February 14, 2002: I hope you're sitting down, because I'm going to say something hideous. Something no critic, not even a basement-level, self-proclaimed one like myself should ever be caught dead saying. Something I wasn't even aware of myself until recently.

Here goes: I love remakes.

Wait, come back! Let me explain. Yes, I realize it's not good that a portion of the moviegoing public will only see the inferior remakes (which seem, without almost exception, to be money-makers). Yes, I realize that many remakes are, at their core, a simple attempt to cash in on the originality of others, and that remakes of good movies are all too often bereft of the creativity of their source material. But that's part of my point--even bad remakes can have repercussions that are positive. After all, if nothing else, they give us something to criticize. But their effect is greater than that; bad remakes give us a fresh perspective on what made the original work. When Gus Van Zant composed his "shot-for-shot" remake of Psycho, he succeeded only by failing to achieve the subtlety and effect that had marked the original, thereby giving us a greater appreciation for Hitchcock's skill. Even the Planet of the Apes remake, besides being a minor embarrassment for Tim Burton, revealed that the original was--surprise surprise--really kinda sorta about something, at least comparatively speaking. And don't even get me started on The Haunting.

On the other hand, good remakes have all the benefits of bad remakes and none of their detractions (Ocean's 11 is a shining example of a remake far surpassing the original). Even more than that, a good remake enables a viewer to delve deeper into the meaning of the original work. If the writer of a remake challenges the ideas of the source material, he can create a piece that both stands on its own and enriches the original. If my appraisal of Stax's review of writer Paul Haggis's Changeling script is accurate, this remake might be one of the good ones. It seems as though Haggis took a steady look at the original and tried to keep the bones of its storyline while poking and prodding at the characterizations to see where he could increase dramatic impact. If the remake follows the basic plot of the original, and Stax seems to indicate it will, the changes Haggis made to the characters will serve only to increase the story's impact. And I say that as one of the original's biggest fans. So I'm gonna push out the jive, bring in the love, and hope this project gets going.