20 Iconic Films That Should Never Be Remade

In an era where people seem to be recycling old films and making them new with many changes, there are some films that just shouldn't be touched. They should be left alone. According to MSN.com page YardBarker, to writer Acacia Deadrick, here are 20 films they think should be left alone and not remade

To be technical, some of these films have had remakes done of them

1. The Sound of Music

-If you're a fan of musicals, then this film is absolute perfection. Julie Andrews was amazing in this film and it would be practically unheard of to even contemplate a remake of this iconic film

2. The Wizard of Oz

-This movie has a particular magic that made it work for that time period. Sometimes things are done right on the first try and this film is a perfect example

-There have been spinoffs of this film, like The Wiz. This was a sort of remake only using a predominantly black cast. It was good in its own way

3. It's a Wonderful Life

-Christmas movies are not remade for the reason being that it's not necessary. It's a Wonderful Life is one movie that should never be remade. It's message is simple, but loud and clear. It's a classic that should be left as is

4. Breakfast at Tiffany's

-Audrey Hepburn was a rare breed of actress. She had the qualities that most modern Hollywood actresses just seem to be lacking. No one could ever play Holly Golightly as well as Audrey Hepburn did in 1961

5. The Godfather

-This film should never be remade. It was perfectly made at that time. The cast, script and more were perfect. It's better if no remakes are made. There would be no way to capture the same power in a remake that the original film had

6. The Birds

-It's strongly considered that if this film were made today, using the CGI technology and other technology we now have, this film would have become 100% scarier than the original. It would probably also be safer for the lead actress, since she would not have birds thrown at her. Alfred Hitchcock was known for making his films of the variety that involved the sense of not knowing what's around the next corner, psychological and suspense-type thrills. No technology can replicate what this great director did

7. Casablanca

-Considered to be one of the greatest love stories in all of cinema history, there's no way that this film could be remade using today's technology. To this day, people still quote the film, despite being released in 1942. If that's not the world's biggest sign to avoid a remake, nothing is

8. Rocky

-There were dozens of sequels and spinoffs to this movie. Nothing beats the original. Rocky is not a character like James Bond or Batman, that needs various sequels of him fighting different people. Sylvester Stallone made the character Rocky unique and it should be left alone

9. Grease

-Some musicals have become just as successful on the big screen as they were on the stage. Some, not so much. Grease is one musical that was able to become successful on the big screen. The movie seems a bit dated, seeing as it was made in the mid to late 1970s. If it were remade using today's technology, a lot of work would need to be done. But this would destroy the charm of the original. Unfortunately, a sequel was made to this movie, taking place in 1961 instead of the 1950s like the original

10. Titanic

-This is one of those films that most think everyone should see at least once in their life. It almost takes you back to the time period of 1912. The reason the movie is so long is because it was made to last the same amount of time as it took for the actual Titanic to sink. Overall, the music, the clothing, the casting, everything is good

11. When Harry Met Sally

-Considered, by some, to be one of the best romantic comedies out there, this movie has great writing, great casting and everything seems perfect

12. Forrest Gump

-Anything that wins Best Picture at the Academy Awards should be left alone. No remakes! This film is one of the best known films for Tom Hanks and people still reference / quote this film to this day

13. The Breakfast Club

-John Hughes knew his way around a movie. He knew how to make movies good. This is one of his number one best movies. To this day, people still quote / reference the film because it's made that much of an impact on people. It would be hard to do this movie today. It would be nothing more than teenagers staring at their phones, not talking at all

14. A Christmas Story

-There is a charm with this movie that you could not achieve had you remade it using today's technology. There's charm in almost every scene, from Ralphie meeting Santa and telling him he wants a BB gun to Flick sticking his tongue to the frozen pole. There was a sequel made, but hardly anyone watched it and it, more or less, disappeared off of the face of the planet. To make a remake in today's world would go over just about as well as the sequel

15. Jaws

-There have been sequels to this movie, but nothing beats the original. It doesn't rely on overt blood and violence. The only blood you see are from the unfortunate victims of the shark attack. But that's normal when a shark attacks. Overall, the movie is more suspenseful than gory and scary and everything seems perfect for the time period in which it was released

16. Pulp Fiction

-Quentin Tarantino has a quirky way of filming movies. He pulled together Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta together to film this quirky movie. To remake it would ignite a regular World War III with the fans

17. The Truman Show

-Considering this movie was so bizarre to begin with, making a remake would be useless. It's unclear how even the first one made it on to the big screens

18. The Shawshank Redemption

-Morgan Freeman gave an impressive performance in this film. For someone to try and remake this film using today's technology would be wrong. You can remake something that is already good; you might end up ruining it

19. Airplane!

-This comedy film should be left alone. No remakes. If it were remade using today's technology, a lot of the suggestive jokes from the original would not even make it into the new version of the film. Simply put, making it using today's technology would make it far less funny

20. Toy Story

-This is one of those films that does not need a live action version. Lately, Disney has been jumping on the live-action bandwagon and trying to create live-action versions of their Disney movies. Toy Story needs to be left alone. Even after all the years it's been around, it's still popular with both kids and adults

Sonny Boy by Al Pacino

This book is written by himself. It's an autobiography about Al Pacino. I thought it was a very good book. He's always been one of my favorite actors. Because he can be funny one moment, intense the next

-Born Alfredo James Pacino on 4/25/1940, he was raised in the South Bronx by his mother Rose and father Sal. His father worked as a military police officer, but disappeared when Al was two, leaving his mother and her relatives and his father's relatives to raise him. He was given his Sicilian grandfather's first name. His mother would often take him to see plays and even films in the theatres, and this would interest the boy. As he got older, he found his mother started suffering from mental health issues and one day, one of his relatives told him to come to her apartment.  There, he found his mother deceased. She had ingested a large amount of pills and choked on her own vomit. He found school to be boring, so he left at 16 and found a calling in the theatre. As time went on, he got better and better at acting. Of course, having no job meant no money. He worked a series of odd jobs to keep the money coming in while he went to auditions

-Some of his earliest films would today be considered independent films or "indie" films. Such as The Panic in Needle Park, where he plays a drug addict looking for a fix. The film that really put his name on the map was the 1972 film The Godfather, where he played the youngest Corleone son Michael. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola, the director, wanted Pacino over the other actors auditioning for the role, which included Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Ryan O'Neal. Despite his success, Al was constantly worrying about being fired

The Panic in Needle Park

The Godfather

-When he was not filming, he suffered with a bout of alcoholism, and would occasionally pop Valium pills to try and calm himself, since he made a habit of showing explosive bouts of energy. When it came time to film The Godfather Pt. II, he surprised Francis Ford Coppola by showing that he didn't know how to drive (because he grew up in New York, where you could hop in a cab or on a bus), didn't know how to dance the waltz and couldn't speak Italian (despite being of both Sicilian and Italian descent), three things required for the Italian wedding scene where he marries the woman Appollonia during Michael's exile to Sicily. During filming, he became good friends with Diane Keaton, who played Kay

The Godfather Pt. II

Italian wedding scene from The Godfather Pt. II

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone and Diane Keaton as Kay Adams

-After the filming of The Godfather films, he wanted to try something different. The "something different" became the film Serpico, a film based on the true story of an NYPD officer named Frank Serpico, who investigated and even tried to stop corruption in the NYPD. After that, he did more movies, such as Dog Day Afternoon, where he plays a bank robber looking to get money for his partner's gender reassignment surgery. He decided to do the play Richard III in the theaters, and it was around that time he had the realization that he needed help for his alcoholism. He asked for help and it was around the time he filmed the movie Bobby Deerfield that he started going to AA meetings and undergoing therapy to wean himself off of the alcohol, thus getting himself clean and sober

Serpico

Dog Day Afternoon

Bobby Deerfield

-In the early 1980s, came the film that would immediately connect his name to the film world: Scarface. The violent, 1983 film depicting a Cuban refugee turned drug lord directed by Brian DePalma and produced by Oliver Stone. He had to learn how to talk with a proper Cuban accent from both a dialect coach and his co-star, Cuban-born actor Steven Bauer. As a side note, people thought for the longest time that Al was a cocaine addict, because of his manic bouts of energy. He firmly states he has never touched that narcotic. He's never done drugs. He's just always had those manic fits of energy. Unfortunately, after Scarface, he decided to quit acting. He took some time off to simply relax from the stress of filming. Instead, he took to the theater, doing plays because that was what he started out doing and it was something he loved

Scarface

-It was not until he came out of his self-imposed break from acting that he starred in 1989's Sea of Love, where he played a police officer with a hard drinking habit investigating a series of murders. And the woman he's falling for might just be the prime suspect. It was here that he started developing the slightly gravelly voice he now has. This film has a long, drawn out lovemaking scene where Ellen Barkin's character initially gives Al Pacino's character a pat down, and then the two go straight into making love. He said he's normally not one to do love scenes, because he is uncomfortable doing them, especially if he is required to show certain parts of his body. After Sea of Love, he went into making The Godfather Pt. III, which is certainly not as popular with people as the first two installments. He firmly stated the only reason he did the third installment of the film was because he was in financial dire straits. He maintained his friendship with Diane Keaton, and it was actually her that helped him get a good agent to help him get back into good financial standing

Sea of Love

The Godfather Pt. III

-One of the movies he did that he enjoyed was the comic book-turned-movie for Dick Tracy. In the film, he played Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice. His character got the name "Big Boy" from the fact that he had elephantiasis in random parts of his body. He jokingly said he got to feel up Madonna in the film, but he said it was just "love taps" and nothing more. In October 1989, he became a first time father, to a daughter he named Julie Marie Pacino, with an acting teacher named Jan Tarrant that he was seeing. The 1990s proved to be a successful time for him. He starred in movies that proved to be successful, such as Scent of a Woman, Carlito's Way, Heat, The Devil's Advocate, Donnie Brasco, The Insider and Any Given Sunday.

Al Pacino and Jan Tarrant

"Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy

Scent of a Woman

Carlito's Way

Heat

The Devil's Advocate

The Insider

Any Given Sunday

-As the 1990s gave birth to the 2000s, the new decade would bring Al three new kids, two with wife Beverly D'Angelo, an actress. With her he had two children, a son he named Anton and a daughter they both named Olivia. They divorced in 2001. They simply couldn't make their marriage work only because they were both actors and based on opposite coasts. She was mostly based in Los Angeles, where she lived. And he was from New York, which he considered home. They still remain on good terms and remain good friends. Later on in life, he would have another child, a son he named Roman, with an actress from Argentina he was seeing named Lucila Sola.

Al Pacino and Beverly D'Angelo

Al Pacino and Lucila Sola

-He mentioned that he had strong financial troubles and was suffering from them, trying to get a good agent to help him out. As for films, he would continue to make films in the new decade. They would include 2002's Insomnia, 2003's The Recruit, 2005's Two for the Money, 2007's 88 Minutes, 2007's Ocean's Thirteen, 2008's Righteous Kill and more. As a side note, he still, to this day, maintains a good friendship with former The Godfather actress Diane Keaton. As time went on, he mentioned that he had started noticing his vision was not quite what it once was. He stated this issue started happening when he was 19 and it seemed to happen off and on over the years. He would wake up and his vision would be blurry, but would clear eventually. He said he was diagnosed with Fuch's dystrophy, which gets progressively worse as you age. When the COVID-19 crisis effectively shut down the world down for a time, he ended up getting stricken with the condition. Luckily, he was able to get through it

His family. Son Anton, daughters Olivia and Julie

Insomnia

The Recruit

Two for the Money

88 Minutes

Ocean's Thirteen

Righteous Kill

Filmography