Angelina Jolie Becomes Spokeswoman For World's Favorite Mineral

As with all movie re-releases/reboots, I don't have high expectations for "Salt"; a remake of an obscure 50's classic. Chicago has been bombarded with advertising for the film for months now. It's a great idea to use Angelina Jolie as a spokesperson for the world's favorite mineral, but those ads sure make "Salt" seem pretty bleak. As a retro fan, it's great to see Hollywood finally remake this classic - even if they've given it a new name. When the movie was originally released in 1958, it was called "White Wonder" and was Morton Salt's way of sharing with viewers all the great uses of salt. That's right, you can scrub a saucepan or salt a sandwich with the same special seasoning.

I don't know how modern audiences are going to react to the re-release of "White Wonder" to theaters as it's a bit slow going for modern tastes (even though it's a quarter the length of the new Jolie version). The voiceover says, "Today, salt enters into almost 14,000 different uses," and by the end of the movie I felt like I'd seen pretty much all of them. I love good old NaCl as much as the next guy, but this film is a little too high-sodium for me. Almost fetish-like. Which is why I guess for the remake they're using Jolie, her legendary pecadillos might fit in well with this almost obsessive look at salt. How do you think they'll fit her into the narrative? Greenscreen her into a couple of the scenes of giant salt collecting machines? Or perhaps they might carefully reshoot key scenes with her playing the part of a salty scientist, or the medicine/cosmetics/nylons lady?

If nothing else, this re-release will bring attention back to the original film back when it was called "White Wonder". One of my best friends who grew up in Indiana remembers marching into the school auditorium to be shown this film in the 70's (it probably made a welcome change from the usual menstruation & testicular self-examination educational shorts), saw it again in the army in the 80's, and then on late night cable in the 90's. So this re-release is set to make it a classic again in the new century. Let's just hope that they don't cram in some unnecessary KGB spy sub-plot.

related:
Classic TV set salt & pepper shakers
Archive.org film teaching better bowling techniques (link at bottom)