The Vanishing / Spoorloos

Spoorloos (The Vanishing) originally was a Dutch film in 1988, but then was remade into an American movie in 1993 starring actors such as Jeff Bridges, Keifer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.  Other than the obvious star power in the remake of the film, these two movies are in some ways exactly the same and in others vastly different.

The largest difference that occurred to me after watching both of these films was that in the 1993 version, the story was very obviously linear.  Just by looking at the contrasting arrangement of the scenes in the very beginning of the two movies proves this.  In the 1988 version, the film starts out with Rex and Saskia driving through France and arguing.  When they get to the gas station, Saskia's disappearance was definitely not forseen in any way other than the title of the film.  While in the 1993 version, the movie starts out with the scene of Barney (the equivalent of the Raymond character) testing the length of time a certain amount of chloroform would knock a person out for.  Although this exact scene also happens in the 1988 film, the placement in the storyline creates a much more mysterious and thrilling effect.  When this scene is first, as it was in 1993, it's very obvious from the get-go that the Barney/Raymond character is the reason for whatever may happen in the film.  In 1988, Raymond was initally introduced as some sort of con man as we see when he is putting on the fake cast at the gas station, but the audience doesn't really have any idea of his full intention with the ruse.  Maybe it was just because I watched the 1988 film before the 1993 film, but I felt as though in the 1988 version, there's much more of a (pardon my language) "Holy shit! What the hell is this guy doing!?" kind of moment. While in the 1993 version, there was a very logical sequence to the story where the viewers are basically looking at a story board saying, "Oh, so this guy is definitely going to drug somebody. Oh, those must be the people that get drugged," kind of thing.

Since I've compared the beginning of the films with each other, it's only appropriate that I now compare the endings.  In the 1988 version of the film, the end was much more of an ending to a horror film.  There is no resolve, the good guys do not prevail, and Raymond does not get his just desserts for killing Saskia three years before.  Rex wakes up having been buried alive and that's the end of it.  The film ends with his picture right next to Saskia's in the paper, as a newspaper declares his disappearance as mysterious and possibly linked to that of his wife's three years prior.  In the 1993 adaptation however, we see what can only be classified as a Hollywood ending.  Obviously there is a lot of action and strife to achieve this ending, but who really minds when a life is on the line?  In the adaptation, the Jeff/Rex character also awakens to find himself buried alive just like in the original.  Only this time, the film doesn't end when he runs out of breath screaming for Diane/Saskia.  This time we see a large turnaround when Jeff/Rex's secondary love interest Rita (Lieneke in the 1988 film) is able to find her way to the cabin that Barney/Raymond owns by way of his daughter who believes that she is the mistress her father is cheating with (which appeals to her because Wuthering Heights describes this as a romantic situation).  In this adaptation, we see resolve, we see justice, and we see Hollywood projected in yet another happy ending.