I like the original but I also enjoyed this one and wouldn't like to miss it.
Yes, there's abusive language most notably used by Gawain and Weemack. But it's part of the character depiction and no self purpose. The contrast of characters and their interaction is quite funny. The bad influence of that hippityhopp music, songs with the titles spelled all funny. You gotta help those boys, you gotta extend that helpin hand.
Cartoon characters, a reproach often articulated with respect to characters in Coen Brothers comedies. Well, that's their style of character depiction. But beyond the exaggeration there are human beings confronted with problems, looking for answers within the realm of their believes, experiences, proclivities, ideals,... Sometimes they find useful answers, sometimes they don't, like in real life. Marva Munson resorts to the preacher's sermon when beating Gawain: "Sometimes it's the only way!" Lump resorts to the experiences of his football career. Remember when he comes up with the idea of bribing Gawain's boss he addresses the Professor as coach. The Professor resorts to Edgar Allan Poe when he looks for a way to get rid of the old lady and comes up with immurement in the cellar. But in the light of Garth Pancake's raw down-to-earth craftsmanship things get way too real for him and he discards his idea. When confronted with Gawain's agressive reluctance Garth refers to the efforts of the Freedom Riders, he took part in, for the black folks in the South. But Gawain just doesn't care because he doesn't make use of his right to vote they fought for.
I also think that the multi-cultural approach suits the transformation of the story to the United States very well. One might as well see an allusion to the American dream. Five men of different social, cultural, ethnical, educational background work together to make their idea of the American dream come true but eventually fail, undone by their individual weaknesses, and in the end ironically the Afro American old lady generously donates the money from the heist to Bob Jones University, an originally predominantly white institution still prohibiting interracial dating between its students at the time the story takes place (1990s: "30 years after Martin Luther King, the age of Montel"). Culture clash wise the General's death is a highlight. A cuckoo clock sealing an Asian American's fate in an Afro American old lady's bedroom.
I don't think that the film lacks elegance and subtlety. Just look, for example, how elegant the mood of the sleepy town is established by a camera pan past the cobwebbed key at the prison cell, then later on Marva Munson stepping over the dog fallen asleep in front of the Sheriff's office. The orchestration of the dialogue with different language colours and slangs is quite virtuosic. And one can spot some funny plays on words and their meaning, "doubletalk" as the old lady recurrently says. For example, Marva Munson in the beginning, referring to the bible: "You've been tried and found wanting." Then later on you have those two guys trying to rob the General's donut store, repeatedly insisting: "We want that donut money!" Well, it seems that eventually they've been tried and found wanting, wanting that donut money.
To the extent of my knowledge this was initially a studio project with Barry Sonnenfeld, the Coen Brother's former director of photography, to direct. When he quit they took over not only directing but also producing, writing the script and editing, like in their other movies. Indeed there is no point in redoing a classic the same way all over again. But I think borrowing the basic storyline of the original they created something new of different appeal and, at least to me, enjoyable.
By the way, here's an interesting comparison between the original and the remake:
http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/ladykillers.html
... essentially stating that the original is about the British inability to deal with disturbance, while the remake is about how language defines us.
reply
share