All the advance publicity about the new Coen brothers movie "True Grit" has focused on the notion that it’s not a remake of the 1969 Western that won John Wayne his only Oscar. Instead, we’ve been told, over and over, that the Coen brothers’ version is more faithful to Charles Portis’ original novel.
So it was to my great surprise when I sat down to watch the new "True Grit" and discovered that, in fact, it’s very close to the 1969 movie version. At times, it's nearly a scene-for-scene, line-for-line remake. The difference is one of tone. The Coen brothers’ "True Grit" is more intimate and art directed, a kind of color-coordinated curio.
It also features a lead actress, Hailee Steinfeld, who’s notably younger than Kim Darby was in the original. As Mattie Ross, the super-spunky, hard-bargaining Arkansas 14-year-old who’s out to avenge the death of her father, Steinfeld speaks in perfectly constructed, almost lawyerly sentences, and she's the definition of precocious. Yet that doesn’t make the character any less of a Hollywood concoction. In some ways, it makes her more of one.
Of course, the character we’re really here to see is Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, the gruff, sozzled old loner of a marshal who never met a criminal he didn’t want to shoot. Bridges, hidden under a grizzly beard, gives what I suppose you could say is a flawless performance. But the actor at heart is such a teddy bear that, if anything, he’s a lot less crusty that John Wayne was. He’s also, I have to say, less memorable.
The Coen brothers’ "True Grit" is an impeccably crafted movie, yet there’s something almost too precious and controlled about it. It’s not as corny as the 1969 version, yet by the end of that one, you really felt what a cantankerous old cuss John Wayne was playing. It was a helluva performance, even if it was designed to be Oscar bait. The new "True Grit" has less of that populist vulgarity, but it’s such a tasteful artifact that it leaves very little imprint.
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