So many remakes… Are we really not capable of originality anymore?
Why are there so many remakes, and does it mean that we are incapable of original artistic creation and innovation?
There is no denying that our modern society is drawn to remakes or duplications of pieces of art, films, songs, stories, or creations. It’s comfortable, it’s “easy” for organisations to churn the content out and it’s profitable. Nostalgic to some, maybe, but we know that duplications work in a capitalist society, and we know it makes money, especially for the purposes of entertainment (PBS Idea Channel, 2015). Speaking directly about films, why is it easy to make remakes? And why do they work so well? Well, they come built in with storyboards and formats already, names, reputations and audiences, resulting in low costs and high returns (PBS Idea Channel, 2015). Let’s look at Disney for example, with their live action remakes of their classic stories. They’re popular and successful due to their modern-day realism, and with this maturity comes less humour and more themes grounded in reality which in turn, relates more to the human being’s lived experiences; thus, more profitable (Schertzer, 2021).
But is money really the only reason or does the culture industry play a big role? Some could argue that it means that our society is becoming incapable of original artistic creation and innovation, as a result of mass production and greed for profit. Critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer debate, because of the culture industry, films particularly, no longer need to present themselves as art and that they are a business intentionally producing a product to be sold and consumed (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1993). Adorno and Horkheimer maintained this deep distrust of what was understood as ‘popular culture’, arguing that culture itself was subject to something similar to that of factory production in the cinema. (Walton, 2017).
Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher, and cultural theorist, talks about the infantilisation as a society in his book ‘America’ (Baudrillard, 1988), which is an idea that dominant forces are keeping us in a state of arrested development in order to keep us more pliant (Pegg, 2015). As mentioned, aside from the profitability and low risk nature of remaking films, the duplicates are familiar and comfortable, and we are drawn to them. Through duplicates and remakes, our attentions are drawn away from issues that we should be investing in such as inequality, corruption, economic injustice to name a few, and towards those things that we are made passionate about and occupied us as children, a time when most of us, the lucky ones, were shielded away and the harsh realities that surrounded us (Pegg, 2015).
So, we make remakes for profit and comfortability in simple terms, with the culture industry playing a major role in this reasoning. In saying this however, the idea that we are “incapable” of original artistic creation and innovation, although supported by critical theorists, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, can be seen to diminish our authentic creative capabilities as individual human beings. Innovation is happening around us every single day and without that, we wouldn’t be developing into this highly technological society that continuously evolves. Our society revolves around continuous economic growth and innovation is important to the advancement of society as it has become a significant way to combat social and economic problems, enhancing societies capacity to act (Kylliainen, 2019). But, in terms of art and stories, originality drives from who we are as individual human beings. No human is the same, and thus, no heart, mind or soul is the same. The core of many pieces of art come from the original heart and lived experiences of human beings, however, to create that into a tangible artistic work, inspiration from other sources of art, media, and the world around us play a big role. Our artistic ventures and creative ideas are derived from many small ideas and inspirations over time that we either consciously or subconsciously experience on a daily basis (Future Frontiers, 2017).
Many factors play a role in the reason as to why there are so many remakes and duplicates of artistic creations we’ve seen numerous times before; the culture industry, capitalism, consumerism, psychological comfort, profits, familiarity. However, we can argue that there is no definitive black and white answer to that being a possibility that that we are incapable of originality in the form of artistic creation, and especially innovation.
References
Baudrillard, J. (1988). America (10th ed.). London, United Kingdom: Verso.
Future Frontiers. (2017). Unlock Your Creative Genius With These Habits | Keith Sawyer [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCiqrH39tRE
Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. (1993). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Dialectic of enlightenment (pp. 120–167). New York: Continuum.
Kylliainen, J. (2019). The Importance of Innovation — What Does it Mean for Businesses and our Society? [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.viima.com/blog/importance-of-innovation
PBS Idea Channel. (2015). Why Are There So Many Remakes?? (besides $$$) | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytcyfe2gbwQ
Pegg, S. (2015). Big Mouth Strikes Again [Blog]. Retrieved from https://simonpegg.net/2015/05/19/big-mouth-strikes-again/
Schertzer, R. (2021). Defending the live-action Disney remakes (mostly) [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/defending-live-action-disney-remakes-mostly
Storey, J. (2014). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.
Walton, S. (2017). Theory from the ruins [Blog]. Retrieved from https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-frankfurt-school-diagnosed-the-ills-of-western-civilisation