Oscar Sunday - Originality's Only Moment

Now, I know the purpose of this blog is to talk about hollywood's unoriginality but I'd like to dedicate a post specifically to thank the Academy for the most original film that deserved the award it received tonight.

Michel Hazanavicius's, "The Artist" won the Oscar tonight for Best Motion Picture. Why is this such a big deal? The film is the first black and white silent movie to win an Oscar since 1928 and it's by a French director. 


The movie takes place in Hollywood in the era of the 1920's and the 1930's and focuses on the relationship between both young and experienced silent film stars as the 'silent cinema' falls from its strength and is replaced by 'talkes.' 


As a avid fan of black and white films myself, I was more than excited as the film won the award tonight. The fact that Michel Hazanavicius took a chance on recreating a genre of movies most believed to be dead is what willed the Academy to award it for its risk and I personally commend them for it. 

Congratulations on breaking an area of unoriginality tonight at the Oscars, Michel Hazanavicius. Hopefully, your risk at bringing back a genre that was once believed to be dead will awaken a new string of movie originals. 

Hollywood's Source of Unoriginality

Instead of looking through movie scripts, Hollywood jumps the bandwagon for its movies with books that seem like they'll be good thrillers as soon as they hit the shelves; for example: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.


I've only begun reading the story recently but so far the novel follows a young boy who explores the ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and comes across old/frightening photographs of children who unbeknownst to him, may still be alive.

With the novel being his first, Ransom Riggs probably wasn't expecting his story to be picked up by Hollywood so quickly, but already the movie has been signed on to be produced in the late 2013 by famous director, Tim Burton.

I'm not trying to be inconsiderate towards the author, i'm enjoying the novel immensely. I'm just curious as to why these are the kinds of stories that Hollywood instantly picks up to promote for movies--I mean, come on, how many horror films or mystery movies can you think of that follow this storyline?

With books, it's acceptable to have similar stories. Why? It's been found that the practice of writing novels cannot be done without borrowing one aspect from something that the author has seen before--it's called "borrowing plot."

Why should Hollywood be picking up stories that are so familiar for new movie scripts when there are so many new novels that have something completely original that perhaps, as movie goers, we've never seen before.

Hollywood's Biggest Horror - Unoriginality

Recently, after persuading my boyfriend, I went to see James Watkin's "The Woman in Black." Needless to say, as a horror movie buff, I wasn't impressed with the film. 


"The Woman in Black" is the story of widowed lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is sent to the small town of Crythin Gifford to put the affairs of the late Mrs. Alice Drablow to rest. Unknowingly, Kipps walks into a horror story straight from the sickly marshes.  Children are locked in their houses, unable to play outside or look a mere stranger in the eye. Why? The parents of Crythin Gifford are too afraid of local secret that they refuse to tell, leaving Arthur Kipps to wallow in the marshes himself.

Not only is "The Woman in Black" a remake, it's the remake of a play production.

Horror stories in this generation are generally growing duller with every movie. Why? We've heard almost all of the stories before!

I'm not mocking the movie at all, please, don't think that. The theater I watched the film in was filled with screaming movie goers and small children. I'm just saying originality isn't subtle now a days and with Susan Hill's original story "The Woman in Black" being made into a cheap thriller whose story is altered from the original, I personally believe that Hollywood needs to look into being more original. It's ether that, or the script writers or authors need to take a look into what we, the movie goers, never seen before.

 

Welcome to FF :)

Hi, welcome to Fostered Focus. This blog will be based upon my opinions concerning Hollywood's most recent films, scripts, and how almost all are based upon complete unoriginality. Are the creative minds behind Hollywood's most elite really losing their touch?

For those of you who don't believe me, just wait, my first official post will be up soon.