By Rom Watson
c. June 30, 2011
While perusing a list of the most popular films of 1921, (don’t ask), I was struck by how many of the titles were familiar. The list of 53 silent films included:
Black Beauty
Camille
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Disraeli
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Kismet
Last of the Mohicans
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Mark of Zorro
Orphans of the Storm
Queen of Sheba
Three Musketeers
Ninety years have passed since 1921, so I didn’t expect to recognize 12 out of 53 titles. However, what struck me about the list is how many of the films have been remade, some of them numerous times. Here is the list again. Notice the number in parenthesis after the title. It is the number of film and/or TV versions of that story, including the 1921 version, that now exist.
Black Beauty (6)
Camille (7)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (7)
Disraeli (3)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2)
Kismet (4)
Last of the Mohicans (9)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (10)
Mark of Zorro (18)
Orphans of the Storm (2)
Queen of Sheba (4)
Three Musketeers (28)
People complain about the film industry relying so heavily on remakes to earn its money, but this has been going on for well over ninety years. A century of the same stories, recycled over and over again. And since there are only so many basic stories from which all stories stem, this isn’t going to change. So rather than complain about all the remakes, let’s realize that retelling stories is part of the storytelling process. That’s simply how it works.
Though when a story does come along that has enough originality to stand out from the pack: let’s show our appreciation.