The Death of Originality

There is a saying that anything that can be done has already been done. I would like to add that anything that can be done has been done and will be done over and over and over again. Lets face it, for simple reasons when something works there are thousands of copycats that are ready to dig their hand in the pot and see if they can pull anything from this. The thought is throughout every medium of media. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that this is a bad thing or me standing on a soapbox preaching to be original because I just found out that my film is a DIRECT rip-off of a film that was made about three years ago (and I did not know that it was not done). Yet I suggest that if you are going to “be inspired by another work” then take it and make it your own.

This thought is no more prominent then in “sampling” in the R&B and rap scene. Using beats and loops from music in the 70’s 80’s and today are put into new music for their purpose. And to be honest most of them are done very well. The trend died down a bit but in the late 90’s and in early 2000 it was rampit. Sean Puffy Combs, Usher, and Biggie Smalls, were masters of this. They took something old and pumped their own thought into it.

Another example is with South Park. They did a whole episode that was dedicated that everything on T.V. has been done. Butters, a goofy sidekick of the show, exclaims that “the Simpsons did it” as another character tries to do something original that the viewers have not seen. Going as far as developing a Goldberg to extract frosting out of donuts, when much to his shock, Bart Simpson was developing the same thing for that week.

Film is not exempt from this field. But my generation is a bit more oblivious to this fact. Many people in their 20’s do not know that Mission Impossible was a television show long before Tom Cruise was the star of the franchise that was pumped out; or that House on Haunted Hill was a remake from 1958 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051744/).

None is more obvious then the Star Wars Trilogy. The films were first digitally re-mastered, but that feed fuel to the fire spawning a total remake of the first three films (which were the last three in the series) and then giving birth to the prequels to complete the series.

Recently the trend is continuing. The 1980 film Prom Night is being remade, this film was poor at best when it first came out, just remaking it does not make this film any better. I hold my optimism for a decent turn at the box office, setting no recorded, being torn apart by the critics, and disappointing anyone who spends the 8 dollars and up to see this.

But Prom Night is not the only film that is being remade. Get Smart is getting new breath blown into it, as Steve Carell takes on the roll of Maxwell Smart (a clueless spy). I do believe this will be done well. The show itself was Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 9 wins & 7 nominations.

Overall there is nothing wrong with breathing new life in something old. It has been done millions of times, and ever William Shakespeare was not original. Take it and make it your own.