The Comparison Of The Original & The Remake Versions Of The Movie "Arthur"

The movie Arthur was a hit in 1981 starring Dudley Moore as the partying millionaire Arthur. The movie was rebooted with Russel Brand in the starring role in 2011The plot in both movies are similar, the biggest change was the change in the characters from the original movie as in the original hobson was a male and was taking care of Arthur as his father would not in the remake the genders of hobson and the father was changed in to female, the 1981 version of the movie had Arthur being drunk for most of the time and making fun of people he saw and in the remade version as he drove around with fancy cars with references to other movies such as the mystery machine and defiled landmarks, another plot detail leading to the ending of the original in where linda was fine with Arthur cheating on susan to be with her and for him to be drunk all the time this was changed to Naomi rejecting Arthur when she learns the truth and Arthur had to sober up and come back to reality to eventually win her back, the original take had African Americans serving the household and was changed in the reboot as it was considered extremely offensive.

The plot of these movies are similar but with minor tweaks to the narrative in the original story coming to the remake has added more depth to the mildy dry storyline of the original The main theme of the two movies comes down to love conquers all boundaries, This theme is clear in both movies but its better shown in the remake as in the original movie we were showed how Arthur was drunk all the time with his laughter and the alcohol that was around him, with having no depth to his life and was constantly served by others because of his inherited status, Susan was minor character in the original and Arthur felt he needed the money to survive and thought susans father would have killed him however when he meets linda he overcomes his fear of not being able to live without money and stands up to everything that’s holding him back.

The Remake extends this part of the movie better than the original Arthur was constantly spending large amounts of money and his nanny hobson try’s to keep him in the line even though he is not sober, the obstacles in Arthurs life were much larger and his mother was much stronger and manipulative as in when Arthur wanted to reject the arranged marriage his mother stated that if he does not take the marriage proposal he will be cut off from the money at this stage Arthur was still in the boat of needing money to do anything and the manipulative mother uses that to keep Arthur loyal, Arthur’s love for Naomi and Hobson which was not present in the original helped him get through the obstacles he faced, his love for naomi let him finally be free from his susan Burt his own mother was able to fill the empty void within him at the end of the movie Arthur became his own person for naomi even though he was rejected and with the death of his nanny that he cared about died which ended up of him getting sober, with the people around him that he cares causing him to change to a genuine human being Sound is an aspect that sets the scene for the whole movie.

The Laugh of Arthur throughout the original scenes were set by hearing his laugh coming closer and us the viewer could tell that Arthur is coming this laugh was very powerfull and recognizable, the remake had no iconic sound but there was great use of music recapping to the scene where Susan’s father threating arthurs very life with a table saw the music in the background when this scene was on was suspenseful and has the audience fearing of Arthur losing his life or getting hurt in some way there was good music in the remake but it is not capable of topping the iconic laughter in the originalThe lighting used in the original and the remake are quite similar, in the original when hobson died the light became very dark reflecting the protagonist arthurs present mood and in scene’s with linda the lighting was brighter showing that he loves her, this was the same in the remake and when it cuts to the next day when Arthur decided to give up everything for naomi

In the end both movies even though remade the original by far is a much better movie over all as the remake is good it does not stray or differ much from the original as the remake has more references to current pop culture and it becomes how a character like Arthur would be life if he is a millennial.