Movies in dialogue with each other

In 1952, High Noon came out, a western directed by Fred Zinneman and written by Carl Foreman, who was infamously blacklisted as a communist and denied work for years. The story is about a lawman who's about to be confronted by a criminal and his posse whom he locked up many years ago, now free. He's determined to form his own posse and face them at high noon, but none of the townspeople want to risk themselves to help him out, casting doubts in his mind. Even at the time, it was no secret that the movie was an allegory for communist blacklisting, which inspired polarizing responses from those who valorized the movie and those who despised it. Two of the people that despised it were John Wayne and Howard Hawks, so much so that they teamed up to make their own western. The result was Rio Bravo, which had essentially the same setup as High Noon, but unlike Gary Cooper's reluctant sheriff and townspeople, the characters of Rio Bravo sternly come together and hold their ground, no inner conflict to speak of. Whichever one you prefer, both are classics in their own right, but even more fascinating is the dialogue they create in form and subject matter.

This is probably the most famous example of a movie made as a response to another, but there exist others as well. Perhaps the second most famous one is Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, made as a response to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001 was all about technology, not just in the story but in it's construction, focusing on the groundbreaking special effects and relying on minimal dialogue. Tarkovsky famously called it "a falsehood with pretensions to truth," and when making his own sci fi space movie, focused more on the people than anything else. He ultimately ended up dissatisfied with this movie too, as he felt it hadn't transcended the science fiction genre due to it's reliance on special effects. It was only when he made Stalker that he felt he succeeded in his intentions.

But this trend goes back to the dawn of cinema, with Birth of a Nation. The controversy surrounding the movie is not new to modern times. Rather, since it's release the film attracted controversy and condemnation, and as the primordial blockbuster, inspired many to to make their own movies as a response. The ultimate response came in the form of Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates, which used similar Griffith techniques to opposite ends. Whereas Griffith valorizes the KKK, Micheaux demonizes them. Whereas the black man is a violent brute to be subjugated in Birth of A Nation, the Africans Americans in Within our Gates are people worthy of rights and dignity.

It should be noted that Micheaux claimed his film to NOT be a direct response to Birth of a Nation, but many of it's stylistic and practical choices reverberate from Griffith's film. In any case, the two movies, alongside the already listed one, form a fascinating dialogue in more ways than one. And even though Micheaux claims it's unintentional, the dialogue still exists. Naturally, this means that movies that weren't made as direct responses can still "talk" to each other.

Just to rattle a few quick ones

Fail-Safe and Dr Strangelove. The former movie takes it's situation seriously and focuses on the machinations of how the planes are launched. Strangelove makes fun of the situation and places the blame squarely on the people.

The Terror and Targets. This one is all the more fascinating for the way Targets co-opts it's predecessor. The Terror is a schlocky "horror" picture that didn't horrify anybody, unless you consider confusing storytelling and campy effects horrifying. In comes Targets, a movie that shows not a gothic, victorian, monster, but a modern, all american monster in the form of a mass shooter, all the while Karloff stars as a version of himself who acknowledges that his movies are dated and thus seeks to retire. Bogdanovich's self insert character proclaims "All the good movies have been made." As it accepts the passage of the new, it celebrates and longs for the past, through it's old fashioned Hollywood storytelling techniques, but in service of a truly modern story.

Elvis and Priscilla. The jury is still out on the latter, but trust me, once it comes out, Film Twitter is going to be insufferable for about two weeks. Regardless, both will no doubt compliment the other the same way Rio Bravo and High Noon did.

There's more where those came from, and that's not even talking about directors who made two movies that compliment each other. There's Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress, both by Satoshi Kon, showing the dark and light side of fame. There's the Wrestler and Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky, one about the "low" art and the other about the "high" art. And yet, both push their bodies to the absolute extreme in order to tell a story purely though movement, no matter the physical and/or mental cost. There's the meta sequels of Gremlins 2 and Matrix Resurrections, the De Palma almost remakes, with Obsession and Body Double, and the borderline plagiarists, with Deep Impact viz Armageddon, and Olympus Has Fallen viz White House Down. These movies and more form a conversation about their themes through not just their stories, but their style. Whether intentional or not, whether benign or combative, these movies and many others form the greatest of double features as you partake in the questions they raise and the answers they give. What other pairs of movies form a unique dialogue?