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trite performance. He should send Billie Bob Thornton a piece of his check because he copied the speech mannerism from Billie's character in, "Slingblade."
Not a surprise in the film. Not a memorable shootout. Damon's interaction with the irascible Cogburn isn't clever, witty, or entertaining. The young girl, however, is memorable.
"Unforgiven" set a bar very high for Westerns and, surprisingly, this effort comes up way, way short. Both are revenge plots involving young women hiring "over the hill" lawmen. But "Unforgiven" had a complex plot, well-drawn secondary characters, suspense, and the feel of a Greek tragedy: we knew something terrible, unstoppable, and unrelenting was coming.
SPOILER:
A successful Western needs a well-drawn, terrible villain. In TG, we don't meet the under-utilized Brolin's character till the 3/4s mark and then he's still a minor character. His demise, like a lot of action, seems rushed and forgettable. The plunge/rescue down the "hole" seemed tacked on, ridiculous. The horse-ride, similarly, was poorly conceived and executed.
Now, don't get me wrong: I was thoroughly amused throughout. But when one goes to a Coen Bros. film, such as "No Country," one experiences art. This time, set your bar lower. They did.
Follow Ups:
Just like Crash. Neither should have won Best Picture. That said, I agree TG has some flaws but I still enjoyed it.
Good westerns: The Proposition and Blazzing Saddles.
...it was entertaining and we enjoyed it.
Shouldn't be in the best picture of the year discussions.
I'd put somewhere in the middle of the Cohen's films.
Say 3 out of 5 stars.
Better than "Burlesque" but not "The Fighter".
True Grit will stand up to repeat viewing in a way The Fighter never can. The Coens' writing was so much better, and direction choices too. Fighter was a good show, but once you've seen it once, that's all she wrote. As with most Coens bros films, you will get more out of it each time. I still don't think guys like you and tin "got" this movie on first watch.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
...perhaps you could explain "it" to me.
There was no emotional involvement with the characters - you didn't really care what happened to them.
The ending was a little strange.
It was amusing and entertaining, and yes, well written and acted.
The "Fighter" had an emotional impact and you cared about the characters which puts it way above True Grit.
Every time I see their film I get the sensation that I am doing something mandatory, something I have to do to "belong", all the while feeling I would rather be in Philadelphia.
Excellent performances all around, and Hailee Stenfeld richly deserves the raves she is getting.
The scene in which Rooster flees with Maddie on Little Blackie to get her medical attention is just stunning-the brilliance of the Coen brothers is on full display here, with real emotional resonance.
...dialog is rather stylized as I suppose the book's is.
I think an inmate's opinion that we don't meet the villain until too late and that nothing much is done with him is way off. This story is NOT about the villian but is about Mattie and Rooster.
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Tin-eared audiofool and terrible competitive-pistol shootist.
http://jeffreybehr.zenfolio.com/p610729623
I'm too full of cold meds to type anything extensive but one of the chief pleasures of the new True Grit for me is how the Coen's version captures the spirit and language of the Charles Portis' novel - far more than the Wayne version. It gets something of the book's poetry into a cinematic equivalent and, for once, the Coens are mostly, uncharisteristically un-ironic. Portis and the Coens, in fact, seem to share a similar sensibility (Cormac McCarthy without the pretension but with a big helping of deadpan, scathing humor).I also think the casting and performances are superior in every way to the earlier movie - Wayne's performance was a fabulous, iconic one, but it was basically a take on the quintessential "Duke"ness of John Wayne, not the Rooster Cogburn of the book. Bridges is pitch perfect IMO. The interplay among him, Damon and Steinfeld is what makes the film. I never thought of Billy Bob Thornton, or even of Bridges - I just saw Portis' Rooster on the screen.
I have mixed feelings about Unforgiven, BTW, but I don't find much in common between the two films other than genre, so I will not go there. I don't want this to become a Grit vs Unforgiven debate. Unforgiven is more your cuppa - fine.
I strongly disagree that a western needs a prominent villain, and I felt the "gunfight" (I presume by this you mean Cogburn's last charge) was staged rather well - the difference in emphasis is more in line with the novel. The gunfight isn't the main point, the villain isn't the main point; Mattie's quest is the point...and it is Mattie, of course, who ultimately shows the most grit.
Your complaints about TG2010 imply to me you went into this film expecting a totally different kind of movie, one that conformed to certain genre conventions, and that you rather missed the subtlety.
I do think this new True Grit will gain in stature as time goes on. I've usually found that I need to see a Coen movie more than once to get it all.I will agree that Hailee Steinfeld is a find, and a superb Mattie Ross.
I haven't seen the book around since I unpacked after my recent move so I will be hunting through my boxes to find True Grit and reread ASAP. By the bye, I read the book before I saw the 1969 movie. I heartily recommend it, as well as Portis' other books (Dog of the South, Gringos etc, which are not westerns though set in the SW). Another good read made into an excellent though a-typical western is co-regionist Daniel Woodrell's Woe To Live On, which became Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil. (Woodrell is the author of the book Winter's Bone which was made into the fine recent film by Deborah Granik.)
Edits: 12/29/10
I liked it a lot and preferred it to the original. Bridges was Cogburn ...Wayne was just Wayne, as we had seen him a zillion times before. As for Bridges sounding like Billy Bob's "Slingblade" character, I simply didn't get that at all.
I agree that Mattie's quest is the point of the film and I found it much better portrayed in this version. That's why I can't see lumping it into the formula "western" genre.
Great dialog, acting and cinematography. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dean.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
I liked it much more than you did. It is certainly not in the class of NCFOM but it is good and far, far superior to the original that was, except for the Duke, an embarrassing effort.
-Wendell
> > He should send Billie Bob Thornton a piece of his check because he copied the speech mannerism from Billie's character in, "Slingblade." < <
You need to go see Slingblade again. Bridges didn't sound a thing like Thornton.
> > Not a surprise in the film. Not a memorable shootout. < <
Two immediate examples that prove you wrong: the determination of the girl in her dialog with the horse seller and the violence erupting in the cabin. There was plenty going on to keep you on your toes.
> > Damon's interaction with the irascible Cogburn isn't clever, witty, or entertaining. The young girl, however, is memorable. < <
The Coens were going for a realistic depiction of an older, more experienced gunslinger juxtaposed to a younger marshal seeking cash more than anything else. It's called character development and as usual, you'll probably need to see this a few more times to get the nuances of the dialog.
> > "Unforgiven" set a bar very high for Westerns and, surprisingly, this effort comes up way, way short. < <
Totally meaningless comparison. Unforgiven was an "anti-Western" that flipped the hero and villian roles by making the ruthless outlaw switch places with the lawful sherriff. True Grit was an exploration of just that: determination and righteousness.
> > Both are revenge plots involving young women hiring "over the hill" lawmen. < <
No, no no. Eastwood's character in Unforgiven was hired by some young buck who couldn't shoot straight and had no belly for what needed to be done. The "young women" in that film were whores, not an innocent child who insisted on riding out to find her father's killer. One gets the impression that Unforgiven is the only other western you've seen. That doesn't make it worth comparing to True Grit; if any Eastwood film is, it's Pale Rider, but even that makes for a fairly meaningless comparison.
> > A successful Western needs a well-drawn, terrible villain. In TG, we don't meet the under-utilized Brolin's character till the 3/4s mark and then he's still a minor character. < <
No, he had built suspense and his mere presence alone with the child was chilling. Maybe the Coens are too subtle for you; you need to be hit over the head with bad guys and shootouts like a little boy.
> > The plunge/rescue down the "hole" seemed tacked on, ridiculous. The horse-ride, similarly, was poorly conceived and executed. < <
Are you kidding? The snakes had tremendous realism. And the way the injured girl saw the stars during the rush back had an almost spiritual flavor.
> > Now, don't get me wrong: I was thoroughly amused throughout. But when one goes to a Coen Bros. film, such as "No Country," one experiences art. This time, set your bar lower. They did. < <
If you failed to see the artistry in True Grit, you might as well get your brain and eyes removed. You're done.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
Spot on...an amazing scene that I watched with a lump in my throat. Spellbinding.
> > Two immediate examples that prove you wrong: the determination of the girl in her dialog with the horse seller and the violence erupting in the cabin. There was plenty going on to keep you on your toes. < <It's funny you bring these two particular scenes up. They stuck out in my mind as the ONLY two scenes done better in the original 1969 True Grit .
One improvement in the Coens' version: Mattie's falling into the snake pit as an "equal and opposite reaction" of firing the fatal gunshot to Chaney was more symbolic. In the original, it comes off more as a plot convenience since Chaney lives after Mattie's shot. (It is Cogburn who finally kills him.)
The original took a more paternalistic approach. Mattie remains "innocent" of any direct killing and does not lose her arm. In the Coens' version she gets retribution at her own hand, but must be "punished" with an irredeemable physical handicap, just as Cogburn was. There's a little more truth and resonance to the story this way, implying that justice does not come without cost to he (or she) who seeks it.
Was the Coens' more explicit telling of the story worth all the effort? Not really. As I said in an earlier post, the lessons are obvious and virtually the same in both versions. And the Wayne version is more entertaining.
Edits: 12/28/10
Which is what I took the point to be in Mattie's case.
J.B.
Her Mattie was my favorite character and here's hoping she will get the recognition she deserves...and the roles she deserves.
I wonder what a slightly younger Clint Eastwood would have done with the Rooster Cogburn role?...If he could stop playing Clint Eastwood long enough.
There is a Japanese version of 'True Grit' that I saw many moons ago and the name escapes me but it was quite good, ring a bell with anyone here?
J.B.
about opinion, but there can be none regarding the gender of the slashed whore(s) who hired Eastwood's character.
This was a hastily done, mediocre film which needn't have been done since it failed to surpass the original.
And I saw "Slingblade," again, two weeks ago.
Bridges should send Billie Bob half his check.
So how do you think it compares to the original? I prefer the original, though I think a fair bit of nostalgia factors in there. I do think it is a much better/different movie than Unforgiven (westerns are my favourite genre, and while I think Unforgiven is quite good, I find it a bit overrated).
recognizing it as iconic and making me ponder, "What was Bridges thinking!"
He brought nothing new to the role.
Nothing.
I found the original entertaining, nothing exceptional.
.
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