Janneke Evans
COMM 123
Blog Post
October 9, 2019
Prompt: Watch a film and the remake(s) of that film
(ex: A Star is Born (1954/1976/2018)). Write a review
comparing the different versions of the film. Discuss how the particular
historical context or time period may have informed the film's production,
content or reception.
This past weekend,
while home with my family, I watched two movies. My parents and I decided to
movie marathon the original and the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair. This movie was first made in 1968 starring
Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown, a successful real estate tycoon who plans to rob
a bank without doing any of the actual work. His costar, Faye Dunaway, is an
investigator for the bank’s insurance company who is hired to find the bank
robber. Throughout the film, the two form a romantic connection which begins to
cloud the judgement of Dunaway’s character.
Following the
viewing of the first movie, we watched the remake, which was produced in 1999.
The remake keeps the same idea, of a wealthy tycoon of an art acquisitions
company, played by Pierce Brosnan, where he orchestrates the robbery of a Monet
from the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Rene Russo plays the
investigator from the museum insurance company who is hired to solve the case
and takes interest in Brosnan. These two movies follow the same storyline;
however, each of the movies reflects the social normatives of the time periods
they were produced in.
1968 was a time
where the United States was going through a stage of constant change, peril,
and political movement. (Fisher, 2018) Women were still in a state of being
less respected than men in the workforce, and that is shown through Dunaway’s
character. Dunaway plays an intelligent and driven insurance investigator who
has a prestigious reputation in her field, allowing her to be picked for the
job. She is put on the task force, which involves the police department, where
she is working closely with the lead detective who is played by Paul Burke.
Burke’s character is unhinged by the presence of a woman helping solve a
high-profile crime. Dunaway’s character enters this male dominated field, and
constantly receives condescending comments from Burke’s character and is not
trusted by him, showing how she is oppressed in the workplace.
Alongside her role
in the workplace being diminished, the original film shielded the romantic
scenes and presented their courtship as a private and secret affair. The
directors portrayed Dunaway’s character as the point of interest of Thomas
Crown, as he pursues her away from the gaze of the public eye. The secrecy
involved in their relationship, and the ability for Dunaway’s character to only
show her romantic interest in private shows how women were not allowed to
display their sexuality in a public setting. It was socially acceptable for men
to display their forward sexuality, which insinuated dominance, while women
were supposed to be proper in the public eye.
When producers
decide to do a remake of a movie, the public wonders if the new film will be
remotely as good as the first one. The change in value of the film and the
importance it has in our culture is what Walter Benjamin would consider aura.
He believes that in the age of reproduction “that which withers…is the aura”
(Benjamin, p. 51). Here Benjamin is trying to convey that by reproducing a
movie, one decreases the value and uniqueness that the original movie had. In
terms of the Thomas Crown Affair, the
existence of a remake of an original movie takes away for the uniqueness and
value of the original movie. Though the two movie are very different, and I
agree that its aura is diminished with the existence of the second film, I do
believe that the second film modernizes the first and brings the 1960’s idea
into the 21st century.
In contrast to the
reserved demeanor of the first film, the remake of the movie also had a change to
the characters personalities. While Brosnan’s character maintained the same air
of confidence and mysteriousness, his female counterpart’s character took a
turn. When the second movie was produced in 1999, women and their role in the
world had changed drastically, along with their social normatives. 1999 was a
time where women were taking positions in the workforce where they had never
been included before, and their movements for female empowerment and sex
positivity were spreading around the country like wildfire (Hirsch, 2018). With
women being able to be more public with their sexuality and have a strong
presence in the workplace, Crown’s object of affection had a more dominant
personality and sexual presence in this movie. Russo’s character explicitly
goes after what she wants, which is Crown. The romance between Brosnan and
Russo is public, their sexual tension being built in front of the public eye.
Unlike the first film, the 1999 remake has their first kiss in public, during a
ball, initiated by Russo’s character. Besides their public romance, the 1999
version of the film displayed an explicit sex scene on camera, which was
blurred out in the original picture. In our day in age, has become extremely
normalized in movies. This movie shows how the film industry was relaxing their
censorship of women on the big screen.
Though this film
does put a woman in a position of importance, this film does keep “the idea
that women are portrayed…on screen from a man’s point of view, as objects to be
looked at” (Zeisler, p.9). Zeisler discusses how women are portrayed on film as
pretty faces to look at and beautiful bodies to admire. Dunaway’s character was
ahead of her time with her position of power within the film; however, she
still fell victim to the male gaze. Like Dunaway’s, Russo’s character also fell
victim to the male gaze as both of their parts had an emphasis of what they
looked like—their hair, their makeup, their clothes. Though the producers
attempt to diminish the fixation on the appearance of the female lead in the
remake by having Russo be a strong-minded woman, they are still trapped in the
psychology of the male gaze as they focus on the enchantment that her beauty
has on Crown.
(Word Count: 994)
Sources
Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical
reproduction.
Visual Culture: Experiences in Visual Culture.
Fisher, M. (2018, May 29). 1968: The year America unraveled. Retrieved
from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/1968-history-major-events-in-pop-culture/.
Hirsch, A. (2018, January 31). The 1990s: 'It was a decade in
which women could offer reason: people still talk about the Scully effect'.
Retrieved October 5, 2019, from
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/31/as-a-1990s-teenager-the-world-gave-us-girl-power-and-pornification.
Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY:
Seal Press. Pp. 1-21
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