Iconic Scenes Recycled from Old Movies

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For those of you who have been reading the blog for awhile – you have probably seen many of my posts on Kirby Ferguson’s excellent series – "Everything is a Remix".  I think the series is incredibly well done and raises a lot of interesting points and questions concerning the nature of originality in art.  Its main thesis (if I try my best to sum it up in one phrase) is that filmmaking (and all art for that matter) is constantly building on itself, recycling old tropes, characters, plot lines, etc… to create new pieces of work.

If you find all of that interesting, then you might also find it interesting that Cracked.com recently released a list of "6 Iconic Movie Scenes Ripped Off From Lesser Known Movies."  Now some of these "rip-offs" may only be incredible coincidences, but others are definitely lifted straight from other films.  Now if everything truly is a remix, then this wouldn’t be considered plagiarism, but simple recycling – or in some cases, an homage to a previous work which the filmmaker admires.  What may make this hard to swallow for some though is that these scenes are among some of the most famous in all of movies – and to think that they are merely imitations of something else, and not wholly original, may take away from their magic.

Would love to hear what you all think in the comments below!