Sabrina(1954) - A cinderella story in which a pitiful chauffer's daughter longs for the heart of a rich playboy, but in the end she may have been missing something that was right in front if her the whole time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047437/
Sabrina (1995) - A modern retelling of the 1954 classic. An almost note for note remake of the original, plus Harrison Ford. How can you go wrong?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114319/
In both films we have a main character trapped in his own home, Kale (Disturbia's protagonist) isn't very trapped to be honest, but let's not get hung up on the details. As I spoke about it my review of Disturbia, this really takes all the steam out of the situation. Kale is in danger at times but he can always fight, flee or evade in the tense situations. L.B. Jefferies, however, confined to his wheel chair in Rear Window, really puts the viewer smack dab in his shoes.
I was prepared to bring up sexuality as a topic before I even watched these movies, having only seen the previews. With a pool scene where our main character eyes his young female neighbor, I was ready to claim that Disturbia, being a modern movie was more risque than it's 50's counterpart, but I was mistaken. There were relatively little sexual overtones in the modern version, perhaps because it was a teen focused film. While not full of sex, Rear Window did have what would seem to be a good amount of sexual implications, if you account for the era it was made. The main character appreciates, on a regular basis, the dancing ballerina across the way he affectionately names, "Ms. Torso." Also, handled with some 1950's discretion, it is implied that towards the end of the film our male and female leads are intending to take their relationship to a more intimate place. While it didn't make one film better or worse than the other, that was a point I did notice.
Overall, there also was a seeming laziness in the plot structure of Disturbia. They let you know much too early in the movie that the creepy neighbor is, in fact, a serial killer (who by the way, lest I forget, has one of the most extensive and elaborate serial killer lairs you'll ever find beneath a suburban neighborhood.) Keeping us, and L.B. Jefferies guessing right until the last moments, creates a completely different sense of tension in Rear Window. In DisturbiaI felt like they cemented the idea of the neighbor serial killer early, so they could get to the exciting, action packed ending, much sooner. Which is a point in itself.
I'm assuming it is the current convention of Hollywood film making that no audience wants to see the hero of the movie powerless to resolve the situation he is in. In a move that is rarely seen these days, the main character of Rear Window is almost completely powerless when the bad guy comes to confront him. Jefferies does manage to slow down the killer just enough (using elements that are close at hand) to survive, with the help of his friends and the police. Can you imagine if a modern thriller starring Bruce Willis has him narrowly avoiding death thanks to the quick reaction of his wife or girlfriend. Somehow I don't think so.
There is nothing too offensive about Disturbia, it's just average filmmaking. There is a place in the movie world for films that are not culturally relevant or groundbreaking. Most of them are just that, with only a small percentage being original and innovative. Disturbia can be an enjoyable flick to some. Just do yourself a favor, if you watch Disturbia, make time to see Rear Window as well. It will be like having that healthy salad along with the fattening cheeseburger at lunch. Something good to balance out the bad stuff.
The movie opens with artificially emotional scene with Kale (Shia) and his father on a fishing trip. On the ride home there is a sudden and terrible car accident in which Kale loses his father. A year later we see an emotionally troubled Kale, lashing out at an "evil" spanish teacher, who for reasons the movie does not show, loves to harass Kale. This is all in service to establishing sympathy for our main character. How do we get him under house arrest but not have him be a nasty criminal? Well, he's misunderstood, of course. One of the main problems here is, unfortunate parental death aside, we don't have a likable main character. Kale is bratty and completely self centered. His mother lost her husband, but he makes life even more difficult fo her, nice kid.
This is all set-up to get to the main point, our main character a captive in his own home begins to watch his neighbors, for lack of anything better to do. After we get some incredibly brief and uninteresting observations of his neighbors, we get to the creepy guy, who is revealed (way too soon, in my opinion) to be a serial killer. The way this movie reveals the creepy neighbor's actions, we never have a doubt that he is a killer. Kind of a mistake compared to Rear Window. That movie had you wondering if it was all in the main character's mind, almost until the last few minutes of the movie.
Oh, and Kale he's a bit of a perv. It's surprising that the love interest in the movie, a new girl that just moved in next door, ends up falling for Kale, knowing he has been spying on her as she sun bathes, laying in bed and who knows what else. I guess with cell phone cameras, Youtube and the like, girls of her generation are flattered by peeping toms.
There's a lot to nit-pick here, but there's an overlying problem with the movie that they should have seen before it was done. We don't ever get a real sense that Kale is restricted to his home in any way. Sure, the police will come if he leaves his home but the main character in Rear Window was physically restricted to his home. There is much more tension possible in that situation. When the eventual confrontation comes with the serial killer, although the odds are against him, Kale at least has the ability to defend him self and even better, to take action. I have a feeling that these days, people would not want to see Shia LaBeouf stuck in a wheelchair, powerless as the killer comes to exact his revenge. We want our heroes to get in there and wipe the floor with the bad guy. Even if the bad guy, in every way out matches the puny Shia, our main character will get it done somehow.
I can't really recommend Disturbia, there's too much wrong with it and there is long list of movies that are shooting for the same thing and hit the mark much better. I suppose if you are under house arrest and in a wheel chair, with the t.v. remote just out of reach and Disturbia comes on, that's a perfect reason to watch.
Let's get the first major point out of the way, it goes without saying, Alfred Hitchcock was way ahead of his time. Technically speaking, Rear Window is filmed in a way that was exceptional for it's time. Hitchcock's long takes and camera movement (among other things) established his visual style immediately. At first glance you can tell it's one of his movies. This is the review, so I'll get more into the technical aspects of the creation of the movie when I do the "Match-Up" with the re-imagined movie, Disturbia, but it has to be said that the way the movie is shot has much to do with it's greatness.
One of the boldest choices the movie makes it to confine the main character and as a result, the viewer, to a single room. At no point does Hitchcock venture outside the small 2 room apartment that wheelchair bound L.B. Jefferies occupies. We do get to see virtually everything that is going on around him but only from the vantage point of his picture window. This goes a long way towards immersing the viewer in the character's situation. When some of the movies more tense sequences play out, they are made all the more upsetting because of our limited view of the action. We are stuck across the courtyard in our wheelchair, after all. Preceding generations of directors have been using this "less is more" approach to visual storytelling, thanks in part, to Rear Window.
I'll probably say a couple more times in these reviews, my frame of reference for reviewing these older films is limited. There are some ideas I get from watching them that can only be backed up with more context. With that being said, the romantic subplot in this film seemed a little ahead of it's time, as well. Movies of this era seemed to have very simplistic romances. Male leads are strong and in control, female leads are beautiful and ripe for romancing. Often times we don't see why these two folk should get together, other than one is the current big male star and one is the latest Hollywood princess. Here, we get a little more depth to their interactions.
Rear Window is suspenseful, technically pleasing (as soon as you realize Hitchcock is placing you in that wheel chair along with James Stewart) and surprisingly funny. If you haven't experienced many Hitchcock films, think M Night Shyamalan, at least when he is on top of his game ,that is. Don't let Rear Window sit on your list of shame like I did for so long. It deserves to be seen, so you can realize it's influence on so much that came after it.
Rear Window (1954) - This Hitchcock movie has been on my list of shame (movies I know are classics but I still have not seen) for a while now, but now I will finally sit down and watch it. While recuperating from a recent accident, wheelchair bound L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) gets more than he bargained for when he thinks he witnesses a murder.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/
Disturbia(2007) - An un-official remake of rear window, starring the always excellent Shia LaBeouf. Confined to his home on house arrest Kale (Shia) witnesses the mysterious actions of his neighbor, who he suspects is a serial killer.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486822/
One thing to say here from the start (which I found out after the fact) is that Infernal Affairs is a trilogy of films. Since I didn't watch all three, I can only make comparisons between Infernal Affairs and The Departed. I only mention this because, apparently some small character points from the trilogy made it into the single film remake. So, if you are well versed in the Infernal Affairs universe, forgive me.
Some of the differences I noticed can be chalked up to cultural norms, language and directorial vision. One thing I did realize in watching Infernal Affairs, was that given my lack of knowledge of the Hong Kong movie scene, the events were a little tough to understand at first. This movie has a large cast and if I don't have actors that are as recognizable as Leonardo DiCaprio or Jack Nicholson in the roles, it can be tough to follow. This is one thing that supports the idea of doing U.S. remakes of foreign films, but more on that as I look at the rest of the foreign films on my list.
One of the most broad differences I could see in the two versions was the level of violence. Which one did you think had more gratuitous violence? If you said The Departed you'd be right. I was a little surprised by that. It's not that I thought Hong Kong films were filled with violence (some might be but I don't know if the director in this case was making a choice to imply the violence more than show it), but I thought there would be more than I saw. Infernal Affairs had a much more reserved feeling to it, I won't go so far as saying the movie was more about the characters than the violence because although The Departed was much more violent, I thought it was more about the characters than Infernal Affairs. It's worth mentioning that The Departed was almost 45 minutes longer than it's counterpart. Which can go a long way towards fleshing out your characters.
When it comes to the violence, one scene in particular comes to mind, the two plot points were handled quite differently. I don't want to describe exactly what the scene was comprised of because it is a WTF moment in both movies. Let's just say that one of the main characters has an very "impactful" demise. The death of this character in Infernal Affairs was very emotional (well, it didn't play that way for me really. I saw what they were trying to do story-wise but I didn't care enough about the character to think the amount of emotion involved with his death was warranted) and drawn out. In The Departed the moment was punctuated more with gore than sadness. DeCaprio's character is quite affected by it, and it does make for a pretty intense scene. Scorcese did take the time to get us emotionally attached to the late character, so it worked for me, even if it was shorter. It did illustrate the difference in tone in the two movies, though. I'll mention the greater amount of humor in The Departed here as well, because I think it has a lot to do with the amount of violence. The Departed was almost a comedy at some points. I think this might just be a Scorsese thing, with a good amount of violence it helps to have moments of dark humor, it makes it more palatable for some reason. I wasn't offended by the level of violence, I'm not easily offended but when looking at the two movies side by side, it was noticeable.
Another difference I noted in the movies was the treatment of the character's love interests. Seems to me that in this case, one of the Hollywood gimmicks worked the opposite of they way I usually see it work. In Infernal Affairs, our two main characters had their own separate love interests (Bad Cop inside the SIU, had a perfect wife and the Good Cop gang infiltrator, had a love interest with a department mandated shrink). In The Departed, they combine the two female love interests into a single character. It does work in a economic sense, and creates an interesting plot device. The merged character, through some plot wrangling becomes the love interest of both characters, without their knowledge, of course. This adds another level of tension to the events, since as the viewer we know this is happening and the characters don't. Well, done. Even if it is a little too convenient.
I'm not sure if the expanded back story of the Crime Boss was a planned goal or if the role was expanded after they hired Jack Nicholson, but he had a much beefier story in the The Departed. As I said before, the remake came after the the trilogy, so there could have been much more Crime Boss character development in the U.S. version. But it was a welcome addition, we get some really chilling scenes with Nicholson slowly unraveling.
When comparing the two, these movies are really very close in their quality. Both are top notch and there wasn't too much changed in the U.S. version. To the first of the two main questions then: was it in need of a remake? The short answer? No. Infernal Affairs was a great movie on it's own, I couldn't find much wrong with it, if it was being remade right now I would definitely be asking why. So, which is better? Hmmm. This will be one of those situations where I have to be a little cheap and say it's basically a push. If you had seen Infernal Affairs first, that may well be your favorite. For me it's close, but with the american actors I love and the more relatable setting, The Departed is the one I prefer, but only by a slight margin. See, both. You will definitely be seeing a great film in Infernal Affairs.
