www.Tobold.com
Tobold@GMail.com
A blog with my thoughts regarding games I am playing and other stuff in life. Please read my Terms of Service
RSS Feed
Monday, August 21, 2023
Disney remakes The Birth of a Nation
In case you are missing historical knowledge, or, more likely these days on the internet, any sense of humor, I would like to point out that the headline of this post is satirical. While Wikipedia correctly describes The Birth of a Nation as a landmark of film history, nobody would ever remake it, as its extremely racist core message would be unacceptable to modern audiences. I used satire for my headline to make a point: "Go woke and go broke" would equally work on advertising or media with an overly right-wing message. The culture wars are carried by a minority of society on both sides, and there is a huge number of people who would prefer their beer and their movies to remain apolitical.
For media products, even more importantly, most people care more about the quality of the product than about its political connotations. The Rings of Power simply isn't very good, and has one of the least sympathetic main characters ever; progressive production values don't change anything about that. Hogwart's Legacy simply is a good video game that is fun to play; political protest against an only remotely related author doesn't change anything about that.
The issue with remakes is a slightly different one: Are you passing the torch, or are you torching the past? Disney could easily create new intellectual property with a modern fairy tale, featuring a progressive Disney princess. If instead they market their new film as a remake of an older movie, that is because they know how nostalgic people can get. But you can't simultaneously use nostalgia marketing and have the cast of your new movie repeatedly declare how the old movie is an outdated piece of shit and that the "remake" wouldn't be in any way related to that old garbage.
A remake of The Birth of a Nation is impossible, because it would either be politically unacceptable, or, if made politically correct, be unrecognizable as a remake. But the Disney movies of the 20th century were successful because they rarely were overtly political in any direction. Millions of little girls grew up dreaming of being a Disney princess. These are now millions of adult women, mothers and grandmothers. Telling these women that their childhood dreams were morally reprehensible is not a good marketing strategy. A subtler "update" with a lot less virtue signaling would have worked a lot better.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:47 AM Permanent Link
Comments:
<< Home
Newer› ‹Older
I’m going to go with Captain Pedant here and point out they actually did remake that movie in 2016. (I only know because I’d never heard of it and had to google it.)
Your comments are otherwise interesting as always of course.
Your comments are otherwise interesting as always of course.
# posted by 
: 21/8/23 14:41
: 21/8/23 14:41
@Baldrake that is not a remake of the Disney film, but an entirely different film with a (presumably not uncoincidental) same name.
I am frustrated both by the idea that a good movie will tank if you allow a woman or minority to play the lead character, and by the idea that making the lead character of a mediocre to poor movie a woman or a minority somehow magically elevates it. May the best person always win, and may only movies that are worth my time get made.
Post a Comment
<< Home
