Shootout at the 'True Grit' corral: Which film wins?

NBC ^ | Feb 18 | Mark Blankenship

[WilliamIII]

The two versions of "True Grit" are like Athens, Greece, and Athens, Georgia: They've got the same name, but they're in totally different worlds. Yet for all their differences, both Westerns found plenty of fans and got plenty of Oscar attention. John Wayne was named Best Actor for the 1969 original, and the 2010 remake, directed by the Coen brothers, competes for 10 Oscars on Feb. 27, including Best Picture and Best Director. So which movie is better? Take a look at these comparisons and decide which version you think is the truest … and the grittiest.

[USS Alaska]

“No true southerner would eat instant grits.”

“It takes the entire grit-eating world twenty minutes to cook their grits...”

[perplyone]

I also like the John Wayne version.

(and loved My Cousin Vinny)

[jmacusa]

“This is a Rat Writ ‘rit for a rat and lawful service of same...’’

[21twelve]

LOL! That’s what came to my mind as well when they said they only had time for instant grits. And the photo you posted with the tape measure I had thought of just a couple of days ago. A rare sunny day here in Seattle and the sun was glaring in the kitchen window that was so faucet splattered and rain splattered that I couldn’t see out! (Its okay now though - its raining again!).

[RIghtwardHo]

Exactly my thoughts. I mean, I’m old but not that old lol, but I felt, “so this is what it was like to live then.”.

[JRandomFreeper]

That would be the quote. I paraphrased.

But I've suffered through the next morning scene more than should be allowed for a natural man.

So you wake up in a saggy bed with a cat on your chest, with a small child waving money in your face to go chase a man into Oklahoma territory....

I'd roll over and go back to sleep and re-arrange the cat. Or teach it flying lessons.

/johnny

[jessduntno]

I have a friend who was born in Elizabethtown, Illinois. After he got out of the Army, he lived in Elizabethtown, Kentucky for a few years before moving to Louisville, Kentucky. This past fall he retired out west and settled in the town of Louisville, Colorado.”

Name isn’t Jimmy James, is it?

[Roses0508]

The Arkansas side of my family refers to Charles Portis as a cousin. I remember meeting him once when I was much younger. Keep in mind that in Arkasas the definition of cousin is quite flexible. It can include those who are cousin by blood as well as those who are cousin by strength of your regard for them. He has a very distinctive voice in his writings. You should read Norwood.

[fr_freak]

a look at the letters from that time period shows that even the least educated (by today’s standards; they didn’t go beyond 8th grade usually) spoke and wrote MUCH better than most students today.

It is my understanding that, in those days, letter writing, being somewhat uncommon due to the illiteracy rate, was considered a rather formal affair, so when people wrote letters, they did so with the same level of formality that one might write a business letter today. When they spoke, however, it was a different matter, sort of like the difference between what you'd say to your friends on the weekend and what you'd write in your end-of-quarter report at work. This is the mistake that many movies made from the era make, in that they assume that the formality of the letter-writing and the mode of everyday speech were the same. They were not.

[Fiji Hill]

I can’t think of a film in which I prefer the remake to the original. Although I’ve never seen the 1910 version of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” I prefer the 1925 version of the story, titled “The Wizard of Oz,” over the 1939 remake. The same goes for the 1954 TV film “Casino Royale,” remade in 1967, “Little Caesar” (1931), remade in 1991, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), remade in 1978, and “Ben Hur” (1925), remade in 1959.

One of the worst movies I ever saw was the 1995 version of “The Scarlet Letter” because it made hash of the original story. On the other hand, the 1925 version remains a classic.

[Celtic Conservative]

I personally thought Josh Brolin was straining the whole movie to do His best Bruce Dern impression. JMHO

CC

[Fiji Hill]

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Big Jim McClain” (1952) in which the Duke plays an investigator for the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) who chases Soviet agents through Hawaii. Lionizing HUAC is about as politically incorrect as one can get.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Nope; Pete Clark.

[Rudder]

I’ll read Norwood. Many thanks.

[RobbyS]

And more like the dialogue in “Lonesome Dive.”

[RobbyS]

Ragarding “Scarlet Letter.” Not anyone in Hollywood has clue about the religious issues behind that book. The Puritans are seen in the light of the Church state issues in Massachusetts in the 1830s and 1840s, and all wrong historically. Absolutely sure no one has ever read Perry Miller.

[t2buckeye]

True...but if you look at the letters written by soldiers of all ranks from the Civil War period, the vocabulary was still impressive even when written to family members. For that reason, I did enjoy the vocabulary and Mattie’s diction in the Coen script. But you’re right about informal speech; for example, contractions would not have been used in letter writing, but they no doubt were used in speech.

Still, I think the Coen movie is closer to the novel’s dialogue, but John Wayne still was the best Rooster Cogburn. Jeff Bridges did a decent job, but the Duke was better. THe girl in the Coen version is excellent especially for her age.

[dog breath]

I think they sell the instant kind to us Yankees, at least those of us who will eat grits at all. I have a very dear friend from Mississippi who wrinkles her nose and makes a disgusted chuffing sound when I mention eating instant grits. Oh as to the the movie John Wayne in the original no contest. The side conversation about instant grits as opposed to the real thing actually reflects the conversation about the movie.

[Inyo-Mono]

This is the mistake that many movies made from the era make, in that they assume that the formality of the letter-writing and the mode of everyday speech were the same. They were not.

It is difficult to be certain about that now. But I do know that my grandmother's letters were much more formal than her spoken words, which I heard often as a child in the 1950s when she lived with our family, though she did speak much more formally than people do today. She was born in 1888 and died in in 1961. Her Father was a Civil War vet.

[RobbyS]

The formality carries over into everyday speech. The men I worked with in the oil ,field sixty years ago, were not nearly as slangy as people my age were.