***SPOILER (kind of) for The Vanishing in this post***
I often wondered about this, too. But in the end, the taste of Americans is perhaps really different from the European ones.
As much as I like many American movies, I can't remember one single American remake I would prefer to the European original. For example:
- L'Emmerdeur French movie from 1973 with Lino Ventura and Jaques Brel -great, hilarious.
It's US remake Buddy, Buddy with Lemmon/Matthau - lukewarm
- Three Men and a Baby - liked it, but the French original is much more charming.
- Spoorloos (Dutch thriller from 1988) and it's remake The Vanishing (1993). Both directed by George Sluizer. OMG, very bad example of a remake. This one is totally muddled and ruined in the US version. They changed the ending!
Imagine Ang Lee doing a BBM remake in Taiwan (or wherever); and when Junior visits Ennis at the end of the movie, Jack would sit in the passenger's seat of her car. Boo, all was a big fakery. Unimaginable.
- British TV series Cracker: I loved, loved, loved the British version and Robbie Coltrane's Fitz. He is a man with rough edges and has his flaws. But in the US version, his character is much more smoothed. I saw only one and a half episode from the US version. Couldn't stand it.
So when I prefer the European version, why shouldn't the Americans prefer the American version? And if they do, the remaking has its reasons/justification.
BTW: please don't ask me why the Germans (and Spanish) dub movies. I'm sure the Skandinavians think we're nuts for it.
Well, I sure have an explanation for it: the majority of the audience is simply lazy and not used to subtitles. Maybe it's the same with the American practise of doing special US versions of movies.