We were walking outside the theatre. I had purposely waited this long to comment on the movie to Robin as I wanted our conversation to be private. No particular reason, it is just my preference. I begin gushing about the movie and how much I enjoyed it. I think I may have used the word fantastic in there somewhere. I ended my spontaneous critique with the comment, “But then I do not go to a lot of movies.” And I do not. Last movie I saw in a theatre before True Grit was Avatar.
There was a “gentleman” walking in front of us. He turns around and asks, “What movie did you see?” I’m thinking I did not invite you into the conversation, but politeness lead me to answer, “True Grit.” His return comment was, “I did not care for it; you need to get out to more movies.” I refrained from spewing what I was thinking, and I just ignored him.
I do not even watch many movies outside of theatres. Two hours is a big time commitment when I have so many other things I am doing or want to do. I did watch Crazy Heart on cable. This is the movie for which Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role. Crazy Heart was a little hard for me to watch. Bridges’ Bad Blake character was totally dysfunctional and you knew without doubt that the romance was doomed before it started. But Bridges’ portrayal was dead on. What I love about Jeff Bridges is that you forget that it is Jeff Bridges in the role. The reason I do not go to Kevin Costner movies is that I never forget it is Kevin Costner on the screen. Jeff Bridges is a wonderful actor and very deserving of the Oscar.
I really enjoyed the period sets and period actors in True Grit. The take on the Coen Brothers is that they leave no detail unaddressed. They touched them all in this movie. I could just enjoy some of period scenes cut from the movie for this. It was not hard at all to imagine yourself back to the late 1800s.
My take is that Jeff Bridges is even better in his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn than his Oscar winning portrayal of Bad Blake. He absolutely was Rooster and not Jeff. Matt Damon was just as on as LaBoeuf (pronounced in the movie as LeBeef). He was the cocky, self-involved Texas Ranger. I read some reviews where they felt Hailee Steinfield as Mattie Ross, stole the movie. I would not go that far, but she definitely held up her end of the bargain. Initially I thought Josh Brolin was too pretty to play the villain Tom Chaney. By the climax, I forgot the appearance and bought the villain.
Having been born in eastern Oklahoma and having lived in Ft. Smith, Arkansas for a long while, I was looking for familiar land marks. I did not see any. Turns out the movie was filmed in Sante Fe, NM and parts of Texas. The Coen Brothers were concerned about snow not being available in eastern Oklahoma in the spring. As they well should have been. The scenery is gorgeous. I wanted to grab my backpack and hike the area again. One part that has always bothered me about the original True Grit is the aspen trees. There are no aspen trees anywhere in Oklahoma. The original movie was filmed in large part in Colorado. I’ve actually been in the valley where they shot the climatic scene from the first. It is beautiful, but looks nothing like Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
There have obviously been comparisons made to the True Grit starring John Wayne. Henceforth, I am going to refer to the original movie as True Grit Lite and this one as True Grit. They probably would not give Jeff Bridges two Oscars in a row, but he deserves one. If nothing else it would be an interesting trivia fact.
Great movie, I am glad I picked this for my annual excursion to the movie theatre.
I simply LOVE Jeff Bridges. He played the part famously. I was a bit disappointed in the movie a bit. I guess (with my being someone who doesn’t go to a lot of movies either!) a bit more “action”. I’ll have to get the original and watch again. I was just a child when I first saw it and did not exactly understand what was going on.
Well…compared to some of the stuff they put out these days it is not a lot of action. Most current movies are a sensory overload that I could do with out. They have ruined baseball games the same way. There is so much garbage between innings I am ready to leave by the 4th.
I thought the movie a little like leisurely sex. It builds, it builds, it builds then WHAM… it hits you with some really hard action. Then it starts the cycle again.
Thanks for the review. Don and I are planning on seeing it soon.
The John Wayne True Grit was pretty hokey. A lot of shooting with few hits. Sorta’ like the old A-Team TV series.
But Kevin Cosner was excellent in Field of Dreams. He had a little help from Burt Lancaster and James Earl Jones.
Loved the new True Grit! Much more to it, and I really liked the period dialogue, which Jeanne thought was too stilted. Mattie and Rooster were great characters!
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but from the trailers you can see they got a real actor to play Rooster Cogburn this time. Not a one dimensional, play the same part in every movie he did.