There is a wisecrack attributed to many that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. I’m not sure that’s always true.
I can think of three movie directors who made the same movie more than once. In each case at least to my eye the original was better but maybe you have a different view. The three I can think of are:
Raoul Walsh: High Sierra (1940) and Colorado Territory (1949)
Frank Capra: Lady for a Day (1933) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
and that doesn’t even count the many variations on the same theme that Alfred Hitchcock directed e.g. The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North By Northwest. Each features a dashing man on the run eluding his pursuers, encountering a romantic interest largely by chance, and finally triumphing.
Can you think of any other instances of the same director directing literally the same movie although undoubtedly with a different cast and likely a change of scenery?
Update
I’ve got one more than I think counts: Howard Hawks—Rio Bravo (1959) and Eldorado (1966). I recognize that they didn’t start out to be the same movie but Hawks was working with the same writer (Leigh Brackett) and the two of them kept rewriting and adding scenes to Eldorado until it was effectively a remake of Rio Bravo.
Update 2
I’ve got another. Cecil B. DeMille and The Ten Commandments in 1923 and 1956.
I’ve got one. It’s called Voter Insanity, modeled after Reefer Madness.
Voters vote over and over and over for politician who says “if you vote for me, I’ll fix poverty, make the education system work, cure disease, increase wages, eliminate your debts and it will all be free to you…….;your neighbor, the evil rich and the evil corporations will pay for it all. “. A heroic movie. I saw a Kamala Harris ad, I think it’s playing in a theater near you.
Although,……..I saw an interview with her and all I learned was that she was born into a middle class family, and wants to build an opportunity economy. Maybe a science fiction movie. Who knows?
Frankly, I thought it was a spoof movie. Titled “What’s Kamala Waiting Fir?”
Funny Games (1997 & 2007), written and directed by Michael Haneke, which is the same shot-for-shot remake, except the original is in (Austrian) German and the remake is in (American) English. I’ve watched the original, which was intense enough for me.
Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) was remade as an American film, The Grudge (2004) by Takashi Shimizu.
Broadly speaking, Woody Allen seemed to be remaking Annie Hall at whatever point I stopped paying attention.
How about Mel Brooks The Producers, from film to stage and back again.