Hatrack River Forum: Original Works

This is topic Original Works in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Lacerta (Member # 8007) on :

Which do people prefer,original works, or Hollywood knock offs?
Why am I asking this, you ask? Simple, I have a slight fedish with foriegn films, such as Koji Suzuki's Ring series, or the Irish television series Father Ted. If something like father ted were to be brought to america and remade, I think i would die...Yeah...I digress...
Anyhow, tell me which you prefer!

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Coupling the original was far better than Coupling the American version.

But we could also expand this to include Hollywood originals or Bollywood knock-offs. There are plenty of Bollywood movies (as in, a lot, really) that are copies of several Hollywood movies - they combine elements of this, that, and the other to form their own version. For example, Koi...Mil Gaya, which is a lot of E.T. with sprinklings of Flowers for Algernon (the book, really. Don't know if a movie was ever made) and some Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Or Dewaar, which is The Great Escape. Or the one that was a knock-off of Serendipity. Then there was the knock-off of The Invisible Man.

I enjoyed the Bollywood knock-offs. Koi...Mil Gaya wasn't as good as I remember E.T. being, but then, I saw only the last 1/2 of it whenever it originally came back, so maybe that's just a childhood memory coming into play. However, it was still enjoyable. Same with Dewaar - a very good movie, but then it has Amitabh Bachchan in it, and his movies tend to be very good.

But then, they have different intended audiences, which becomes even more obvious when you watch them. Imagine The Great Escape with singing and dancing numbers done by supposedly emaciated nearly dying prisoners. It's laughable to westerners, but expected by the Hindi audience.

Better? Worse? Depends. How about just different?

Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

For Flowers for Algernon, there was a movie, it was called Charly.

Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :

Although it wasn't really the same at all....

I prefer the original... [Big Grin]

Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :

I liked the book Flowers for Algernon much more than Charly. I thought it was a better format to tell the story with--the journal entries.

Posted by Lacerta (Member # 8007) on :

aaahhh...Never seen it..or heard of it.. Maybe I should pick it up

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

quote:
Imagine The Great Escape with singing and dancing numbers done by supposedly emaciated nearly dying prisoners. It's laughable to westerners, but expected by the Hindi audience.

Actually, that sounds rather excellent. [Wink]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kwea:
Although it wasn't really the same at all....

I prefer the original...

Would that be the original novel? Or the original short story?

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

And none of this answers the original question...

My, but we do get sidetracked easily, don't we? [ROFL]

Raia, it was rather good. If you can, see it. If you can't, if you ask me real nice, I might send you a copy. [Smile]

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

What's it called, again? I couldn't figure it out from your original post. I'll see if the Ozen has it, and if they do, I'll check it out. If not, I'll let you know. [Wink]

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Dewaar. It's even linked to itself in the IMDB database. For your ease of retrieval and informational purposes. [Big Grin]

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

Is it the 1975 one, or the 2004?

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

Oh, 2004. For sure. With Amitabh Bachchan.

You could also check out the Bollywood thread for other movie recommendations.

But Raia, I meant that, in this thread, the first time I mention Dewaar, it's linked to the IMDB database. I think you missed that.

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

Oh, haha, I did. Oops. Thanks, quid! I don't think the Ozen has it ( [Frown]

), but I don't trust the website to tell me. I'll have to go and ask them at some point.

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

You can also check out the entry labelled Bollywood for Beginners in this thread for even more Bollywood recommendations.