MY GRIT IS TRUE
Mar. 14th, 2011 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogAnd the first film of 2011 for Team Def is …
True Grit
As in the Coen Brothers remake, with Jeff Bridges bravely filling The Duke’s boots as US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, and filling them well. It may help that I never saw the John Wayne version. Then again, it was still difficult to watch this and not think of the previous film, which does hang over it in many ways – such is the testament of Wayne's iconic performance that won him his only Oscar.
To be sure, like most Coen films, it’s well crafted, gorgeously shot, well acted and well told. And it’s true to the source material (which I’ve recently read) to the point that it felt more like the Coens were making their own version of the book rather than remaking the first film version.
But in the end, at least for me, it’s one of those movies that doesn’t really register much beyond its craftsmanship. It’s a good film, and I enjoyed sitting through it, but as the Coens have never really made a truly bad film, that’s not saying much. And with the icon of Wayne never far from my mind, I keep thinking that we didn’t really need a new telling of the story.
Fill yr hand,
This is dF
True Grit
As in the Coen Brothers remake, with Jeff Bridges bravely filling The Duke’s boots as US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, and filling them well. It may help that I never saw the John Wayne version. Then again, it was still difficult to watch this and not think of the previous film, which does hang over it in many ways – such is the testament of Wayne's iconic performance that won him his only Oscar.
To be sure, like most Coen films, it’s well crafted, gorgeously shot, well acted and well told. And it’s true to the source material (which I’ve recently read) to the point that it felt more like the Coens were making their own version of the book rather than remaking the first film version.
But in the end, at least for me, it’s one of those movies that doesn’t really register much beyond its craftsmanship. It’s a good film, and I enjoyed sitting through it, but as the Coens have never really made a truly bad film, that’s not saying much. And with the icon of Wayne never far from my mind, I keep thinking that we didn’t really need a new telling of the story.
Fill yr hand,
This is dF
