(laughing) "I almost had you."
"Had me?! (grinning) It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning."
While I'm not writing about the movie The Fast and the Furious, this interaction between Brian O'Conner and Dom Toretto after the movie's first drag race can be used to describe how close this "race" really was between the original Gone in 60 Seconds (from here on out we'll just title it Gone...) and the remake. Now, let's line 'em up and see how they do.
SYNOPSIS (1974): Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor", in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute. Detectives are waiting and pursue Pace through five cities as he desperately tries to get away. Source: IMDb.com
SYNOPSIS (2000): A retired master car thief must come back to the industry and steal 50 cars with his crew in one night to save his brother's life. Source: IMDb.com
DIRECTOR: H.B.Halicki vs. Dominic Sena
For Halicki's directorial debut, he could have definitely done a worse job than Gone... He not only directed the movie, but cast himself as the lead actor who hashes the plan to steal the cars he needs and drives the infamous "Eleanor" in the final chase scene.
Also, since this was Halicki's first film with an independent production, he put a lot of his own money into the film, purchasing all of the police cars that were crashed and using nearly all of his own vehicles for civilian cars that were in close proximity to the final chase scene. You have to admire a man who wants so desperately to see his vision realized on the big screen to put his own money into it.
Not only did he invest his own wealth into the film, he put his own life in real danger. Twice, he got into real accidents while driving "Eleanor." He clipped a Cadillac who had missed his mark that spun the Mustang, causing Halicki to hit a light pole at 85 mph! And during the big jump, one that reached 30 feet high and clearing 128 feet, the director compacted 10 vertebrae and--according to the director of photography--never seemed to walk the same. That's dedication to your craft that is hard to measure!
You can find out more inside trivia facts of the original film here, as well as a list of all the cars the characters steal.
Sena, meanwhile, before his remake of Gone... was released in 2000, had only directed one other film. He did, however, have experience directing several music videos--mainly for Janet Jackson. His work on his sophomore project is likely his most well-known. He kept directing but, in my opinion, Gone... was his best work. The only other movie that created significant buzz was Swordfish, released just a year later.
I've gotta give the nod to Halicki on this one. His film had a gritty, more realistic feel to the movie where the remake relied a little too much on CGI to make the chase scenes come across as more exciting, even though the main stars were professionally trained as stunt drivers and did most of their own stunts.
It would have been nice, though, to see what kind of career Halicki would end up having in Hollywood. Tragically, Halicki died on Aug. 20, 1989 in a car crash during filming a sequel to Gone.
At the time the 1974 film was released, it held the record for the most cars crashed: 93 total. Six years later, the first Blues Brothers film would break that record at 103. However, Halicki reigned victor after all with his second directorial film The Junkman in 1982 by totaling more than 150 vehicles, only surpassed by more recent films Fast Five, The Matrix: Reloaded, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Read the blog that outlines the top 11 movies that killed the most cars.
WINNER: Original, H.B. Halicki
SCREENPLAY: H.B. Halicki vs. Scott Rosenberg
While Halicki wrote, starred, and directed the original, I feel the film lacked a coherent screenplay. Halicki outlined main script points to progress the plot but a lot of the minor dialog was adlibbed by the supporting cast.
The remake had a better plot. While still a bit far-fetched, at least the script for Sena's Gone... gave the characters a more urgent "do-or-die" reason for stealing the cars: to save the life of the main character's, Memphis Reines (Nicolas Cage), younger brother, Kit (Giovanni Ribisi), who had gotten in too deep in the business of boosting cars and was essentially held hostage.
Not only was the plot more clearly defined, the dialog between the characters gave them personality and gave the movie a lighter tone by injecting a lot of humor and one-liners that are quotable to this day. During the viewing of Halicki's Gone..., I kept getting confused as to what was actually happening because the plot and dialog were so convoluted and unclear I often found myself thinking "When do we get to the big chase scene?"
The remake also did a better job of showing more of the cars that the main characters were stealing. The original only had a few scenes, one in particular that showed Halicki's character walking through the parking garage past all the cars that his team had already stolen to get to "Eleanor." You can find the list of the cars stolen in the remake here, as well as more trivia facts.
WINNER: Remake, Scott Rosenberg
CAST/ACTING: H.B. Halicki, Marion Busia, Jerry Daugirda vs. Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie
There is no "game of inches" on this one; the remake is the clear winner...and more than by just a mile too! The original had a very small cast with no reason to have more due to the fact that there was no screenplay and hardly any dialog between the characters. It was evident that Halicki wanted to make a movie starring the cars. In that regard, he succeeded everyone's expectations.
The remake gives homage to Halicki, but the large cast of interesting supporting characters--played by the likes of Scott Cain, Will Patton, Delroy Lindo and Timothy Olyphant as the detectives determined to take Memphis down, the great Robert Duvall as the ring leader, and Vinnie Jones as "Sphinx"--shows that a lot of careful attention was given to mold a compelling story around all the characters to further the appeal of the cars themselves.
WINNER: Remake
SCORE/MUSIC: Ronald Halicki/Philip Kachaturian vs. Trevor Rabin
While the original didn't have terrible music, I feel like it could have been used more to set the tone for the viewing audience. Looking back, the music was completely forgettable and was in essence background noise for what you were really interested in: fast, flashy cars speeding away from the cops!
From the opening credits of the remake, playing the smooth and steady techno-rock beat of Moby's "Flower" as the camera cuts between old photos of the main characters and car memorabilia gives you a bit of backstory even before the movie gets off the starting block while getting your heart pumped up for seeing some ridiculously awesome automobiles. The opening song prepares you for a cool, exciting ride that doesn't let up!
Other songs that were in the remake that gave it more flavor included War's "Low Rider" and "Busy Child" by The Crystal Method, just to name two. Even when the screen goes black and the ending credits roll to The Cult's "Painted on My Heart," you're still feeling the pulse-pounding energy of what you just watched!
WINNER: Remake, Trevor Rabin
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
- Rotten Tomatoes: 38% or 4.5/10 average
- IMDb: 6.5/10 from 5,926 users
- Metacritic: none
- Rotten Tomatoes: 24% or 4.4/10 average
- IMDb: 6.5/10 from 205,164 users
- Metacritic: 35/100
Like I stated before, the original has the realism that some movie-goers prefer. However, the lack of a screenplay and the small cast really hurt the picture for viewers that want more out of their experience than a long car chase. The remake has an interesting cast of characters that you can relate to--and root for--as they attempt to steal 50 cars in one night! The homage the later film makes to the original by keeping its star ("Eleanor") the center. The realistic car chase in the original is the only thing that made it a contender against the remake.
Unlike our first film, Pyscho, I would definitely watch both films, especially if you're a gearhead. But if I were a betting man, I'd gamble that you enjoyed watching the newer film in its entirety but fast-forwarded to the final chase scene in the original after trying to stay awake through the first 30 minutes. Seriously, the final big chase scene in the original is the complete second half of the film!
If you base your desire to watch one and not the other solely by going off of Rotten Tomatoes' or IMDb.com's ratings, it'd be really hard to choose. Which is why I decided to include Gone in 60 Seconds in this list and perhaps convince you either way by sharing my opinions as a fan of movies.
Until next time.
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