Contemporary Transnational Remakes. The Swedish "Män Som Hatar Kvinnor" (2009) and the Hollywood Production "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2011) E-Book

Tom Keller

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Film Science, grade: 2,0, Technical University of Braunschweig (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: On the 20th December 2011 a new Hollywood film was released throughout North America. It was a remake, a film based on another one, starring Hollywood stars such as Daniel Craig and Christopher Plummer and attracting a bit more medial attention than usual. The reason was that the film was released quite soon after its predecessor. More specifically, only two years had passed since the global success of the original Swedish film "Män Som Hatar Kvinnor", directed by Niels Arden Oplev, which was released in 2009. As a result, ever since its announcement the remake with the title "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" triggered many discussions. People wondered why the world needed another American remake of a successful and critically acclaimed movie so quickly after its original release. Looking back, remakes have always been an integral part of the Hollywood film industry, which has been copying ideas from other film industries ever since its emergence in the beginning of the last century. European, Asian or even previous American films were remade whenever it seemed to be profitable and in this case it seemed very promising, given the great success of the movie outside the US. Basically, from the American perspective several reasons exist to justify a remake of a film, for example the updating of an old movie to present it to younger generations or the fact, like in this case, that a remake is allegedly “necessary” because people in the US do not like reading subtitles or listening to synchronized non-English movies. However, some people simply accuse Hollywood of desperately trying to show the world how to do it in a better way and hiding their lack of new ideas. Such transnational remakes are still in progress and have been going on for decades, not only in the US but also worldwide. Bollywood copies American films, Hollywood borrows narratives from Europe and European film makers get their inspiration from American productions. It is evident that such contemporary transnational remakes are a worldwide phenomena increased by the globalization which enables people to share and trade cultural goods and ideas all over the globe.

Leseprobe

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Content

1. Introduction

2. Definitions

2.1 Transnationalism

2.2 The Remake

2.3 Contemporary Transnational Remake

2.4 What is Gender?

3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – A Transnational Remake

4. Characterization

4.1 Lisbeth Salander

4.2 Mikael Blomkvist

5. Comparison of the Character Constellation

5.1 Character Constellation in Män Som Hatar Kvinnor

5.2 Character Constellation in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

6. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

On the 20th December 2011 a new Hollywood film was released throughout North America. It was a remake, a film based on another one, starring Hollywood stars such as Daniel Craig and Christopher Plummer and attracting a bit more medial attention than usual. The reason was that the film was released quite soon after its predecessor. More specifically, only two years had passed since the global success of the original Swedish film Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, which was released in 2009.

 As a result, ever since its announcement the remake with the title The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo triggered many discussions. People wondered why the world needed another American remake of a successful and critically acclaimed movie so quickly after its original release. Looking back, remakes have always been an integral part of the Hollywood film industry, which has been copying ideas from other film industries ever since its emergence in the beginning of the last century. European, Asian or even previous American films were remade whenever it seemed to be profitable and in this case it seemed very promising, given the great success of the movie outside the US. Basically, from the American perspective several reasons exist to justify a remake of a film, for example the updating of an old movie to present it to younger generations or the fact, like in this case, that a remake is allegedly “necessary” because people in the US do not like reading subtitles or listening to synchronized non-English movies. However, some people simply accuse Hollywood of desperately trying to show the world how to do it in a better way and hiding their lack of new ideas.

 Such transnational remakes are still in progress and have been going on for decades, not only in the US but also worldwide. Bollywood copies American films, Hollywood borrows narratives from Europe and European film makers get their inspiration from American productions. It is evident that such contemporary transnational remakes are a worldwide phenomena increased by the globalization which enables people to share and trade cultural goods and ideas all over the globe.

 Coming back to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the question arises why someone who has already watched the original, should go out and pay again to see, basically, the same film. Actually, on first sight, there is no clear reason to do it. The mere fact that a great director like David Fincher is responsible for the remake is not enough. Filmed also in Sweden like the original, the film shows an European environment, which is actually a major difference to typical American remakes, and as a result looks like a freshly polished version of the Swedish predecessor. Furthermore, the plot about the investigations of an investigative journalist and a genius computer hacker is not changed and apart from a few alterations the film remains basically the same. Even though, being a remake and facing inevitable comparisons with the original, Fincher´s version received surprisingly positive reviews. Critics all over the world agreed that this remake is not worse than Oplev´s version but also not necessarily better.

 Nevertheless, there is one major difference between the movies which allows me to argue that the movies are more than mere similar versions of the same narrative. The protagonists are played by different actors and this inevitably changes parts of the films.

 Therefore, the aim of this bachelor thesis is to indicate that the characters in Fincher´s remake The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo are substantially different in regard to behavior, appearance and character. As a consequence, the viewer´s perception of the characterization, character constellation and gender is fundamentally changed.

 The entire plot is focused on the protagonists Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, played by Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist, who both try to solve a mysterious murder of a girl which happened 40 years ago. Thereby, it is Lisbeth who is the heroine and Mikael acts in the supporting role. The Swedish original shows that right from the start, depicting Lisbeth as a very tough, aggressive and mysterious punk, whereas Mikael, after a defeat in court, is a broken man, withdrawn and soft, even not able to drive a car with confidence. Fincher´s remake on the other hand, differs in certain aspects with regard to appearance and behavior of the characters, showing a masculine Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Craig, known as the smart James Bond, has a completely different aura and is much more of a stereotypical male hero who smokes cigarettes and drinks a lot of alcohol, representing a contemporary cliched depiction of masculinity in films. Even though Rooney Mara's Lisbeth is still the center of the movie something about her has changed. In certain moments she acts differently than the original Lisbeth, appearing insecure, not having everything under control and being patronized by Craig´s Blomkvist.

 First, I am going to define important terms which are integral parts of the topic and the analysis. Afterwards, the remake will be analyzed in regard to its features which qualify it as a transnational remake. Then the characters and their constellations will take the longest part of the analysis where I will illustrate my argument that the perception of the characters, also in regard to the gender roles, has changed. The performances are not the same, the character´s relationships work in a different way and their gender roles are varied. Finally, I will give an overview about the topics in a conclusion where I present my results and show that my thesis is confirmed.