True Grit

[Merlot Joe]

I haven't seen the movie only the trailers. This is my personal feeling. You don't fuck with a John Wayne movie.

I have no intentions of seeing this flick.
Plus Jeff Bridges sucks in my book.

Joe

[♥ COVID-19♥]

NY Post says the remake is good but the original was better

nyp.st/gRvbDt

[♥ COVID-19♥]

FWIW, I thought Bridges was pretty good in Crazy Heart, which won him an Oscar.

[Merlot Joe]

My feeling on Jeff Bridges acting is just my personal thought. I like him about as much as Jake like Tom Cruise. So anything that Bridges is in I will most likely hate.

I still don't think you fuck around with a John Wayne Movie.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Roger Ebert liked it even better -- he said it was closer to the source material (i.e., the novel on which it was based) than to the original John Wayne movie.

j.mp/goewXv

[Merlot Joe]

I don't like Ebert either.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Not much you do like, is there?

[Merlot Joe]

Bah, Humbug ;D ;D ;D

[♥ COVID-19♥]

I hope you get a visit from The Ghost Of Christmas Movies Past.

[Chicago Jake]

I'm looking forward to seeing it. I agree that more remakes are made than necessary, but the Coens always have a unique vision that I find worth seeing.

On a related note, I'm also looking forward to seeing JB in the Tron sequel........Jake

[♥ COVID-19♥]

FYI -- the original movie with John Wayne is being shown on Turner Classic Movies tonight.

-- BB (who enjoyed watching Patrick Swayze in that other classic "Road House" last night on AMC)

[innit Geezer]

TCM is a favorite of mine. Rio Bravo is playing next featuring Dean Martin and John Wayne, an unlikely pairing IMHO, but both were at the top of their game in 1959 when it was released I suppose.

[nolaflacav]

I have never seen the original True Grit. I sat down and caught the last 35 minutes or so last night on TCM. I was rather unimpressed. I don't want to rile up any John Wayne fans around this here place but I thought it was sort of laughable in tone for a western.

I am going to see the remake this weekend. Anything the Coen brothers bring to the screen is worth a look as far as I am concerned. I am hoping it is closer to the source material and a little darker and grittier (see what I did there!) than the original.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

I thought the original movie was very dated and that while John Wayne won an Oscar for that role, he was more deserving for his performance in "The Searchers" (which may be the best Western ever made, IMO).

[Ardbeg... innit]

If memory serves, wasnt his Oscar for True Grit more of a gimme than anything else. At the time they didnt have a lifetime achievement award, and in '69 Wayne was headed down the backside of his career. I think a lot of people at the time figured it might be the last legitimate chance to award the Duke with a Best Actor

[Chicago Jake]

Dec 22, 2010 18:57:58 GMT -6 ♥ COVID-19♥ said:

FYI -- the original movie with John Wayne is being shown on Turner Classic Movies tonight.

-- BB (who enjoyed watching Patrick Swayze in that other classic "Road House" last night on AMC)

Road House is one of my all time favorites, but if I was to compare it to a John Wayne movie, it would be Big Jake. That's the one where everyone keeps telling The Duke, "I thought you were dead!" Of course he replies, "Not hardly!"

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Didn't mean make it sound like a comparison -- I was just remarking that I was delightfully surprised that I serendipitously stumbled upon "Road House" while channel surfing and caught it from the beginning. FWIW, if they ever do a remake, I think I'd be *perfect* for the Ben Gazzara part. Or maybe the Sam Elliott part ("She's got way too many brains to have an ass like that!").

[nolaflacav]

Well I dropped my $8 on the counter and just watched True Grit.

I liked it and thought it was well done. As always the Coen boys dropped some gems in the dialogue. This was probably the most mainstream of their movies but definitely not their best. But I thought they did an excellent job in recreating the source material.

Joe is not going to like hearing this but I think Jeff Bridges did a much better job as Rooster. There are so many roles that John Wayne did a much better job in than his turn in True Grit. I think Bridges nailed it. And I agree with several people who have commented that you can feel just a bit of Bridges' Dude in his performance.

A couple of oddities that I thought of as I watched the flick. I kept thinking of Lee Marvin in Cat Balou as I watched Jeff Bridges. Marvin of course being the comedic cowboy and Bridges the haggard Marlboro man. But they both struck me as drawing upon the same concept.

And it took me a few minutes but I felt like I was listening to another actor/character every time Rooster Cogburn talked. I closed my eyes for a second and it quickly hit me. I think he sounded exactly like Billy Bob Thorton in Sling Blade. I kept hoping he would talk about fried taters around the camp fire.

I thought it was two hours well spent in the theater on Christmas Eve.

[Chicago Jake]

Thanks for the review! It's nice when we can get an actual assessment from someone who actually saw the movie after seventeen replies to a thread.

[Chicago Jake]

Watched the original Henry Hathaway (i.e., the "John Wayne" version) of True Grit tonight on AMC. It was even better than I remembered it! I thought Wayne did an excellent job of not just being "John Wayne," but of creating a unique character: grumpy, aging, and irascible, yet with a heart of gold underneath it all. Also nice to see Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall (did he ever have hair?), John Fiedler, and Strother Martin unexpectedly!

I'm still looking forward to seeing the Coen version, though.

[Merlot Joe]

You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger and you don't fuck with a John Wayne movie. ( thank you Jim Croce)

[Ardbeg... innit]

Finally caught this on PPV this past weekend. I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie. I thought Bridges played Rooster Cogburn as he SHOULD have been, a flawed hero. I understand the worship of John Wayne as an actor, but given the actor AND the times, there was no way that they could play the Cogburn AS HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. Showing a John Wayne character as flawed would not have played at all, and perhaps indicates that he was miscast in the original.

I was also impressed with the acting of very young Hailee Steinfeld. An awesome first effort and she stole the show. I particularly liked the epilogue, the grown up one armed Mattie Ross was a bitter but no less dominant character. It left me wondering what turned her personality. I have my theories. But it was a twist that I was not expecting and therefore very welcome.

All in all I treat this movie as I do most remakes of "classics", as a completely separate entity and judging it as such. 5 stars, must see.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

I saw this movie last weekend on PPV and really enjoyed it also. I don't remember much about the original but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I agree that Hailee Steinfeld was awesome!! Excellent job for such a young gal! We were watching the credits at the end and Rhonda said, "Matt Damon was in there? Who was he??" She didn't even recognize him! LOL.

...............Bob

[Chicago Jake]

I agree that Rooster is a "flawed hero," but I disagree that John Wayne didn't play him that way. I thought the Duke's Rooster was very flawed! He was unable to bring a man in alive, he was always on the verge of being fired, and he didn't get along with anyone. And aside from the writing and the story, the expressions and delivery that Wayne added showed a man who lived in his own little world, and don't you even TRY to pull him into the real one! If that isn't flawed, I don't know what is.

Of course, I still haven't seen the new version. Is JB's Rooster flawed in other ways that were left out of the first version?

[Ardbeg... innit]

The biggest difference, I feel, is that I never felt the latest Cogburn was looking for any sort of redemption. My recollection was that the Duke's Cogburn wanted to be a friend to Mattie, he shared some stories and it seemed he wanted to "connect" with her. The Coens make Cogburn much more unapproachable. He's a bastard, he knows it, and there is no way in hell he is even going to try to tell his story to this brat tailing along at his side, but in spite of himself the good guy leaks out. He gives his word and unapologetically breaks it, because keeping his word wouldnt matter anyways. And flat out kicks a couple Indian kids out of his way rather than going around or telling them to move.

I found a reviewer who puts it a bit more eloquently than my words...

Wayne's Cogburn was a moral force – albeit frayed around the edges: Bending some laws, but ultimately seeing justice done. As Cogburn says in the novel after shooting a rodent: “You can’t serve a writ on a rat. You either kill him or leave him alone.” The moral ambiguity of the marshal is due more to difficult circumstance than degenerate character.

But with Bridges’ Cogburn, the reverse seems more likely – and more believable. Given the mess of a world that respects only force, only a dark hand intimate with that world can subdue it. Bridge’s Cogburn is soiled, deeply stained by original sin, but acceptable to moral Mattie because he serves her purpose of retribution. Damon’s chivalrous LaBoeuf is ineffectual on this moral turf, but the natural force of Cogburn harnessed – or rather unleashed – on this errand is the ticket for Mattie – both pragmatically and morally.

But, with a little reflection, the BIGGEST difference between these two versions is that the '69 version is a story about Rooster, the Coen's version is about Mattie.

If the movie has a flaw, its Matt Damon

[Chicago Jake]

Thanks for the compare and contrast.

And if ANY movie has a flaw, it's Matt Damon. He has all the charisma of a sock puppet.

[Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III]

>>You can’t serve a writ on a rat.<<

Damn!!

I can't WAIT for my next hearing in front of the Judge so I can use that one!! PRICELESS!!!

[Chicago Jake]

Jun 28, 2011 22:22:38 GMT -6 Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III said:

>>You can’t serve a writ on a rat.<<

Damn!!

I can't WAIT for my next hearing in front of the Judge so I can use that one!! PRICELESS!!!

John Wayne delivered several lines in that vein in his version of the movie. Two in particular:


[cocks his gun] Mr. Rat... I have a writ here says you're to stop eating Chen Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now it's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of the same. See? Doesn't pay any attention to me.
[shoots the rat]

At another point in the movie:
You can't serve papers on a rat, baby sister. You gotta kill him or let him be.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Jun 28, 2011 19:02:50 GMT -6 Chicago Jake said:

Thanks for the compare and contrast.

And if ANY movie has a flaw, it's Matt Damon. He has all the charisma of a sock puppet.

What do you have against sock puppets?