Highest 2 Lowest Is Proof Of Hollywood’s Remake Problem
Renowned director Spike Lee returned to the silver screen with his newest film, Highest 2 Lowest on Aug. 15. The movie is a remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low.
In Highest 2 Lowest, we follow the life of David King, a wealthy record label executive who is buying back ownership of his record company, Stackin’ Hits Records. As he closes in on the deal, he receives a call informing him that his son has been kidnapped and a ransom of $17 million is requested for his safe return.
However, it’s later revealed that the kidnapped person is not King’s son but his chauffeur’s. King, played by Denzel Washington, must then decide whether to pay the ransom or step away.
Screenwriter Alan Fox wrote a majority of the film. He thought that reworking High and Low’s plot about early capitalism in Japan into a story about late-stage capitalism in the United States would be captivating. After reading Fox’s script, Spike Lee signed on to direct the film.
The kidnapper has the potential to be written with a lot more depth than what we’re given. What pushes an impoverished person to kidnap a child for ransom money? The film hints at this, but sticks to making him evil for the sake of it.
In High and Low, the kidnapper is portrayed with humanity and fear in his final moments. We’re shown the upsetting environments and situations that led him to his desperation and how money can corrupt anyone to commit heinous crimes.
This lack of depth is common among film remakes. It’s easy to fall into the trap of blindly recreating scenes and plot points from the original film without understanding why those ideas worked in the first place.
If a film with this much passion and attempted originality can end up as a lazy rehash of a better movie, what does that say about the plethora of other remakes?
It’s evident that these reimaginings are made with the intent of maximizing earnings by reusing recognizable material, rather than trying to expand or improve upon the source material.
Two of the highest-grossing films this year—Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon—are remakes. The movies are largely passionless and prioritize greed and profit over making a statement or trying to resonate with an audience.
Highest 2 Lowest could have been more than that. The ways it differs from High and Low is interesting and opens with exciting possibilities. But the film dilutes the original’s core themes and messaging to the point that it almost seems to be against it.
It’s a remake after all, and even if it’s less of an inherent cash-grab like other adaptations, it is still based around the same core philosophy.
It would be nice to see this trend become less prolific in the film industry, but with the recent successes of adaptations like The Naked Gun and Highest 2 Lowest, it seems Hollywood won’t stop producing these types of movies anytime soon.
