"Well, how would you like it if they remade 'A Hard Day's Night'?"
This is the closest Viharo comes to explaining the difference between an homage and a shameless plundering of the past. He's too close to the subject to be even-tempered about it. "I take [the remake] personally," he admits, "though I know it's not personal."
Also Today
In defense of the original
The remake is a marketing-driven bore. I'd rather be at Chasen's with Frank, Dino and the gang.
By Karen Croft
People who know Viharo from his work at the Parkway either love him or hate him. It's harder to find the ones who love him. His introductions to films tend to go on and on, and there's rarely a shortage of sermonizing or pretension. He's unapologetic about this. In his Web site he writes:
Honestly, I don't get many complaints at all about my modest stage show or the offbeat film selections -- all booked by me personally -- but if someone out there would rather see the film sans the pre-show: TOUGH! Without me, none of these films would ever play The Parkway and in many cases, wouldn't play anywhere!
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There could have been something funny about a tough crew like Frank, Dean, Sammy and the other "Ocean's 11" scrappers needing eight movie geeks to protect them on a Friday night. In fact, the Rat Pack themselves probably would've laughed, if they're anything like their characters in the movie. Fortunately, the guardians of their legacy aren't encumbered by humor. It's serious business in front of the Jack London theater, and the protesters are happy to explain why.
"It's an insult," a bearded man in his 50s says. He's the oldest -- none of the others looks over 40, and a couple might be college students.
"They're destroying a piece of history," Viharo says, testier than he'd been in his living room. When I ask how, exactly, the new film destroys the old one, he begins to yell.
"How would you like it if they remade 'A Hard Day's Night'?"
A few feet away, a scruffy young kid on a dirt bike is asking Viharo's wife, Monica, what all this is about.
"They're ruining a great old movie," she explains to him with a sigh.
He stares up at her.
"What's your favorite movie?" she asks him.
"'Batman II.'"
"Well, how would you feel if someone remade 'Batman II.'"
"I don't care," he says.
Later, I talk with an older man named Mark Klein. Klein has just come out of the Soderbergh version.
"Both movies were pretty dumb," he says, remembering the original. He's not impressed with the spectacle in front of him, either. "These young people used to protest war ... I can't believe it's come down to this."
The Dean Martin look-alike, Robert Ensler, is nearby in a tuxedo. He seems to be wearing a lot of makeup, too. He tells me what a disgrace this new movie is, no style. Will he ever watch it? I ask. No way. They all say that: No way.
I press my devil's advocate position:
"Aren't you, too, a kind of remake?"
"I'm a Dean Martin impersonator," he says. He doesn't see what I'm getting at.
"What's the difference between impersonating Dean Martin for a living and remaking 'Ocean's 11'?"
He looks around for help and Viharo comes over.
"You're a tribute," Viharo coaches him. "A tribute."
"I'm a tribute," he tells me.
"An homage," Viharo tells him.
"What's an homage?" he asks.
Yes, well, ironically, several people asked if Viharo's stunt in front of the theater was a promotional event for the Soderbergh movie. As for the sympathy for the original film's slighted stars, Angie Dickenson seemed happy enough to do a cameo in the remake. And in a perfect twist worthy of the original "Ocean's 11," the slick new remake is better than the first. It's snappier and more suspenseful, and that George Clooney could stop a clock. Sure, Las Vegas has changed and fans of the Rat Pack will indeed find that the Rat Pack is not in this movie. But generally it's more fun than yelling at cars, and who knows -- maybe some kid on a dirt bike will eventually grow up to sermonize about the good old days of Brad, George and Julia.
About the writer
Chris Colin is the associate editor of the Life and People sections at Salon.
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