We’re about to a see a beloved ’80s film remade with its politically incorrect hook stripped away.
The upcoming “Arthur,” at least according to its trailer and synopsis, casts aside the main character’s drinking problem. Seems the studio behind the movie didn’t think audiences would embrace a lovable drunk in 2011.
Watching another ’80s gem, “48 Hours,” this week made it clear the film would be similarly tough to reboot. The film, which launched Eddie Murphy’s film career, made its Blu-ray debut Feb. 22.
The basic premise would be a snap to duplicate. Pair up a hard-boiled cop (Nick Nolte) and a mouthy convict (Murphy) and watch the sparks fly. But their racially charged banter would be a tough sell today – especially if the Rev. Al Sharpton got a copy of the script beforehand.
Check out this snippet from a typically heated exchange between the film’s leads (f you’re offended by racist language please don’t read any further):
Murphy: Yeah, well, maybe I don’t like the way you asked me, all right?
Nolte: Who gives a goddamn what you like? You’re just a crook on a weekend pass! You’re not even a goddamn name anymore! You’re just a spearchucker with a number stenciled on the back of his prison fatigues! And I’m through [expletive]‘ around. You tell me the truth or you’re gonna get the living [expletive] beat outta you.
That’s one of the nicer exchanges. The racial tension plays a small but vital role in relationship between the main characters.
Late last year, people were up in arms because a character played by Vince Vaughn uttered the word “gay” in a derogatory fashion in the trailer for “The Dilemma.” Could a Hollywood movie dare to replicate the racial animosity Nolte displayed in “48 Hours?” And wouldn’t that change a key component of the story?
It may not matter in the end. Hollywood demands name recognition, not fealty to the source material.
(Photo: Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy clash memorably in the 1982 cop thriller “48 Hours.”)
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
This will get properly re-made/re-booted/re-imagined/screwed up the same time they do The Toy.
I remember seeing 48 Hours when it first came out and was impressed with the matter of fact way they showed un PC people actually talking to each other. Went back the next day to see it again it was so well done. Murphey and Nolte had the perfect chemistry and their dialogue fit the situations they were in.
If remade today the movie would have cussing but it would be window dressing and not touch on the actual tension of the characters.
It’s like asking if they could remake Blazing Saddles today. They should, in the sense that the language was meant as satire, to showcase the ignorance of it.
I this sense, it would be the same here. If you didn’t have the language, it wouldn’t be real. But I’m sure they’d remake it anyway. Then it can fail and the powers that be can shake their collective heads and wonder what went wrong.
Sometimes it’s better to leave something alone. And frankly, if you can’t improve on the original why bother?
I’ve actually wondered the same thing if they tried to remake “Double Indemnity” today. Would modern sensibilities about men and women make the story lose something?
They don’t even show The Toy on TV anymore. I think it was on eternal HBO loop in the early 1980s… a slavery and a running Master Bates joke… those were the days.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 48 Hours remake because, unfortunately, everything is being remade these days. However, I do think it would be highly unlikely that the races of the two leads would remain the same.
Hey! I can’t wait for the remakes of “Gone with the Wind” set in New Orleans, as Katrina is set to hit, “A Streetcar Named Desire” where Stanley is actually “Ahmed” a poor Iraqi in San Francisco who is accused of an Honor Killing of his christian sister-in-law who voted republican, and “To Kill a Mockingbird 2″ where “Bo” is a kindly serial-killer who kills all the SOBs who voted against automatic public union pay increases during a major recession where 17% of the population is out of work. (B*stard republican swine!).
The idea is not simply to remake, but to supplant, the originals, whether it’s 48 Hours, Tom Sawyer, or the Little House Books (yeah, the infection is there, too). Hoard the originals on disc or even tape because someday they will be unavailable and, lest we forget, it has always been a crime to copy for other than “strictly personal use.”
By the way, remember the law about not being able to resell children’s books (and possibly others) at garage sales and flee markets, and all the concern about printers ink? It wasn’t the kids’ bodies but their minds the feds were worried about. It was a trial run to see if there would be broad compliance with such idiocy. I give an unknown poster his due, “Your mind is the prize.”
Hey Mike B-I hope youre kidding with all the Republican disses-cause its actually the Demoncraps who villify the conservatives today-and its happening now, with remakes and every other TV plot making the bad guy the “Evil White Christian Republican, Big Businessman whos ex-Military!
I’ve always felt a certain measure of relief knowing that Hollywood is unlikely to remake “The Outlaw Josey Wales” given that the hero is a Confederate guerrilla and the villains Union troops. Especially after the way the PC crowd reacted to Ang Lee’s “Ride With the Devil.”
@Brutony
I think Mike was being sarcastic. If you read what he wrote he is actually showcasing the mindset of Hollywood liberalism.
@Aleric:
Yes, I realized he was using irony. i was hoping others would see our point of view, and I’m glad youre one of them!
You know what I think (“think” being a loose term with me)?
I think all those offensive movies of the past should be re-edited and all new copies made for broadcast/video store/home market should be the new, improved PC versions.
Think Speilberg’s re-take on “E.T.” where all the guns were edited out and flashlights CGI’d instead.
If the left can reword classic works of literature so as not to use an offensive word or image then why not movies.
This is beyond ridiculous! Every one is offended by something and it’s getting freaking annoying that everything has to be pc. Life is not politically correct so why create the illusion that it is??? I am offended by political correctness but do you think my voice will be heard??? No, because of all these hippie libtards. If someone is offended that easily then they obviously have some deep seated insecurities. Instead of bitching about every little thing you find offensive…work on your own personal issues and let us enjoy real life, not the sugar coated version.
Well, theyre doing that now, not only with the guns, but all the smoking references, and I’m not talking pot or hash smoking-simple cigarettes! Youd pretty much have to slice and splice every damn movie made before 1970! And what the hell are they going to do with the remake of “Arthur”? I heard theres no reference to his drinking-thats what the whole damn movie was about!
@brutony
LOL they did all of that and more in the original 48 Hours, heck Nick Nolte had cigerette dangling out of his mouth half time when he wasnt drinking.
Oh, I know that, Aleric-he-and Murphy-were smoking as much as they could! And Nolte, who in real life was whacked out on coke during the filming-was constantly drinking, as well as swearing and using racial epithets! And that all made for a CLASSIC movie! Did you notice by the time the sequel came out they tried to clean it up and it BOMBED! And THAT was 20 years ago-can you imagine it now?
They have remade it. It was called Rush Hour