I would like to see a remake of this movie, with Hugh Jackman as the song and dance man. Anyone think it would work? I love Jimmy Cagney movies, I wish they would either release Yankee Doodle Dandy and Angels With Dirty Faces on Blueray, or remake them. Would have to be better content, than some of the drivel that passes for entertainment today.
shareOh, God no!
shareWhat's the obsession with remakes? There's no remaking this!
shareWhy would anyone want to remake any classic movie? Leave it alone
shareWhat I WOULD like to see is a film or cable version of "George M!" a musical play that starred Joel Grey right after his triumph in the Broadway version of "Cabaret." The book dealt much more closely with Cohan's real life, including his marriages and fight with Actor's Equity. I believe there was a TV special circa 1970, but it was done concert-style, more like the rehearsal of a show rather than the show itself. BTW, Bernadette Peters played Josie Cohan.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
You have got to be kidding!
I can't think of a SINGLE remake that was better than the original, except perhaps DeMille's TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The following is the reason, no, the two reasons, no, the four reasons, well, among the reasons that this movie cannot be remade:
1.
A. George M. Cohan was alive during writing, rewriting, filming, and at the time it was released.
B. He is dead.
2.
A. The star, James Cagney, started on the stage as a 'song and dance man.'
B. Those kinds of veteran stage actors do not exist.
3.
A. It was in filming when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
B. Pearl Harbor is an important United States naval and air force base. However, it is no longer the keystone of the pacific that it once was.
4.
A. It was released on the same day that the United States Pacific Fleet under Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher gutted the Imperial Japanese First Fleet under Admiral Nagumo at the Battle of Midway.
B. The Japanese are staunch allies and we are unlikely to see a naval confrontation anything close to the Battle of Midway again.
In other words, movies are a cultural snapshot in time. Time has evolved. It does that. We cannot live through "Yankee Doodle Dandy" again; that time has passed.
Perhaps it will inspire someone to do a musical biopic of Bob Fosse (oops, already done that). Perhaps it will inspire someone to do a musical biopic of Andrew Lloyd Weber. I don't think his resume is quite as broad as George M. Cohan's, he is extremely good at writing musical books.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
Anyone think it would work?
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YDD was wartime propaganda - excellent, entertaining propaganda, but propaganda all the same. The movie could not be, or rather would not be, remade today with the same simple, uncomplicated patriotism because that sentiment is out of fashion in Hollywood. I don't think they could remake the movie without adding in a lot of stuff to make the message more complex and "inclusive". For example, there would inevitably scenes pointing out that GMC's America had racism! and sexism! These darker notes would transform the remade movie into something quite different from the original - no longer a remake but now a so-called re-imagining.
On a less political note, YDD is pretty inaccurate about Cohan's life and distorts history to serve the movie's purpose. (The US did not enter WWI because of the sinking of the Lusitania; YDD wanted to make the sinking analogous to the attack on Pearl Harbor, when actually two years separated the Lusitania disaster from our entry into the war.) While "improving" the facts for biopics was standard practice in 1942, it is no longer done so blatantly, perhaps for the best. And, while I understand and sympathize with the wartime motives of the filmmakers, perpetuating misunderstandings of history is not a good thing.
Besides, YDD is a great movie as is. It doesn't need to be remade. The fact that YDD is so much in and of its time is a not reason to remake it; it's a reason to treasure it unaltered. Modern audiences need to understand more about the past, not less.
I love it when some clown suggests a remake of a near perfect classic replacing an iconic superstar with the most unlikely modern actor possible.
How about a remake of "Gone With The Wind" with Johnny Depp as Rhett Butler?
Soy 'un hijo de la playa'
I love it when some clown suggests a remake of a near perfect classic replacing an iconic superstar with the most unlikely modern actor possible.