The Culture of Borrowing

Richard Rushfield has written this article for The Daily Beast on the troubled reception of Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way" and the accusations of plagiarism made against her. He connects this trend of sampling to the broader media culture in which we live, especially film. Rushfield notes how the style of Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere was derivative of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan shows a lot of influence from Dario Argento. But as Rushfield observes, context and perception matter. Rushfield writes:

When borrowing someone else’s work, a little humility goes a long way. Quentin Tarantino has built a career on mixing and matching sequences, songs, and costumes from early works, but so great is the reverence of the world’s leading film geek for those earlier works that no one accuses him of trying to steal their creative glory. His useage is widely accepted as genuine homage. Each generation of artists builds upon or rebels against their predecessors. The French New Wave referred to Hollywood’s Golden Age, and the Scorsese/Francis Ford Coppola generation referenced the French New Wave. But in every one of these cases, where innovations were borrowed, there was a clear master/student relationship, made abundantly clear by those on the receiving end.

What Rushfield states here is important, especially as we try to understand and evaluate all of the remakes, reboots, sequels, and spin offs coming out of Hollywood. There is a tendency to dismiss these films and sometimes that is rightfully done, especially when it is clear that a character or franchise is being resurrected merely to make a quick buck. But art is social and it always exists in a cultural and technical context. Borrowing from the past makes sense when it is used for something, even if it is as simple as re-imagining an older story or idea for a contemporary audience. But the new product, while not altogether original, must stand on its own. When we view a film that recycles characters, concepts, or stories (either a specific title or a genre formula) we are right to demand that the filmmakers present the familiar in a way that provides a new perspective. That is the main reason, if not the only reason, to create art in the first place.