History Reconstruction / Film

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' is a reconstruction of the classic Disney premise of the RebelliousPrincess living in a society with seemingly arbitrary strict rules. Motunui’s taboo against sailing past the reef exists for a good reason but it’s been so long that everyone’s forgotten why it was instituted. The Chief is not a bumbling fool but a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and he forbids Moana from sailing past the reef not because of tradition for it’s own sake but because he personally knows the danger of sailing into open water. Moana desperately wants to leave the island and explore the world, but she recognises that as her father’s only child and the future leader of her people she has responsibilities that transcend her personal happiness and chooses to give up her dream and accept her role for their sake.

* * ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' is a reconstruction of the classic Disney premise of the RebelliousPrincess living in a society with seemingly arbitrary strict rules. Motunui’s taboo against sailing past the reef exists for a good reason but it’s been so long that everyone’s forgotten why it was instituted. The Chief is not a bumbling fool but a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and he forbids Moana from sailing past the reef not because of tradition for it’s own sake but because he personally knows the danger of sailing into open water. Moana desperately wants to leave the island and explore the world, but she recognises that as her father’s only child and the future leader of her people she has responsibilities that transcend her personal happiness and chooses to give up her dream and accept her role for their sake.

* The ''Film/JoshuuSasori'' films are a reconstruction of the [[GirlsBehindBars Women In Prison]] genre. While the genre normally consists of deeply misogynist, red-hot-lesbian flicks created purely for men's titillation and possessed of virtually no artistic merit, Shunya Itou made the ''Film/JoshuuSasori'' films thoughtful, vicious, artful and surreal works with an overtly feminist message, without even changing the basic common plotline.

* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' reconstructs and [[AffectionateParody affectionately parodies]] Roger Moore's [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]] spy films, and also campy spy films in general. It's got it all: the silly (but still quite dangerous) villain with an evil plan to destroy the world as we know it, the exotic foreign henchwoman, the wacky disguised weapon gadgets, the TuxedoAndMartini, the SoundtrackDissonance and the unapologetic old British Tory ethos that even the Bond films only hinted at. On the other hand, the villain is GenreSavvy, every female character is three-dimensional and written and presented in a highly respectful fashion[[note]]neither Roxy and Gazelle are sexualised, and even the Swedish princess Eggsy [[RescueSex gets sexytime from at the end]] actually propositions ''to him'' - he only wanted a SmoochOfVictory from her[[/note]], and [[SlobsVersusSnobs class conflict is a recurring theme]][[note]]the main character comes from a working-class background, and the film is of course slightly more sympathetic to slobs, but both slobs and snobs are shown to have their good and bad guys[[/note]].

{{Reconstruction}}s in film.

!!Animation

!!Live-Action

** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' both deconstructs and reconstructs classic ''Star Wars'' tropes at the same time. [[BrokenPedestal Your heroes can make mistakes, and sometimes aren't what you thought they were]], but [[EarnYourHappyEnding in the end, they prove why they became such legendary heroes in the first place]]. Blindly jumping into a battle you have no chance of winning gets people killed, but fighting to the end to save what you care about is never foolish. Looking to bloodlines and families to find heroes can create a ruthless KnightTemplar, but heroes can emerge from the most unlikely of places. DEFINITE YMMV and Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment on whether these elements made the film a masterpiece that restored the franchise to its roots, or a cynical mess that doomed it forever... Or, you know, anywhere in between?

* The whole airplane disaster genre has been spoofed thoroughly by ''{{Film/Airplane}}'', and for a long time, audiences have been unable to take them seriously. ''Film/United93'' is a reconstructed work of said genre, ultimately for the simple fact that [[BasedOnATrueStory many of the events]] [[TearJerker actually happened]]...

** The Daniel Craig movies gradually undergo this process; ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' begins the process of deconstruction by placing Bond in a more gritty, 'modern' setting, and ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' begins with raising the question of whether the typical Bond-style hero is necessary or even relevant in a modern setting, before gradually reintroducing a lot of the traditional elements of the Bond series that had disappeared over the Dalton, Brosnan and Craig movies. As M argues during her Parliamentary hearing, the end of the Cold War has ''not'' made the intelligence services irrelevant; if anything, [=MI6=] is even ''more'' relevant in the age of TheWarOnTerror, when Britain's enemies can hide anywhere and strike at any time. By the time of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', Craig's Bond has returned to classic!Bond form with gadgets like an exploding watch or a car-exhaust flame jet, and even the classic NebulousEvilOrganization has returned to plague the current era.

** The film reconstructs Disney's [[Disney/{{Cinderella}} own animated version]] by playing the story straight - but addressing any issues people might have with the original; Cinderella's role as ThePollyanna is born out of a desire to follow her late mother's wishes to be good to everyone, the WickedStepmother is given an excuse for her abuse, the lovers get to have actual conversations and get to know each other, the quest to try on the slipper is Lampshaded repeatedly and the FairyGodmother is given a reason to help the girl.

* In the 2010s (although it arguably started earlier with 2007's ''Film/{{Enchanted}}''), Disney began reconstructing its classic "fairy tales with princesses and true love" formula that had been deconstructed and parodied to death in the 2000s by films like ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}''. Their princesses are proactive and have goals that don't include "find my true love" anywhere in them, their princes now need to go through a lot of CharacterDevelopment and/or aren't even actual princes in the first place, and TrueLovesKiss and LoveAtFirstSight don't work as they used to, but ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', and ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' all still end with the villain being defeated, ThePowerOfLove saving the day in some way, and the main characters living HappilyEverAfter.
* Even as far back as ''{{Disney/Aladdin}}'', Jasmine served as a Reconstruction of the Princess Classic. It was the first Princess film to address some of the hardships associated with the title - Jasmine has never left the palace, she's never known true friendship and she's bound by the law to marry someone even if she doesn't want to. But she realises that there are advantages to having the authority of a Princess.

* ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' starts out as a deconstruction of the two characters, however it eventually gives way to being a reconstruction in how it brings both of them back to something closer to their classic forms. Consider how much each's characterization at first aligns to how a bunch of people complain about them on the internet, often in the name of "realism". Superman is a figure with so much power that people have trouble relating to him on a human level, and without it completely under control, accidentally contributes to the loss of lives during the battle between him and Zod in Metropolis. Batman, rather than being the noble hero with a strict no-killing policy, is here more unhinged at first, being more jaded and perfectly willing to kill even someone like Superman. However by the end Superman proves that he can live up to the ideal he's supposed to represent by willingly sacrificing himself to destroy Doomsday, which brings about him the adoration of the masses that he usually receives. Batman begins to renounce his more extreme ways, as shown by his decision not to give Lex Luthor the Bat-Brand and how he's now willing to work with metahumans, to the point that he decides to put a team of them together in order to continue Superman's mission in his stead. ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' completes the Reconstruction by showing Superman as a more genuinely heroic figure.

** The MCU in general reconstructs the old-fashioned BlackAndWhiteMorality of the comics, but special mention goes to ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. In ''Infinity War'', although the Avengers are generally good and try to stop Thanos from killing off half the universe, they're ultimately not perfect: not only are they still divided after the events of ''Civil War'' and struggling to patch their wounds up, they make crucial blunders at some really bad times, specifically when [[spoiler: Peter Quill attacks Thanos he's been rendered into a sleep-induced coma, causing him to wake up and shake the heroes at Titan off, and when Thor goes for Thanos' chest and not his head, which allows Thanos to barely muster his strength enough to snap away half of all lives in the universe.]] On the other hand, although Thanos is absolutely wrong in wanting to wipe out half the universe, he genuinely believes [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans it's necessary and right, if terrible]], he shows sincere respect for the heroes trying to stop him, never goes back on his word, and shows his love towards his daughter Gamora, and as a result of this, he wins. In ''Endgame'', however, the Avengers get their chance to reverse what Thanos did and bring everyone back, and when push comes to shove, they ultimately rise above their flaws and fully repair their broken wounds with each other, [[spoiler: but when a past version of Thanos finds out what they're up to, he completely jumps off the slope and decide to destroy the ''entire'' universe and rebuild it from the ground up. Because of this, the Avengers not only destroy him for good, but successfully bring back everyone his future self killed off five years ago.]]

** The MCU in general reconstructs the old-fashioned BlackAndWhiteMorality of the comics, but special mention goes to Film/AvengersInfinityWar and Film/AvengersEndgame. In ''Infinity War'', although the Avengers are generally good and try to stop Thanos from killing off half the universe, they're ultimately not perfect: not only are they still divided after the events of ''Civil War'' and struggling to patch their wounds up, they make crucial blunders at some really bad times, specifically when [[spoiler: Peter Quill attacks Thanos he's been rendered into a sleep-induced coma, causing him to wake up and shake the heroes at Titan off, and when Thor goes for Thanos' chest and not his head, which allows Thanos to barely muster his strength enough to snap away half of all lives in the universe.]] On the other hand, although Thanos is absolutely wrong in wanting to wipe out half the universe, he genuinely believes [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans it's necessary and right, if terrible]], he shows sincere respect for the heroes trying to stop him, never goes back on his word, and shows his love towards his daughter Gamora, and as a result of this, he wins. In ''Endgame'', however, the Avengers get their chance to reverse what Thanos did and bring everyone back, and when push comes to shove, they ultimately rise above their flaws and fully repair their broken wounds with each other, [[spoiler: but when a past version of Thanos finds out what they're up to, he completely jumps off the slope and decide to destroy the ''entire'' universe and rebuild it from the ground up. Because of this, the Avengers not only destroy him for good, but successfully bring back everyone his future self killed off five years ago.]]

* ''Film/StarTrek2009'' could be seen as a Reconstruction not only of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, but also the SpaceOpera genre as a whole. While the franchise had been heavily deconstructed to begin with, the later series ''had'' moved away from many aspects of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]]. The genre as a whole had suffered from certain works (including ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and the ''Film/StarWars'' prequels) becoming notorious for generating a BrokenBase, and undergone {{Deconstruction}} with the remake of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' in 2000.

** ''Film/StarWars'' was a reconstruction of optimistic heroic and mythic storytelling, made at a time when a great deal of cynicism was finding its way into cinema through films such as ''Film/FirstBlood'' and ''Film/TaxiDriver'', and played tropes straight that had been twisted for much of the post-UsefulNotes/VietnamWar era.

** The Daniel Craig movies gradually undergo this process; ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' begins the process of deconstruction by placing Bond in a more gritty, 'modern' setting, and ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' begins with raising the question of whether the typical Bond-style hero is necessary or even relevant in a modern setting, before gradually reintroducing a lot of the traditional elements of the Bond series that had disappeared over the Dalton, Brosnan and Craig movies. As M argues during her Parliamentary hearing, the end of the Cold War has ''not'' made the intelligence services irrelevant; if anything, MI6 is even ''more'' relevant in the age of TheWarOnTerror, when Britain's enemies can hide anywhere and strike at any time. By the time of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', Craig's Bond has returned to classic!Bond form with gadgets like an exploding watch or a car-exhaust flame jet, and even the classic NebulousEvilOrganization has returned to plague the current era.

** The Daniel Craig movies gradually undergo this process; ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' begins the process of deconstruction by placing Bond in a more gritty, 'modern' setting, and ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' begins with raising the question of whether the typical Bond-style hero is necessary or even relevant in a modern setting, before gradually reintroducing a lot of the traditional elements of the Bond series that had disappeared over the Dalton, Brosnan and Craig movies. As M argues during her Parliamentary hearing, the end of the Cold War has ''not'' made the intelligence services irrelevant; if anything, MI6 is even ''more'' relevant in the age of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, when Britain's enemies can hide anywhere and strike at any time. By the time of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', Craig's Bond has returned to classic!Bond form with gadgets like an exploding watch or a car-exhaust flame jet, and even the classic NebulousEvilOrganization has returned to plague the current era.

** As noted by Ralph Garman, the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] also reconstructs the superhero costume, notably [[AvertedTrope averting]] MovieSuperheroesWearBlack. While none of the outfits are actual spandex, and most make plenty of concessions to practicality, they also tend to be very colorful, and as faithful as possible to their comic-book origins - the Winter Soldier even retains his NinetiesHair.
*** The Falcon was a rare case where [[MovieSuperheroesWearBlack an MCU hero was stuck in a drab grey version of his costume]] - until Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron, when his outfit was revamped to feature more of his signature red.
** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' reconstructs Spider-Man's interaction with New York, whereas in the comics often makes Spider-Man a subject of disdain thanks to the Daily Bugle. Here Peter is a local superhero in a vibrant New York whose troubles come from wanting to becoming something more than just a local hero and attempt to stop a weapons deal only to find himself out of his depth and unintentionally being a Spider Menace. However, he still saves the day at the end, and is beginning to achieve fame once more.

* ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'' is this for war movies. Following UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, most war movies focused on the futile or dehumanizing nature of war. ''Ryan'' definitely has a WarIsHell mentality, with the sheer brutality of the D-Day landings and honest portrayals of [[ShellShockedVeteran shell-shocked soldiers]] clearly communicating the horrors of war. Yet, this all only served to further highlight the valor of the soldiers. Several of the more heroic MilitaryAndWarfareTropes are played without irony. Captain Miller is a classic FatherToHisMen, and none of the military leaders are portrayed as [[GeneralFailure foolish]], [[DirtyCoward cowardly]], [[TheNeidermeyer mean-spirited]] or [[GloryHound dangerously gung-ho]]. Though the soldiers mock Upham for trying to apply the BandOfBrothers trope to them, they all essentially interact this way. Finally, the movie is [[BookEnds bookended]] by scenes at Normandy, which honors the sacrifice of American soldiers, alongside [[PatrioticFervor a huge American flag]].

** ''Film/StarWars'' was a reconstruction of optimistic heroic and mythic storytelling, made at a time when a great deal of cynicism was finding its way into cinema through films such as ''Film/FirstBlood'' and ''Film/TaxiDriver'', and played trope straight that had been twisted for much of the post-UsefulNotes/VietnamWar era.

*** The movie reconstructs Darth Vader and reverses the infamy he got at the end of the prequel trilogy. In the original films, Vader was depicted as an extremely powerful and dangerous, but ultimately beatable antagonist, but after decades of parodies, references and a very ill-handled StartOfDarkness, he lost much of his mystique and aura of threat. However, ''Rogue One'' depicts him as a borderline HumanoidAbomination, a vast, unknowable force of pure death which even his nominal allies are visibly frightened of.

** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' both deconstructs and reconstructs classic ''Star Wars'' tropes at the same time. [[BrokenPedestal Your heroes can make mistakes, and sometimes aren't what you thought they were]], but [[EarnYourHappyEnding in the end, prove why they became such legendary heroes in the first place.]] Blindly jumping into a battle you have no chance of winning gets people killed, but fighting to the end to save what you care about is never foolish. Looking to bloodlines and families to find heroes can create a ruthless KnightTemplar, but heroes can emerge from the most unlikely of places. DEFINITE YMMV and Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment on whether these elements made the film a masterpiece that restored the franchise to its roots, or a cynical mess that doomed it forever... Or, you know, anywhere in between?
* The whole airplane disaster genre has been spoofed thoroughly by ''{{Film/Airplane}}'', and for a long time, audiences have been unable to take them seriously. ''Film/United93'' is a reconstructed work of said genre, ultimately for the simple fact that [[BasedOnATrueStory many of the events]] [[TearJerker actually happened...]]

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* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'':

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** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' both deconstructs and reconstructs classic ''Star Wars'' tropes at the same time. [[BrokenPedestal Your heroes can make mistakes, and sometimes aren't what you thought they were]], but [[EarnYourHappyEnding in the end, prove why they became such legendary heroes in the first place.]] Blindly jumping into a battle you have no chance of winning gets people killed, but fighting to the end to save what you care about is never foolish. Looking to bloodlines and families to find heroes can create a ruthless KnightTemplar, but heroes can emerge from the most unlikely of places. DEFINITE YMMV and RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement on whether these elements made the film a masterpiece that restored the franchise to its roots, or a cynical mess that doomed it forever... Or, you know, anywhere in between?

** This became increasingly true in the post-''Scream'' era, simply because many of the things that originally set ''Franchise/{{Scream}}'' apart became the new cliches, to the point where even ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'', released fifteen years after the original, noted it. It became increasingly normal for characters to be at least somewhat GenreSavvy, almost all killers were [[ShamelessSelfPromotion shameless self-promoters]] and/or ideologically driven.

%%* ''Film/{{Silverado}}'' reconstructed the Western in TheEighties.

* ''Film/StarTrek'' could be seen as a Reconstruction not only of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, but also the SpaceOpera genre as a whole. While the franchise had been heavily deconstructed to begin with, the later series ''had'' moved away from many aspects of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]]. The genre as a whole had suffered from certain works (including ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and the ''Film/StarWars'' prequels) becoming notorious for generating a BrokenBase, and undergone {{Deconstruction}} with the remake of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' in 2000.

* ''Film/StarTrek'' could be seen as a Reconstruction not only of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, but also the SpaceOpera genre as a whole. While the franchise had been heavily deconstructed to begin with, the later series ''had'' moved away from many aspects of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]]. The genre as a whole had suffered from certain works (including ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and the ''Film/StarWars'' prequels) becoming notorious for generating a {{Hatedom}} and BrokenBase, and undergone {{Deconstruction}} with the remake of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' in 2000.