Jamie ext eng
por Jamie DoanWhy are movie directors retelling the same love stories over and over? Is it to explore new themes and create new perspectives? Or maybe it's to create new messages and morals to change classic stories and give more perspectives.
Let's take a look at what innovation is first. What is innovation? Innovation is the process of transforming old ideas into new ideas to create new meanings, and perspectives, possibly exploring new themes in movies, improving the movie significantly. For instance, If we innovated a romance movie, it could explore new themes or different perspectives, creating new messages and morals compared to original movies.
What is Imitation? Imitation is the action of copying an original idea. For example, If a youtuber decided to explore a specific theme or product, suddenly having a viewer turning out to be a youtuber copying the exact idea. It would be considered imitation due to getting the same idea from the video, influencing the opinion on the product due to their opinion. This could cause the other youtuber to state the same opinions but with different wording. This would make it an imitation overall.
From my perspective, I believe that romance tellings are innovative since movie directors wouldn't retell a story to create better video quality, better acting, or somewhat. They’d rather create perspectives that weren't shown in original movies, explore new themes, and possibly create new morals or messages of the story, especially in themes of romance. For instance, if we focus on the romance themes of spiderman and the amazing spiderman, it has innovated due to the original spiderman showcasing a perspective where spiderman saves everyone including his girlfriend from high school. Compared to the Amazing Spiderman, where it emphasises the perspective that as a spiderman, you can't save everyone. This is shown in the scene of the movie where Peter was too late to save Gwen from falling down. Other themes or perspectives could be shown better in romance movies such as Romeo and Juliet and The West Side Story since there are multiple perspectives which could include the parents opinion, the lovers opinion, etc. An Imitation would just be boring and lame, the audience wouldn't be bothered to rewatch a movie with improved video quality and new actors. Therefore, I strongly believe retellings of romance movies show innovation, as the romance stories of Romeo and Juliet and The West Side Story will be further analysed to support this reason.
Who is Romeo and Juliet and what is the story about? Romeo and Juliet are 2 people from separate families who want to be together due to themselves personally loving each other. However their family rivalry separates them from being together. However, they planned on marrying secretly, preventing further conflict between the 2 families while also being happy together. In the end, the family's conflict eventually led to tragic events in the ending. This includes both Romeo and Juliet being dead in the same bed. In Romeo and Juliet, the narrator focuses on the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, which would usually create a perspective of what it would feel like to be the main characters who want to be together. The movie structure also creates dramatic scenes for the main characters since their main intentions are to be together peacefully without causing further hate between the 2 families, while also having to face the obstacles of conflict and war between the 2 families. When the main characters' intentions are to be together while also facing all these obstacles, it creates more romance due to the fact that they might not get what they want in the end due to the rivalry, creating sadness and sorrow in the story. The culture in the families also caused more disappointing and depressing scenes for the audience due to the families cultures not allowing marriage based on personal love, but only arranged marriages that the family agreed on. This is shown in the scene where Lord Capulet forces Juliet to marry Paris. Lord Capulet's reaction to Juliet refusing to marry Paris also supports the fact that the Families Culture focuses on family honour and obedience rather than personal love and decisions. This text suggests that romance might not always end happily, but cause violence, conflict, and tragic endings.
In the West Side Story, the 2 families that are filled with hatred for each other are now 2 rival gangs in New York City, known as the White Jets(led by Riff) and the Latino Sharks(led by Bernado).At a party, 2 young people named Tony and Maria meet at a dance where they begin to start having feelings for each other and loving each other. However, the 2 gangs plan a showdown to settle their hatred and tension between the gangs, Mara is informed about this, as she ends up letting Tony know, hoping for him to save the day. However, tragic events have already started, leading to heartbreaking endings. Some similarities between the 2 stories include similar story plot, themes of violence, war, love, conflict, hatred, death, and tragedy. In comparison to Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet end up both dead in the same bed together due to the tragic events and miscommunication that destroyed their plan of escaping together, while the West Side Story includes Tony dying due to mistakenly believing that Maria is killed, as he is shot by Chino. However Maria actually survives and is able to speak for her perspectives of this tragic event, as she ends up making a powerful statement based on her opinion of the tragic events to both the gangs while also trying to live rather than dying like Juliet. Her perspective is an innovation of Romeo and Juliet due to more perspectives, leading to more understanding and different themes, as her statement based on her belief states that it wasn't the bullets that killed Tony, it was hatred between the 2 gangs, as she expresses her rage at the 2 gangs through herself pointing the gun at both gangs and making a powerful statement. This perspective could cause new opinions for the audience and learn why hatred can lead to tragic deaths. New themes were also shown in The West Side story which includes racism, triggering more tension between the 2 gangs. This could create new meanings through appropriation which could include the fact that racism can lead to tragic events and heartbreaking endings, forming more morals to the story. This could include “Racism is what causes tragic endings and events, it should not exist in this world”. Another theme that was introduced includes Immigration, which is explored when the sharks immigrate to New York, hoping for a better life, however they end up being discriminated against, further supporting themes of racism as well, forming a rivalry and a strong hatred for the Jets. This theme of innovation creates new meanings through appropriation which could include “We should respect and make immigrants feel welcome to countries rather than discriminating against them”, These cultural contexts and new perspectives highlight how retellings of Romance show innovation. This text also suggests that romance might not always end happily, but cause violence, conflict, and tragic endings, but with new perspectives and new themes.
Based on the 2 texts, The West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, retellings innovate through new perspectives and themes. These could be produced by reimagining instead of copying while also taking the advantage of the knowledge about what themes of modern romance stories usually include, then applying them to old stories such as Romeo and Juliet, creating a retelling in a different way. This is how retellings innovate, they evolve through applying themes, perspectives, and ideas from modern days to old stories.
Overall, retellings of romance stories show innovation through new themes, perspectives, meanings through appropriation, new ideas.
