The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo-An Unnecessary Remake?

[scottyrocks]

I get a kick out of comparing movies and books, and different versions of the same movie. Unfortunately, I saw the American version of TGWTDT before I read the book. Then I read the trilogy. Now I want to see the original Swedish versions. At least I have already read the second and third books. But my mind’s eye was overtaken by Craig, Mara, Wright, and Plummer as I was reading the book. I am looking forward to seeing the Swedish trilogy, and then, eventually, the American sequels.

I feel that dubbing the Swedish version into English would be a greater detraction, if not distraction, than subtitles. The spoken word, even if unintelligible, lends a flavor and nuance that a dubbed-in translation cannot match. But the sub-titles have to be translated as accurately as possible.

 

[Chasseur]

I've not read the book nor seen the original films but I watched the US version a little bit ago. It was pretty good on the whole, its not my genre, but it had nice atmosphere and pretty good casting for the roles. My one complaint is that Stellen Skarsgard was so creepy evil when you first meet his character it eliminated any surprise for the rest of the movie. Its like when you watch 1980s and 90s B movies with Maximillian Schell, you just feel like yelling at the characters: "He's the traitor/vampire/Nazi/demon/spy/etc." just kill him now!"

 

[GriffDeLaGriff]

I think Stellan Skaarsgård is overrated as an actor. I actually prefer if he is not in the film. I do enjoy Alexander skaarsgård tho, like in True Blood. Not a very good series, but his acting alone is worth it, specially if you have seen movies where he is acting in swedish

Basically my view is that any making of a movie is a good thing wether its a remake or not. I dont understand people that say "it should never have been done" because if thats how you feel then just dont watch it.

The majority of people that doesnt watch subtitled movies wont watch the Swedish version even if a remake is never made, so that audience isnt lost anyway. Offcourse there might be a small percentage that will watch the remake over the original because of the subtitles, but to me, they arent really movie-people anyway so no loss

For instance, I have read Marvel since I was a kid and none of the movies is anywhere near as good as the comics, apart from maybe some parts of The Hulk, but even tho most of the X-men movies actually suck (from a comic nerd person view) its better to have them made and be able to watch them. I am very happy we have had this explosion of Marvel movies even tho they are wrong in so many details.

I am Swedish and glad that I am, because growing up almost all the movies were subtitled so I am used to it. This makes me able to apreciate movies from all over the world. Offcourse we learn English in school and most of the movies and series we see is in English, and alot of our favourite music is in English, even some made from Swedish artists so when we see an English movie, even tho we read the subtitles, we understand what they say aswell and many times we get most of the nuances, hints and stuff. But being used to subtitles makes it easy to see movies from anywhere in the world. Japanese movies have something an american movie will never have, Ringu was better, the remake was more polished and I enjoyed it too, but the remakes never get that rawness, probably because of the polish. There has been so many incredible French movies aswell like Inside and Martyrs (horror movies) and it would really suck to not see them just because Im not French, this is actually a very wierd way of thinking to me. Offcourse there is stuff other countries wont get, like in "Let the right one in" I cant see how an American can apreciate it exactly as I can, because to mee it was so well made, the setting was incredible and the best I have ever seen from a Swedish movie, it was like a flashback from when I was little with the clothing and the poorly decorated homes where people doesnt have Internet or VCR and usually just sits and drinks in a group for entertainment - not that my family did, but some did, and this ads to my experience. But even if this is an obstacle I can still enjoy movies from other countries, you just gotta have to try and understand what is common for them and how their day usually is - even tho it is different from ours.

I actually use subtitles in most swedish movies too, unless I watch with headphones. All Swedish movies are very bad from a production view and the likeness to tv-movies was good. Worst of all usually is the dialog and even I cant hear what they are saying. I watched "Jägarna" many times (without subs) and could never understand how they knew it was "Åke" untill one time I just happened to hear him mumbel down in his chest just before the scene cuts "it was Åke" :lol:

To me "Let the right one in" is one of the best Swedish movies ever made, TGWTDT is good, but I agree that it suffers from the usual Swedish flaw of acting like on a theater stage, this makes many scentences unnatural and bad. The movie of a whole was ok tho, and to me the remake was unnesesary, I saw half of it and stopped watching because it didnt do anything for me. Im not blaming it on the remake itself because I am biased being Swedish and have seen the Swedish version.

For us, americans making remakes is a "thing", it happens time and time again and most of the times the remakes are worse and we often say:
-did you hear they are making a remake of this movie?
-no way...really? bah
-yeah, whats with the americans and their remakes....

But the worst part to me is how they always censor the slightest nudity while keeping all the gore and how they constantly have to explain everything in the movie time and time again. Nothing can be left to the imagination.

 

[alsendk]

" And also its not like the original "Girl" didn't do well. Its made a little over $100 million at the box office. Thats damn good business for an obscure $13 million dollar film with no stars.

Doug "

Will a star only become a star, if he/she is known by an american audience ?




We do have fine actors in Europe/Scandinavia also
. Ingmar Bergman used many of them in his movies, But did these movies find their way to US ?
many of them were in B/W and subtitled also, so probably only a few american movie goers saw, - captured and understood these brilliant movies I guess. And also a lot of french and italian movies were lost to the american audience for the same reason?

I saw both the swedish and the american version of the girl with the tatooed dragon, and in my opinion the american version totally misses the whole essense of what it is like, to live, and act in Sweden....and how should the director know? he implements the whole scenery into an imaginary Sweden, with actors that have little knowledge about how to act like very ordinary swedish people, be it a poor mis-used girl, and an ordinary journalist.
Instead we have mr.007 and a very sweet and lovely Lisbeth Salander, without the dangerous, self destructive, sensitivity that the swedish Salander have.

I find it sad that good european movies have to be re-made in order to be seen by the bigger english speaking audience. Even with a much bigger sum of money, and better known actors, and a fine director, the american version adds nothing better or new. It just reveils how far away from the swedish atmosphere it has become. but perhaps you have to be a scandinavian yourself, to clearly detect the difference between these two film versions of a fine book.

To watch a movie with subtitles is just a matter habituation.

 

[alsendk]

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CBS NEWS/ December 21, 2011, 9:52 AM
Rooney Mara vs. Noomi Rapace: Who's the better Lisbeth Salander?


Who made the better Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"?

Result of poll US

Rooney Mara 32%
Noomi Rapace 68%

(CBS) American actress Rooney Mara has been winning accolades for her portrayal of Stieg Larsson's fictional character Lisbeth Salander, just as Swedish actress Noomi Rapace did before her.

 

[Stearmen]

From a totally different perspective, I liked the remake, strictly because the Honda CL350 Caferacer suited Lisbeth Salander personality better then the duel sport in the Swedish version!

 

[alsendk]

Ha ha, I totally agree with you on this