A truly dumb remake made for dumb Americans

Niet zo moeilijk. Het verhaal is tot een halfuur voor tijd hetzelfde als het boek van Tim Krabbé. Maar waar het boek eindigde met Rex/Jeff levend begraven, daar gaat de film nog even verder. Zijn nieuwe vriendin Lieneke/Rita weet het buitenhuisje van Lemorne/Barney te vinden en na een hoop gedoe, geschreeuw en gevecht weet ze haar vriend op tijd uit zijn kist te krijgen. En de bad guy... tja, het is en blijft Hollywood, dus wat denk je? Precies. Hij gaat eraan.

I have a question. If American films are always so terrible, why is it that they are such a huge part of foreign markets. You can't tell me that American capitalism is holding a gun to the heads of Europeans forcing them to go see Hollywood films rather than those produced in their own country. These dumb American films also find quite a large audience with international idiots as well as domestic ones.

And more on the subject of things, Sluizer directed both the original and the remake, so its not like Hollywood is stealing his movie and bastardizing it.

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Some kind American lady sent me a private message about this thread a couple of months ago but it got deleted from my in-box automatically and I lost your details. If you see this please write again - thanks!

I saw the original version in my film class months and months ago and just last night watched the American version. One of the many things I disliked about the remake was the lack of focus on the "killer". Not only was there a major difference in the portrayal of the character by both actors but the normality of this character in the original was stripped away in the remake. Aside from his extensive planning he seemed rather normal in his "normal" life. Which in turn made him extremely creepy. The stalking was creepier in the original. He was actually sitting only a couple of feet from the main character in the cafe (multiple times I think). The whole daughter thing going to meet the secret boyfriend didn't exist. The remake tried to hard to get a happy ending out of a story that didn't want one. I laughed when the "heroine" tripped over the grave where Keifer was buried. It was too cliche and became almost like Friday the 13th, with a slightly more intelligent and thoughful Jason. Besides, the coffin scene in the original was absolutley terrifying. And the fact that he got away with it sealed the deal. Unfortunately the original is going to be really hard to find in the States, but worth it if available. You can't always know if something is a remake of a (sometimes) better film. Isn't IMDB great in that regard?

I haven't seen the original, but I have the following impressions:

A) An unhappy ending only gets you so far. I didn't understand what was so novel about Seven. Movies CAN be horrifying by ending badly, but it all depends on the treatment of the material. A recent movie that ended VERY chillingly, indeed, was SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER The Skeleton Key END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER.

B) For the perceptive viewer, I thought the remake managed to SUGGEST the possibility of the darker ending. When Rita is sitting with Barney with the cup of coffee, it becomes clear that evil is VERY close to winning the game. If Rita drinks that coffee as she is somewhat tempted to, the game is over.

C) As it is, the futility of the search for Diane is made more poignant by Sutherland's ability to live on. As lasting as the original's shock value may have been, I thought that the happiness of Sutherland's newfound peace was quite worthwhile. In fact-

D) The acting in the remake quite good- good enough that I was truly happy for the protagonists in the end. Moreover, the outcome of the movie never seemed like a done deal until Rita claimed the daughter as hostage.

All in all, I very much enjoyed the remake. I understand that the original is probably quite good. However, while it The Vanishing IS a remake.....in technical terms, it is also a different movie, and a very good one at that.

Before you write me off as an unintelligent movie viewer, I might add that I love foreign cinema. Most of the great movies being made today are foreign. That said, I take every movie at face value, and I am quite able to enjoy the fluff.

According to the trivia section of this website, Sluizer made the decision to change the ending himself. He thought Americans would not buy the downbeat ending of the original. Which is a bit silly. Se7en was released two years later, and noone but a sociopath could find that ending happy. And Easy Rider. American film. Lead dudes get shot and killed at the end.

So, before everyone gets on their high horse about how Americans need to be spoonfed and catered to, remember it was the director's choice not the producers to change the ending.

As for the film itself. It was okay. Had some nice moments, had some corny moments. The original is in my Netflix queue as I write.

Good post Fad - spot on, says it all. Explorative insight into the popcorn factor of American cinema.

She shivers in the wind, like the last leaf of a dying tree.

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Nope. Not such a great point! A friend of mine is a fairly well known artist and was comissioned some time ago to do a painting for a well known brand. He did so using the criteria that made him the calibre of artist they sought to employ; his skill with a brush, his eye for composition and his general ability to produce high quality work. The company concerned, on completion of the painting refused to pay unless he completely rearrange the composition he had produced for them. They demanded changes to the number of characters in the painting and the direction in which they were facing. Now, considering that this is a traditional painting, not a computer composition the demands they had made pretty much meant re-doing the painting from scratch, not to the satisfaction of his artist's sensibilities but to their's as the people with the money. The artistry with which he had made the first picture would have to be abandoned in order to satisfy the client. In this case he told them to stuff their money and refused to sell out. In the case of the Vanishing Sluizer clearly did not.