One remake I'd love to see.

[gridlore]

Normally, I hate seeing classic films remade, unless the director has something new to add, a new twist or an updated vision. But most older films got it right the first time and should be enjoyed as they are.

But there are a few exceptions; films that, handled correctly, could be improved with modern film making techniques and technologies.

The Longest Day

Were I making this, I wouldn't change most of the film. I especially would follow Darryl F. Zanuck's led in casting German, French, and British actors and filming their scenes in the correct language. I would also keep the focus on the people involved in the invasion on all sides. However, you can vastly improve the film with CGI. The original film is hamstrung by the realities of equipment availability. There simply weren't any FW-190s or Spitfires flying, and the landing craft had to shown using stock footage. CGI cures that. Need two FW-190s strafing the beach? You got them. Need the entire 29th Infantry Division on Omaha, with the second wave landing in the background? Sure thing. Judicious use of CGI to add appropriate vehicles and columns of men in the background. Another place for improvement is camera technology. Anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan knows how effective hand-held cameras can be in giving the chaotic feel of combat. Again, careful use of this can really impart the "stark moments of terror" feeling to the audience.

I'd also work on one (IMHO) really bad casting decision: John Wayne as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort. The real Vandervoort was bookish, soft-spoken, and one of those quiet leaders who inspired by example. Not right for John Wayne at all. In my remake, I'd want Nicholas Cage in the role. Another casting must would be Rutger Hauer as Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt.

So, what classic film would you like to see remade, and what changes would you make or what casting decisions would you make?

For that matter, what's your favorite war movie of all time?

Comments

[shadowcat48li.livejournal.com]

I would agree on the Longest Day, although there are still flying spitfires and if if all goes well, we will have at least one flying 190 in a year or so.

Favorite war movies:
Sands of Iwo Jima
Longest Day
I know its a comedy, but I have always liked Kellys Heroes
especially Donald Sutherland as Oddball

[benkenobigal.livejournal.com]

I really dislike remakes, too. And though I don't have a favorite war movie, I thought I'd substitute a favorite silent movie.

I love D.W. Griffith. I don't know if anyone could outdo him with Intolerance or Way Down East. Oh wait! If you want a war movie, then I choose Judith of Bethulia or Hearts of the World.

Judith... depicts the attempted capture by the Assyrians of the walled city of Bethulia.

Bethulia is a fortified town of Judea, guarding a hill pass through which an invading Assyrian army must march in order to enter Judea. The place is stormed by Holofernes at the head of a large army. The fighting before the gate uses an enormous number of soldiers on both sides and the battering ram and catapult.

Hearts... tells the story of a group of youngsters growing up in a French village. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Funny, was just discussing favourite WWII movies with my roommates a few nights ago -- while watching Ken Burns's _The War_ on PBS.

I mentioned _The Longest Day_, _A Bridge Too Far_, and the silly/cynical _Kelly's Heroes_ (which I first saw shortly after it came out, with my whole immediate family; the nine of us taking up nearly an entire row in a tiny Northern Ontario cinema, during a very rainy camping trip on Lake Superior; I must've been five or six!)

But I think my favourite has to be _Bridge Over the River Kwai_. Besides the brilliant Alec Guiness and a fine script, you have a climax that illustrates the uselessness of special effects, especially models. There's really no substitute for really blowing up a real bridge with a real train going across it :)

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say: I wouldn't want to see any of these re-made. I don't see the point in remaking a good film, and especially not a great film.

They should only remake bad films that *could've* been good but were messed up. _Midway_, for instance; not a great film (with or without Sensurround). Now that's an epic that wants to be remade with a better script, and digital effects instead of stock footage.

Mind, even excellent effects won't save a bad script and brainless direction; consider _Pearl Harbour_. *shudder*

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Especially with a script based on "Shattered Sword" which gives an updated story.

The Japanese never really had a chance given the plan they were following, which should have been altered after the Battle of the Coral Sea.

[heartofawarrior.livejournal.com]

It would be awesome to see that remade, even if they didn't entirely re-shoot it, but just added to the original, like using CGI to improve things.

[claidheamhmor]

It'd be cool to watch a remake of that - especially with CGI aircraft. I remember chuckling at the Bf-108 they used as a stand in for the Bf-109.

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

My favorite war movies are anti-war movies: Shenandoah, M*A*S*H, All Quiet on the Western Front, Oh! What a Lovely War, etc. It's really hard to pick just one.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see a good auto-racing movie in the style of "Grand Prix."

"Battle beyond the stars" could use some CGI.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise for me to say my favorite war movie was "swing kids" not so much war movie as it is a wartime movie.

Hey, atleast I didn't say "the sound of music!"

and just for the record, neither should be remade.

[john-appel.livejournal.com]

Tough question about the remake. I agree that "The Longest Day" has some clunky moments. I'd also eliminate the fictitious French commando storyline; you could easily put in the very real heroics of the French-Canadian (well, Quebecois) units on Sword Beach.

As far as all-time faovrites: "Kelly's Heroes" is right up there, along with "A Bridge Too Far" (ex-Airborne, and I'm a total Market-Garden nut). I've always like "Hamburger Hill" and "Go Tell The Spartans". "Gettysburg" is a bit hokey in parts but some of the battle scenes, especially the stand of the Union Cavalry on the first day and the 20th Maine on Little Round top, were very well done indeed.

Not a movie as such, but I managed to catch the miniseries "Once, An Eagle" when it was broadcast back in the 1970s. That's something that I really wish would be released on DVD someday. The book should be required reading for Army officers and senior DoD people.

[supersniffles.livejournal.com]

When I saw Gettysburg I didn't actually know anything except that the Union won in the end. The battle for Little Round Top had me sobbing. As did Pickett's Charge. I still can't imagine the kind of courage it took to walk across that field.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the Gettysburg area, one of my brother's friends is a battlefield historian, and while she wasn't available, he was and he showed us the actual wall that was there during Pickett's charge, and a lot of other things.
In shop class, we had a can for bullets - it wasn't uncommon to get a board from a wood lot that had seen action during the war. You could easily tell Confederate from Union bullets - Confederate bullets were round, Union were hollow point.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

"General.. I have no division."

I've found most Americans are sadly ignorant of the actual facts of the Civil War. 23,000 Americans died in a single day at Antietam. The Civil War was really the birth of the modern standing army after the dangers of an army built on state militias were made clear.

If you have Netflix, get Ken Burns' Civil War.

I've walked the route of Pickett's Charge. The phrase applied to the Marines at Iwo Jima, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue," should be applied to every Confederate who crossed the line and advanced.