Movie History

Filmsite was launched in May of 1996, when I first registered filmsite.org as a domain and set out to create a small non-profit site dedicated to great American film. It was a bygone time, fifteen years ago, when almost every conceivable domain name was still readily available for a small registration fee. I had been an amateur film buff for many decades when I decided to create an educational, inspiring resource that capitalized on my movie knowledge. The site was launched as an offshoot of my personal hobby of watching and collecting classic films on Blockbuster-rented VHS tapes, and on high-quality laser discs from retailer Tower Records -- now both obsolete home video formats.

The Tech Environment When Filmsite Launched in 1996
At the time, I lived in downtown Palo Alto and worked in the heart of Silicon Valley. I was engaged full-time as a technology educator at San Jose, California's Tech Museum, running public programs, conducting computer classes, and teaching myself (and others) how to program in HTML. The site served as a way to practice webpage creation while reviewing the greatest English-language films of all time. Very few personally-created websites existed, and I decided to avoid the easy route that many Web authors took -- posting a free site in a GeoCities neighborhood. I used Netscape as my Web browser (since Microsoft's IE didn't exist until late 1996), my e-mail client was Hotmail, and my preferred search engines were AltaVista, excite, and HotBot. I frequently visited Yahoo to see where Filmsite was being cataloged along with a burgeoning number of other Web sites. To put the era in its proper context, Netflix, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Firefox, and even Google didn't exist, and blogs hadn't appeared. Amazon, eBay, and IMDb were still in their early development stages, and only 34 million American households had a computer.

AMC's latest coup is a thirteen-part series about the violent death of a teenage girl, created by writer-producer Veena Sud. Set in Seattle, the brooding, noirish crime drama was adapted from the hit Danish mini-series Forbrydelsen. Each of the thirteen episodes represents one day in the investigation of the killing, conducted by dogged Seattle homicide detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos), who's leaving the force and so is accompanied by her replacement, brash cop Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman). The murder of Rosie Larsen (Katie Findlay) has taken a tremendous psychological toll on the remaining family and community members and threatens the political career of slick City Councilman Richmond (Billy Campbell).

For all of you who are fans of complex crime dramas with noirish elements, the following selection of five recent films may help to satiate your appetite between episodes. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
One of the most taut, suspenseful psychological thrillers ever produced is this harrowing film by director Jonathan Demme. Fledgling FBI investigator Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is called upon to investigate a random string of murders (the cases involve mutilated female corpses, often with their skin removed) by a transsexual serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill. She finds herself used as bait to bargain and interact with the notorious cobralike psychiatrist turned psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (portrayed masterfully by British actor Anthony Hopkins). She lures, provokes, and inspires Lecter into providing the bureau with information. Foster convincingly plays the part of the strong, inexperienced neophyte who eventually finds and rescues Catherine, the latest female victim, and solves the case.

Kiss the Girls (1997)
This realistic murder thriller begins when a college-age violinist (Gina Ravera) goes missing in Durham, North Carolina. Her uncle, best-selling author and D.C. forensics expert Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), joins local detectives and an FBI agent (Jay O. Sanders) at the scene, where eight girls are now missing and three bodies have been found. The demented serial killer, who calls himself Casanova, is a collector who takes captured "specimens" and imprisons them in an underground lair, ritualistically raping and killing them if they violate his trust. A ninth kidnapped victim -- strong-willed kickboxing medical intern Dr. Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd) -- is bound and drugged but escapes from Casanova (in a thrilling dash through the woods) and joins Cross in the search. A second killer, a competing psychopath known as The Gentleman Caller is discovered operating in the LA area. One red-herring suspect, Dr. Wick Sachs (William Converse-Roberts), confesses, but ultimately an unlikely pair of suspects are revealed as the evil collaborators.

In addition to its recent wins for Best Director, Actor, and Picture, The King's Speech also received an Oscar for Original Screenplay. The award recipient was respected British-American writer David Seidler, who was reported to have suffered from stuttering as a child. As a boy, his parents helped by encouraging him to listen to King George VI's speeches, explaining that if the stuttering monarch could rally the country during war young David could also overcome his own speech impediment. His personal experience brought life and validity to the award-winning script.

The most memorable and moving Best Picture-winning films couldn't exist without their principal architect: the screenwriter. Since mid-century, some of the most memorable speeches and monologues in film have been found in those that have won both Best Original Screenplay and Picture. Here are some notable examples.

An American in Paris (1951)
American lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner wrote the original screenplay for one of MGM's most beloved musicals, in which carefree, penniless ex-GI Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) has remained in Paris following World War II to paint. As he narrates in the film's opening, "And for a painter, the mecca of the world for study, for inspiration, and for living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it. No wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can't paint in Paris, you'd better give up and marry the boss's daughter."

On the Waterfront (1954)
American screenwriter Budd Schulberg composed some of the most famous lines ever heard in film, such as these ones delivered by longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando). Heartbroken, he sits with his brother, Charley (Rod Steiger), in a taxi and remembers how he lost his chance at a prizefighting title by taking a dive: "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."

Lesbian tales may be gaining steam in the movie industry, but with regard to romantic comedies or dramas they've become more commonplace in Hollywood cinema only as of late. This was confirmed when writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's Kids Are All Right (2010) received acclaim during the 2010 Oscars season. But why have there been so many negatively skewed lesbian romance films? In recent decades, Hollywood's depiction of these types of characters has improved, but lesbian romances historically included conflicts and barriers and often ended in heartbreak or tragedy. Examples abound, as in Personal Best (1982), Entre Nous (1983), Wild Side (1995), High Art (1998), Gia (1998), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), Lost and Delirious (2001), Mulholland Dr. (2001), and Monster (2003). Fortunately, there are a few feature films that have portrayed positive female sexual relationships -- though it's been a long time coming.

Lesbian Film Portrayals in the Past
Before the mid-thirties restraints of the Hays Production Code -- which specifically forbade depictions of homosexuality -- one rare characterization was offered by Greta Garbo, who appeared as the bisexual Swedish queen in Queen Christina (1933). Images of lesbians onscreen included dyke or mannish stereotypes, such as sadistic prison matron Hope Emerson in Caged (1950) or Barbara Stanwyck's lecherous New Orleans bordello madam in Walk on the Wild Side (1962). William Wyler's re-titled These Three (1936) hinted at the forbidden objectionable theme of lesbianism. In its finale, when remade as The Children's Hour (1961), as in many lesbian tales, the self-loathing Shirley MacLaine character broke down over her "sick" feelings and committed suicide. At the end of the tame R-rated Fox (1967), which was based on a D.H. Lawrence novella, a strong lesbian relationship was melodramatically destroyed by an intruding male (the titular fox). Meanwhile, the landmark film The Killing of Sister George (1968) didn't condemn its characters for their sexual preferences, but it did contain stereotypical butch-femme posturings.

The Evolution of Lesbian Films
Hardcore sexuality made cinematic inroads in the late sixties and seventies, and the soft-core series of Emmanuelle films from France made a significant impact. Non-pornographic depictions of serious adult themes and lesbian sex led the MPAA to give up the X rating and create the NC-17 category, first applied to director Philip Kaufman's Henry & June (1990), about an erotic triangle. The face of Hollywood lesbianism was tamely reflected in the glossed-over, scaled-down stories of The Color Purple (1985) and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).

In the last few decades, lesbian filmmaking was hampered by homophobia, funding difficulties, a limited pool of talented lesbian scriptwriters and directors, and the belief that marginal lesbian film audiences were unprofitable. Lesbian representations have not been straightforward and have instead been played for sensationalism, depicting lesbians as deviant psychopaths, criminals, or murderers, as in Basic Instinct (1992), Single White Female (1992), Jennifer's Body (2009), Cracks (2009), and Chloe (2009), or as vampires, as in The Vampire Lovers (1970) and The Hunger (1983).

It was an interesting year at the movies. Attendance was down at theaters: it was almost 6 percent lower (the lowest in fifteen years) than in 2009, and fewer tickets were sold, though we saw slightly higher revenue (over $10 billion) owing to steeper ticket prices for 3-D. Many things were proposed as causes: was it noisy theater patrons, poor images and sound at multiplexes, more viewing options (video on demand, streaming, etc.), the economy, the use of social media to instantly broadcast word-of-mouth reactions, or something else?

Of the ten 2010 Best Picture nominees, the audience favorites are Toy Story 3 and Inception, although the former will most likely win Best Animated Feature Film, and the mind-bending Inception, as has been pointed out numerous times, is missing a key Best Director nomination. The main front-runners -- The Social Network, True Grit, and The King's Speech -- aren't blockbusters like last year's Avatar, Up, and Blind Side. Here are some of the overall trends that emerged.

Fantasy Films Mostly Nixed in Favor of Real-life Nonfiction Stories
Jerry Bruckheimer failed twice as producer this year, with the video-game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and the fantasy-comedy The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Other fantasy flops included M. Night Shyamalan's awful Nickelodeon-cartoon rip-off The Last Airbender and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Mainstream audiences neglected the multi-genre flop that was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and also Jack Black in Gulliver's Travels. One flippant over-the-top film that did appeal to geeks and fanboys was the unapologetically defiant R-rated comic-book-superhero adaptation Kick-Ass -- its title referring to a teenage crime-fighting superhero who teams up with a foulmouthed, sexually aggressive, and murderous 11-year-old Hit-Girl.

No, filmgoers (and Academy members) preferred a heavy dose of nonfiction stories this year. Examples included the Best Picture nominee The King's Speech, about a debilitated monarch with a stammering problem; the generation-defining Social Network, about finding one's identity amid social media; the art-house ballet thriller Black Swan; the almost unfilmable 127 Hours; an eccentric sleeper hit about an atypical two-mom family (The Kids Are All Right); a come-from-behind boxing story (The Fighter); the realistic, raw Winter's Bone; and the marriage-disintegration drama Blue Valentine.

Poor Response to High-Profile Sequels
If it wasn't the critics, then it was the poor audience response to sequels such as the superfluous comedy Sex and the City 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was received only lukewarmly as a fantasy film with nothing special in it. Even though Iron Man 2 made over $300 million domestically, few liked it, and it was the sole comic-book film of the year to receive an Oscar nod (Best Visual Effects) -- proving there was an overall decline in (and exhaustion with) superhero action films. The top-grossing talking-animal film of 2010 was Yogi Bear. The subgenre is tired. The remake Tron: Legacy (with 3-D) missed out on a Best Visual Effects nomination, and Oliver Stone's topical Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps fell flat. The most obvious exceptions were both based on blockbuster book franchises: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Eclipse.

The mention of New Year's Eve -- what comes to mind? Times Square and the countdown to the dropping ball, parties with Champagne glasses clinking, kisses at the stroke of midnight, New Year's resolutions, "Auld Lang Syne," showering confetti, and balloons? What if you were limited to recalling films that had memorable and pivotal New Year's Eve scenes in them? Well, this list is a start.

Sadly Celebrating New Year's Eve Alone
In the classic silent film The Gold Rush (1925), the tramp (Charles Chaplin) falls hopelessly in love with a dance-hall girl, Georgia (Georgia Hale), who accepts his invitation to New Year's Eve dinner, though she has no intention of showing up. On the night of the dinner, the tramp excitedly makes elaborate preparations -- lighted candles, fancy napkins, and a heart-shaped place card at Georgia's seat, with "To My Love" written on it -- before dozing off and dreaming of the party. At midnight, he is awakened by boisterous celebrants nearby (including his beloved) and realizes he's been stood up, so he leaves cabin and shuffles up to the saloon window to watch the party, sadly, through the window, as the guests sing "Auld Lang Syne." Georgia eventually comes 'round, but alas, it's too late.

Confessing One's Love During a New Year's Eve Reunion
In the conclusion of the popular romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally (1989), a forlorn Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) watches television's sixteenth annual New Year's Rockin' Eve while eating Mallomars. Across town, a reluctant Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) is unhappily dancing at a lavish New Year's Eve party in a hotel. Harry takes to New York's streets, and finding himself under the Washington Square arch -- where Sally had dropped him off after their fateful car ride twelve years earlier -- races to the party and professes his undying love as the countdown to the New Year occurs in the background. She melts: "You see. That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you." And then they kiss.

Harry's Defeat of Lord Voldemort, Disguised as Professor Quirrell
Turbaned "Defense Against the Dark Arts" teacher Quirinus Quirrell (Ian Hart) confesses to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) that it isn't devious potions master Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) who is trying to kill him, as the film leads one to believe. The film's major surprise is that Lord Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) has become Quirrell's master, commanding him to serve and do his bidding, and is plotting a return to power by acquiring the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry refuses to be tempted to hand over the stone and through his magical power of touch causes Quirrell's flesh to burn and disintegrate, defeating the Dark Lord.

Originally derived from the voodoo word zonbi -- meaning "ghost or departed spirit" -- zombies have long been a horror-movie staple. The zombie film is one of the most versatile of genres -- there have been everything from comedies to science-fiction flicks, thrillers, and even romances involving zombies. Let's have a look at their grisly cinematic history.

Earliest Voodoo Zombies in the Thirties
The first major mention of the word "zombie" was in William Seabrook's sensationalized 1929 study of Haitian voodoo, titled The Magic Island. The lurid book detailed his adventures and encounters with the living dead -- shambling hulks with unfocused eyes and expressionless faces. In the early thirties, Hollywood was beginning to experiment with iconic-monster films, and it was only a matter of time before the first feature-length walking-dead film appeared: director Victor Halperin's cheaply made White Zombie (1932). His expressionistic entry starred Bela Lugosi as voodoo priest "Murder" Legendre, the piercing-eyed owner of a Haitian sugar mill operated by mindless human zombies. The 1932 film's sequel was the inferior, slow-moving Revolt of the Zombies (1936), about a Cambodian sorcerer-priest with a secret formula to create hypnotized zombies. In the hour-long horror thriller Ouanga (1936) (a.k.a. Love Wanga or Drums of the Jungle), native Haitian plantation owner (and voodoo priestess) Klili (Fredi Washington) raised two zombies to kidnap the new fiancée of her ex-lover Adam (Philip Brandon) and sacrifice her in a ceremony.

Zombies in the Forties and Fifties
Three Monogram zombie films followed in the next decade, tying Nazism to zombie lore: the prewar King of the Zombies (1941) featuring a sinister Nazi-like doctor who conducted voodoo to create a zombie army; its quasi remake, Revenge of the Zombies (1943) (a.k.a. The Corpse Vanished), with another mad scientist creating a race of living-dead warriors for the Third Reich; and Voodoo Man (1944), a recycled Revenge of the Zombies that brought back Bela Lugosi as the voodoo master Dr. Marlowe, who kidnapped young women to use their spirits to animate his dead wife. The next significant zombie film was RKO producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With a Zombie (1943), a West Indies derivation of Charlotte Brontë's dark romance Jane Eyre. The movie's most atmospheric scene was the dreamlike nocturnal walk through the sugar-cane fields to a native voodoo ceremony with the sound of drums and the startling appearance of a giant bug-eyed zombie guard named Carrefour (Darby Jones). The zombie subgenre declined after the mid-forties, although there were a few notable entries in the fifties, such as Republic's twelve-part sci-fi serial, Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952); producer Sam Katzman's Zombies of Mora Tau (1957); Voodoo Woman (1957); and the box-office bomb Teenage Zombies (1959).

AMC recently acquired from Paramount exclusive on-air and on-demand U.S. cable rights to the Godfather films -- for nine years, beginning in 2011 (the longest TV licensing deal ever signed for the trilogy). Many accolades have been given to director Francis Ford Coppola's filmed saga, and the series has become universally revered as the definitive gangster drama. Themes include revenge, intrigue, betrayal, alliances, violence, and the corrupting influences of power, ambition, and loyalty to one's family. The first two films, in 1972 and 1974, are considered masterpieces of American moviemaking, and many film reviewers consider the second part equal or superior to the original. So just what has made this collection of films so memorable?

Critical, Award-Winning, and Commercial Success
The first two films both won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The second film was the first winning sequel in Academy history. The three films received a total of 28 nominations and were awarded nine Oscars, including a Best Actor Oscar for Marlon Brando in 1972 and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robert De Niro in 1974. Collaborators Coppola and Mario Puzo (the author of the best-selling 1969 novel that began the legend) won Best Adapted Screenplay in both 1972 and 1974. The Godfather: Part II (1974) won twice as many Oscars as the first film. The first part of the saga was a tremendous critical and commercial success -- and the highest grossing (domestic) film of its year and time (at $135 million). With a production budget of $6.5 million, it was also the most profitable film. The second film took in only $48 million in box-office (domestic) business, while the third film grossed $66 million (domestic) and $137 million (worldwide). Its production budget was a whopping $54 million. The third film had seven Academy nominations (including the first for cinematographer Gordon Willis) but zero Oscars.

Frequently Quoted
Many familiar lines of dialogue have become catchphrases, including the following:
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
"Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."
"Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel."
"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Earthquakes
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the concluding cornerstone of Best Picture-nominated San Francisco (1936), a big moneymaker for MGM. The special effects in the scenes of the Earth splitting apart and a subsequent devastating fire were stunningly realistic. In Earthquake (1974), suspenseful scenes of the crumbling destruction of Los Angeles by a powerful 9.9-level earthquake were accompanied by impressive special effects and the first use of bass-rumbling Sensurround ("You'll feel it, as well as see it!"), resulting in the film's only Oscar win, for Best Sound. The film also used model skyscrapers that collapsed, Styrofoam concrete, and a miniature to depict the crumbling Hollywood Reservoir.

With all the recent interest in vampires (the Twilight saga, HBO's True Blood, CW's Vampire Diaries), it seems essential to note that the vampire character is one of the most ubiquitous in the history of cinema, extending from the earliest days of cinema to present-day manifestations. Dark, primitive, and revolting characters that simultaneously attract and repel us form the irresistible heart of big-screen vampire tales.

Vampire Source Material
Vampires began to emerge in popular fiction in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, during which time Irish writer Bram Stoker's 1897 vampire novel, Dracula, was written. It has become the most popular, influential, and preeminent source material for many vampire films. Stoker's seminal book hatched all the elements of future vampire films: predatory female vampires kissing the necks of male victims for their human blood, in order to remain immortal; an elderly count dwelling in a sinister Transylvanian castle; and a vampire hunter armed with a wooden stake and garlic to ward off the Prince of Darkness. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Carmilla was a close second to Stoker's writings, becoming the source of numerous lesbian-vampire tales.

The line between advertising and entertainment has become increasingly blurred of late. Sure, most moviegoers are savvy to the lucrative practice of placing products (as paid advertisements) in films, but it remains advantageous for producers to have their characters consuming their wares in the context of a real-world situation, because the products are seen as more relevant without the hard sell of a pitchman in a standard commercial.

In 2010, product placement in movies is valued at billions of dollars annually, but, although most people think of product placement as a recent phenomenon that came out of nowhere in the '80s, it has existed since the dawn of film itself. (And so has its inverse: When Clark Gable appeared bare chested in It Happened One Night (1934), sales of men's undershirts fell 40 percent.) Read on for some memorable examples.

As any movie fan knows, there are more examples of box-office disasters than can be summarized in a quick list. For this one, we selected among the most notorious films that pushed a studio into bankruptcy or had the most major losses, after setting total production and marketing costs against worldwide grosses. This short list, unfortunately, leaves out many noteworthy flops, such as Heaven's Gate, Ishtar, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Postman, Battlefield Earth, and Gigli. History is bound to repeat itself, so the story hardly ends here.

Cutthroat Island (1995)
Total Cost: $115 million
Worldwide Gross: $10 million
Director Renny Harlin's bloated pirate-themed film continues to enjoy the reputation of being the biggest box-office bomb of all time. Its losses were so phenomenal -- costs were nearly equaled by net losses of almost $105 million (after inflation, $147 million) -- that its production company, Carolco, was forced to file for bankruptcy even before it opened, selling most of its assets, for $50 million, to 20th Century Fox. The adventure tale featured wooden acting (from Matthew Modine, opposite Geena Davis), a deficient and often incoherent script, continuity problems and spectacular-but-boring special effects. There were six writers credited for the dubious film's story and script, an indication of its significant problems.

The Alamo (2004)
Total Cost: $145 million
Worldwide Gross: $25 million
John Lee Hancock's bloated, boring Disney production starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton was an expensive remake of John Wayne's 1960 film about the heroic 1836 battle. It was criticized as having a threadbare, sluggish script; characters that were cartoonish (especially Santa Anna); a bombastic score; mostly bloodless violence; and jerky editing, though it was much more historically accurate than its predecessor. Preview screenings were disastrous, thanks to its original three-hour-plus running time, so it was cut down to 135 minutes, causing delays in its release -- and resulting in terrible box-office returns. Net losses were $120 million (after inflation, $135 million).

The Oscar race is over and the results are in, after what feels like one of the longest awards seasons in history. As always, some intriguing patterns arose out of the hype. Let's examine them, with some historical perspective.

Ten Best Picture Nominees - Beneficial or Not?
The point of having an expanded list of Best Picture nominees was to increase broadcast ratings, generate anticipation about the winner, and drum up interest in a broader range of movies. As it turns out, there were really only five viable contenders: four of the Best Picture nominees were long shots (Up in the Air, District 9, An Education, and A Serious Man), while a fifth nominee, Up, basically eliminated itself by winning in the Animated Feature Film category. That left five Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Precious, Inglourious Basterds, and The Blind Side. The fact that Avatar is the biggest blockbuster of all time boosted ratings: preliminary indications are that this year there were 41.3 million viewers, up from last year's 36.3 million. It was the most watched show in five years.

It's that time of year again: the Oscar nominations have been announced. This year's awards race is particularly notable, as it marks the debut of the Academy's newly expanded, ten-nominee Best Picture slate. As is always the case, the movies blessed with nominations are a good indicator of not only how things are going in Hollywood but also in the culture-at-large. What lessons can we glean from this year's picks?

Critics and novices alike have opinions about movies, but when you're looking for objective truth, the numbers don't lie. One of the more tangible ways to evaluate movies over a long period of time is to compare historical box-office revenue results, although the effects of inflation can drastically skew things. And it's best to take caution anyway -- box-office figures are a tricky thing to count on when trying to measure a movie's success. Here's why.

Any grouping of movies during a decade reflects the interests, mind-set, and concerns of moviemakers and their times. Sensationalized celebrity deaths, global terrorism, the growth of broadband Internet access, the advent of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and the rise of reality TV were just some of the entertainment-media highlights of this first decade of the 21st century. The movies had their fair share of developments as well. As we look ahead to the new decade, here's a quick look back at what happened at the movies over the last ten years...

1. Hit Movies That Wouldn't Normally Appeal to American Audiences
A movie didn't have to be in English to appeal. Surprise-hit movies in this vein included director Ang Lee's martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the first major American cross-over success of an Asian action movie, and the highest grossing foreign-language movie released in U.S.; the delightfully-sweet French flick Amelie (2001), the stunning City of God (2002), the German historical drama Downfall (2004), the emotional character study of a secret police surveillance agent in The Lives of Others (2006), and the French stroke victim biography The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). In addition, four documentaries made a major impact: Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), the poignant March of the Penguins (2005), and Al Gore's climate-change expose An Inconvenient Truth (2006).

Although rabid fans usually object to updating masterpieces like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), The Pink Panther (1963), or Planet of the Apes (1968), Hollywood studios rarely listen. In fact, they tend to prefer self-cannibalizing their movies or reprocessing ready-made "content" from earlier hits rather than taking risks. Let's compare the following six sets of movie modernizations, and see how they fared.

1. A Guy Named Joe (1943) vs. Always (1989)
The war-time fantasy A Guy Named Joe (1943) tells the tale of an Air Force commander (Spencer Tracy) who gets shot down during a bombing run in Germany -- and returns as a guardian angel out to help novice pilots. He grows conflicted when one of the pilots (Van Johnson) falls in love with his girl (Irene Dunne). Steven Spielberg remade his favorite classic film as Always (1989), a weaker update that changes the tale from bomber pilots in WWII to daredevil forest-fire-fighting pilots in the Pacific Northwest in the late '80s. Without that crucial war-time setting as backdrop, the romantic triangle between Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and Brad Johnson is nowhere near as urgent.

2. Death Takes a Holiday (1934) vs. Meet Joe Black (1998)
Disc Two of the "Ultimate DVD Edition" of the over-indulgent, big-budget Meet Joe Black (1998) is a 79-minute black-and-white work Death Takes a Holiday (1934). Meet Joe Black is a pseudo-redo of the original fantasy drama, about a personified "Death" (Fredric March) who takes bodily form to learn what it's like to be human. In the lavish modern version, Joe Black/"Death" is played by sexy star Brad Pitt, opposite Anthony Hopkins as 65-year-old telecommunications mogul, and Claire Forlani as Hopkins' pretty daughter. For all the extra minutes in the remake, one would think it would have made more profound statements; but no. The most important lessons Black learns are about the splendor of two earthly pleasures: Peanut butter and prolonged love-making.