here, but in this specific instance, I think the consumers are at fault. Movies are not a necessity. Pirate them if you really want to watch a remake/sequel, and pay for original stuff. Companies keep making nostalgia slop because people keep paying them for it. It really is that simple.
Sane take IMO, you have selected the medium podium well
Read “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. Myths repeat through cultures and influence every story that follows. We’re constantly recycling
Campbells work has been debunked by a lot of researchers, not only it cherry picks data; it pushed the lie that his little structure is universal while ignoring a lot of cultures and and traditional story structures that pay no attention to it. It is a very popular story structure in the mainstream west because it is very manipulative towards the audience. It is great for selling an unambiguous product. Frank Herbert hated Campbell to mention a modern author; The Dune novels have thematic elements that go against the hero’s journey on purpose.