The new remake of True Grit squares off against its classic predecessor.
Artwork by Hayden Johnson
The Coen brothers are the most hit-or-miss directors I’ve ever seen. Though they have created masterpieces such as No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they are far from consistent. Their black “comedies” like Burn After Reading and A Serious Man have humor so dry that the Sahara Desert looks like Vietnam during monsoon season. And that humor is hardly funny. Quirky, unique, and awkward is the name of the game for the Coen brothers, so if it’s disturbing in at least one way you can bet they’ve had their hands in it. When the Coen Co-op direct a comedy, I usually cross it off my list, but their drama and action films always are worth the ticket price.
At least that’s what I thought, until I heard they were remaking True Grit.
Never before have I been so outraged at Hollywood. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? That was upsetting. Shrek Forever After? Annoying and rather disappointing. Step Up 3D? Just plain idiotic. But the very second that news of True Grit was revealed to me I was baying for the Coen brothers’ blood. I quite literally screamed in rage at my computer screen. I don’t care what kind of director one believes himself/herself to be, remaking any John Wayne movie is a sin; the most heinous crime one can commit. And when the movie came out, not only did I refuse to see it, I considered organizing a boycott. There would be no way that anyone could see this movie and not be incredibly disappointed, I thought to myself. I was positive the Coen brothers would be shunned forevermore.
Wrong.
From the Denver Post to Roger Ebert himself, a multitude of positive reviews came pouring in. It’s even been nominated for a handful of Oscars! I was astounded. There could be no way that this was reality. I reasoned that I had to have been sucked into an alternate universe where Kazaam won three Oscars. Yet, to my dismay, this was really happening. I vehemently refused to go see it. I would not tarnish Wayne’s memory by observing this film.
I was content to ignore the movie completely, until Editor-in-Chief of the TJ Journal Luke DeGregori spent one of his weekends at the theater, watching the moving picture I would not see. Though he enjoyed it, I refused to listen to his testimony and nearly disowned him as a friend. Eventually, one of my rants was overheard by Computer Magnet Director and Newspaper Guru Matt Spampinato. Spamp, who initially had grimaced like he had just stepped in something particularly nasty when I informed him what the Coen brothers were doing, had paid his admission price and gone to see the movie. And Spamp, whose movie tastes I agreed with and respected over anyone else I know, enjoyed the movie.
I was heartbroken, devastated, and staggered. Could it really not be as bad as I feared if Spamp had enjoyed it? Defeated, I finally swallowed my pride and agreed to see the movie, on the condition that I could write the article comparing the new vs. old versions of the film.
The drive to the theater felt like I was part of a funeral dirge, and paying for that ticket was like watching a child wrestled from the arms of his/her mother. I could hear John Wayne rolling in his grave and glaring down at me as I advanced down the hallway to the theater. I chose my seat, gritted my teeth, and prepared for the worst.
The truth, and it still pains me to utter the words, is that the movie was good. There, I said it. It was a film that would honor the title of Western. What made it good was not the haunting landscapes, coarse manner of Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges, Tron: Legacy), superb acting by Hailee Steinfeld (who made her film debut as Mattie Ross) or the fact that the most recent adaptation stays closer to the book than the original. What made it good is that this is a version of the written story, and not a remake of the classic film.
Jeff Bridges is not John Wayne, nor does he try to be. Bridges’ Cogburn is a merciless old drunkard who gets the job done, while Wayne’s was mean-spirited and prone to vices, but an ultimately noble and just lawman. While Wayne turned Cogburn into an icon that parts the movie with the quote, “Well, come and see a fat old man sometime,” Bridges makes Cogburn worthy of the title of “True Grit” with his gritty demeanor, attitude, and style.
Both movies have the same plot; 14 year old Mattie Ross wants Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin, Jonah Hex) dead for the murder of her father. She eventually hires Rooster Cogburn to help her track down Chaney, and they are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon, Green Zone) in the search. Eventually they find Chaney riding with “Lucky” Ned Peppers (Brian Pepper, Casino Jack) and, like any Western, bullets fly. What sets the two apart is the fact that Cogburn is front and center in the original movie, while the most recent is all Mattie’s story. The new adaptation, like the book, starts with, is narrated by, and ends with 40 year old Mattie recalling this story from her childhood. The ’69 film focuses on her solely during her experiences as a 14 year old girl. Also, while Kim Darby’s (Better off Dead…) Mattie is so tomboyish she’s almost a boy who hasn’t hit puberty, Steinfeld’s Mattie is a strong-willed girl who has come face to face with a harsh world and become tougher than iron.
The simple truth is that while both versions are about the same story, the original ’69 movie is in a realm of its own. Everything John Wayne touched became gold, and that is enough to make the original a classic. I have to hand it to the Coen brothers though, they were on very thin ice when they chose to remake the movie, but didn’t really remake it. They just took a more linear adaptation of the book. The movie is a classic example of a good Western, but that’s all it really is. Though Bridges, Steinfeld, Brolin, and Damon did a great job with their roles, the new True Grit didn’t bring anything new to the table. However, whether it be John Wayne or Jeff Bridges, I’ll never get tired of the scene where Cogburn rides towards four armed gunmen on horseback with a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other, and the reins in his teeth, right after saying “Fill yer hand, you son of a…” well, you get the idea.
★★★★☆
