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'High Plains Drifter' remake: what would they do differently?

posted 11 years ago by lou-114
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm not sure what they'd do in a modern remake; almost certainly they'd do a more explicit ending (apparently "I never knew your name" / "yes you do" / "JIM DUNCAN REST IN PEACE" isn't clear enough for some folks), but I think they'd also feel obligated to put a twist on top of the twist. Jim Duncan's death would be gorier too, maybe burning him alive. Hopefully they'd write the women better too.

I shudder to think what a mid 80s remake would have been like. In keeping with an era that believed in the most BS of happy endings, I imagine the Stranger would have come to town to teach the townspeople that, if they work together, they can do anything. And they still would have done the rape scene, except instead of going straight for the pile of straw, they'd kiss first, and she would melt in his arms at that point so you knew it was consensual. And Sheriff Jim Duncan would have been an overly bureaucrat type who somehow killed himself through his petty bureaucratic ways.

[–] star_in_the_zenith_79 11 years ago

The Rock could play the Stranger and ride into town on a white Harley.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 11 years ago

What they would do differently is they would make a bad film....whereas the original was a masterpiece.

The bad news is you have houseguests. There is no good news.

[–] star_in_the_zenith_79 11 years ago

What they would do differently is they would make a bad film....whereas the original was a masterpiece.

Nah..........if done right this movie could be a good remake. It wouldn't have to be a shot for shot same story. More like a parallel, kind of like Sons of Katie Elder and Four Brothers. You could have a few lines and the general plot the same but organized basically around a different setting and different characters, just a mysterious stranger avenging someone's death.

[–] hnt_dnl 10 years ago

They wouldn't write the female characters better. They'd probably write them worse, if not make them totally irrelevant. If they made them 'relevant', they'd turn them into some ridiculous kick-ass type of female where there would be a scene of a 95-pound woman beating the crap out of a 200+ muscle-bound cowboy.

[–] brooksshows 10 years ago

If they remade it today they could cast Jason Priestley as Sarah and Eastwood drags his ass off to the barn for an ass raping. ;)

jk-- my sick sense of humor flaring up again! Sorry!

[–] daver6 10 years ago

No, if it was made today, David Caruso would play the black clad stranger, so that he could ride into town, whip off his shades, put them back on, stand side ways on to anyone he is talking to or shooting, start every bit of dialogue with "Welllll......" and at the end of the film, stand sideways on the shore line, arms akimbo, staring resolutely through shades across the lake with his cape flapping heroically in the wind!

I can just see it!