Cinephiles sick of American remakes of their favorite foreign films can have hope—other countries are fighting back. 12, a Russian remake of the American classic 12 Angry Men, which opens Wednesday at Film Forum, is just one of many recent foreign remakes of American films to counter the countless Hollywood remakes of foreign-language films.
Hollywood has often been criticized in recent years for ‘Americanizing’ many classic foreign films. A good number of American horror movies such as The Grudge and The Ring originated as Japanese horror flicks, but they failed to preserve the level of fright inspired by the originals. Horror, however, is not the only affected genre—unnecessary remakes like The Lake House from a Korean original, or Wicker Park from the French classic L’Appartement, show that no genre is safe.
The problem with these remakes is that they often fail to retain the cultural significance that is unique to the film’s origin. When the film is remade here, it retains the plot, but too often loses both the aesthetic and thematic importance of the originals.
But that’s where a film like 12 comes in. Students may find it hard to develop cultural theories from American films, but a foreign remake gives them a chance to see how another culture perceives ours. In 12, director Nikita Mikhalkov takes a classic American film and infuses it with a plethora of Russian cultural influences.
The plot remains the same—a group of 12 strangers must decide the fate of a young boy who killed his stepfather, as the case turns out to be much more complex than it first appears. But Mikhalkov expands both the narrative and the scale of the film to reflect important ideas about Russia’s political sphere. Theories on historical identity, anti-Semitism, and relations with Chechnya are debated over the two-and-a-half-hour running time.
Though 12 may not be better than director Sidney Lumet’s paranoid classic 12 Angry Men, it is a film that reveals how a country like Russia understands the United States—and it is not alone. From Turkish remakes of Star Wars to a Nigerian take on Titanic, foreign remakes of American films may not necessarily be better in quality, but they certainly are much more revealing about national identity.
Possibly the best example is India’s Bollywood cinema, which has remade everything from Fight Club to Ghost Busters by including song and dance numbers, both important components of Indian film. So while Hollywood continues to dominate the market by ruining classics from around the world, it is nice to know that foreign countries are interpreting our classics as well.
12 is currently playing at Film Forum, located 209 West Houston St. (between Varick Street and Avenue of the Americas). Tickets are $11.
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