Remapping socio-cultural specificity in the American remake of <i>The Bridge</i>

Abstract

It is often assumed that the remake of a foreign film is inferior to the original because of tangible obstacles to transnational retrofitting, two notable impediments being resistant cultural narratives and the stylistic tendencies associated with a given culture's idiosyncratic visual exploration of those narratives. In contrast with film remakes, what relative narrative parity between original and remake can be sustained for two hours becomes difficult to sustain for the 10 to 13 episodes of a television series, even more so when the social, cultural and historical character of the transposed landscape is rich and complex. This remapping will redraw the narrative lines of the original, necessitating a gradual shift in focus and guaranteeing the remake, when it is successful, creative independence. The substituted geographical and cultural specificity resists the template of the original, imposing its own logic such that the narrative has to evolve against the source series' grain. One such series is The Bridge (2013–), the American remake of the Danish/Swedish Broen/Bron (2011–). By the last three episodes of the first season, the remake has weaned itself almost entirely from the original's signature narrative. The latter's generic transition from what initially appears to be an examination of universal social scourges to the execution of a personal vendetta is reversed to privilege the remapped series' highlighting of serious social dramas: drug trafficking, the smuggling of migrants, the murder of young women workers in the maquiladoras, police corruption, etc. This essay analyses The Bridge's promotion of the social realities of the US-Mexico border as a compelling competing narrative.