Heh..he sure did!
Posted on 12/31/2010 12:28:39 PM PST by Kaslin
"True Grit" is a tale whose time had come and gone. It's the good fortune of a new generation that its time has come again. The novel by Charles Portis, which sold only about 25,000 copies between 2007 and 2009, has been bought by 10,000 new readers since the new version of the movie opened this month.
In an age when twittering conversation is limited to 140 characters, where children become chubby couch potatoes changing channels with a remote control or playing war games moving fantasy soldiers around on a screen, Mattie Ross is an authentic heroine -- lean, mean, articulate and downright inspirational at the toughened age of 14.
Old codgers who loved the 1969 movie for the character of Rooster Cogburn as portrayed by John Wayne will be disappointed by Jeff Bridges as Rooster. He plays the raspy drunk with too much spillover from his role in "Crazy Heart" -- but the character of Mattie is much improved. This time, we get to hear Mattie's voice as the older woman, a spinster recalling the great adventure of her youth. The cadences and perceptions in her speech are richer and more mature because they're often lifted word for word from the novel.
The Coen brothers made the movie first of all because it suited their sensibility of a Western unusual in its mix of ruthlessness with rectitude, irony with sentiment, satire with dead seriousness, and all in the service of delineating the black, white and gray coloring of good and evil. They wanted kids to like it, too. Unlike most of their graphically violent other movies, "True Grit" got a PG-13 rating.
The novel reads like a memoir. Charles Portis' crisp Southern idiom, poetic cadences, sense of place and specificity of detail lends verisimilitude in a tale from the vanishing American frontier. The novel was once required reading in American literature classes, taught along with "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer," where it belongs. Mattie, however, is made of sterner stuff than Mark Twain's creative children. She has been described as "Ahab's little sister" for her unrelenting pursuit of her father's killer. Tom Chaney, "a short man with cruel features," is her Moby Dick.
Mattie's character draws everyone in close with the opening of her story as remembered a half-century on:
"People do not give it credence that a 14-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood, but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just 14 years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money, plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band."
The novel got lost somewhere in the past two decades as America moved into the post-literate age, reduced to a period piece. Readers lost an appreciation for Mattie's voice and her deadpan perceptions that are rife with comic understatement and ripe with universal insight. The moving prose (and the moving picture) show how Mattie's Presbyterian primness combined with Rooster's ruthlessness inevitably prevail. Duty and discipline ultimately fence in disorder by imposing justice, one way or another. "True grit" is the stuff of courage, preserving a fertile seedbed for the next generation as the Wild West is diminished to a rodeo spectator sport.
In the theater where I watched this latest version of "True Grit," I was struck by the sight of families there to watch it together -- children, parents, grandparents and friends of different generations. The adventure story has that kind of sweeping appeal, and the story is even more exciting in the written word. Americans once grew up on literature like this.
Rooster Cogburn is politically incorrect and revels in it, a "one-eyed fat man" who takes pride in his Confederate service and in having ridden with William Clarke Quantrill, the notorious border guerrilla. Rooster loves to pull a cork and rides into battle with reins between his teeth, blasting away with both guns. Spiderman he is not.
Mattie Ross grows up to be a one-armed spinster and a small-town banker in "Dardanelle, Yell County, Arkansas," who would sneer at the suggestion that she is "physically challenged." She is instead "a woman with brains and a frank tongue," but "feminist" doesn't apply either. She loves her church and her bank, expresses Scripture and platitudes of Presbyterian piety with black humor, and triumphs as a woman we can all admire. The new movie should revive the literary attention the book deserves.
these redo/remakes are like trying to replace a long time pet you lost ..
ain’t never gonna be the same
Heh..he sure did!
Ditto what you said!
Did John Wayne make a bomb or two? Of course!
Heh..he sure did!
Add to his bombs were THE ALAMO and CIRCUS WORLD.
The ALAMO was a bomb in the US but a hit in France. but then France also loved Jerry Lewis.
Mean Maryjean, did you ever take your big sister fishing?
Subtle hint to a 1973 Chevy commerical.
LOL!!!! Never had a big sister...but am one of the original “Mean Mary Jeans!” (...only prettier!) Thanks for acknowledging the memory!
I am sorry I will skip this one. I don’t pay to watch a Matt Damon movie.
I liked The Dukes Version as well,but I did see the New Version ,enjoyed it, but The Duke is still the King.
Between the Two,the Wayne Movie I enjoyed the ending a lot more
Same here saw it today,I enjoyed it ,but I still Prefer The Duke,he is still the King,I enjoyed the original version More.
I call that bold talk for a one eyed fat man.
************************
LOL! I saw the original and just caught this re-make Tuesday. I have to say the Coen’s did a great job. My only critique would be that Mattie, being from Arkansas, should have had a dialect coach to sound Southern.
I almost didn’t recognize Brolin, playing a maroon part and I loved the way they made their teeth look “bad”. Worth every penny.
I agree with you about the ending. I was prepared to dislike the movie but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending(the final action scenes, not the reminisce)was silly but not bad enough to cancel the rest. The young actress has a great future. I generally am tired of Jeff Bridges, but he did a great job. And I didn’t even realize the that other character was Matt Damon until the credits!
*** My only critique would be that Mattie, being from Arkansas, should have had a dialect coach to sound Southern.***
People in north Arkansas do not have southern accents. People in South Arkansas might have some. I lived in Little Rock for three years. No one spoke “Southern”.
*** I loved the way they made their teeth look “bad”. Worth every penny.***
Did anyone ever notice in the movie TOMBSTONE how Curly Bill had perfect white teeth?
Any chance Kate Mulgrew might co star with Bridges on a Rooster Cogburn remake?
People in north Arkansas do not have southern accents. ********************
You ain’t from around there are ya or else ya’ll cain’t hear too good. LOL
Happy New Year, Yank!
***You ain’t from around there are ya or else ya’ll cain’t hear too good. LOL
Happy New Year, Yank!***
Been living in NW Arkansas for the last 55 years, except eight years in NM and Oklahoma, including three years in Little Rock.
NEVER lived north of the Missouri-Ark border.
***You ain’t from around there are ya or else ya’ll cain’t hear too good. LOL
Happy New Year, Yank!***
Been living in NW Arkansas for the last 55 years, except eight years in NM and Oklahoma, including three years in Little Rock.
NEVER lived north of the Missouri-Ark border.
How in the h-— did that give me a double post when I only hit the “go” button once?
I agree with you. The only changes, besides a couple of missing scenes that weren't critical to the plot action were that LeBouf didn't die in the novel, Mattie lost her arm, and they aged Rooster and Chaney for the movie. In the book, Cogburn was forty and Chaney 25.
I think where they say it's loosely based on the book is more about the aura of the movie. John Wayne dominated a movie because he had a screen presence. He was also a more likable character than Cogburn was in the book. While Rooster definitely had affection for Mattie in the book, his character was not capable of expressing it. It was revealed when he stopped LeBouf from whipping Mattie and later in the text when he tried to trick her into taking a nap so he could sneak off to take Pepper and Chaney without putting her at risk.
I agree with you though, that as far as movie interpretations of novels, it's about as close as you'll find.
It's because you dissed John Wayne in an earlier comment. You're now doomed to double post forever.
So which is it? Arkansas is Southern. Have a great new year FRiend of the South!
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