True Grit -- the Remake

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pvitari
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True Grit -- the Remake

Post by pvitari »

In case anyone's interested, the first trailer is up for the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit, with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn.

[youtube][/youtube]
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JackFavell
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by JackFavell »

It looks good - and though a good trailer does not a good movie make, I like the tone and style of the trailer. It reminds me of Days of Heaven.

It looks like the remake is taking a very different direction, which is super. They aren't basing it on the larger than life persona of Rooster Cogburn, John Wayne, and the oddness of Kim Darby. It looks like it is concentrating solely on story and it has an almost literary feel, full of atmosphere. In other words, it could work!

I guess we can all laugh at this prediction on Christmas day.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by klondike »

Trailer looks great, and the Coen bros. have a pretty dang good track record (I'm still laughin' at O Brother, whenever I think about it) . .
I'll likely go see it, based on that, but Jeffy Boy, them is a mighty big set o' britches to fill, and I'm doubting Bostonian Matt Damon is going to find quite the all natural groove Glen Campbell did as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf . . and Josh, are you just all nasty-foul like that 'cause nobody turned out to see Jonah Hex? I tried to, I swear, but it was on the back-end of a double bill, & no matinees!
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moira finnie
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by moira finnie »

There was enough material in the original book of True Grit by Charles Portis for three movies. The character of 14 year old Mattie (Kim Darby in the original film) was much more interesting than she ultimately seemed to be in the '68 movie, and she was the center of the novel, rather than Rooster Cogburn. I think this may be a pretty good movie--though I wouldn't be surprised if the Henry Hathaway version and Wayne's portrayal casts a long shadow over this revision.
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ken123
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by ken123 »

Maybe I should take a peek at Viva Zapata, this is one film that I have never seen, mainly because of my dislike of Brando. IMHO Kazans' best works wer A Tree That grows in Brooklyn and A Face in the Crowd. 8)
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by klondike »

moirafinnie wrote:There was enough material in the original book of True Grit by Charles Portis for three movies. The character of 14 year old Mattie (Kim Darby in the original film) was much more interesting than she ultimately seemed to be in the '68 movie, and she was the center of the novel, rather than Rooster Cogburn. I think this may be a pretty good movie--though I wouldn't be surprised if the Henry Hathaway version and Wayne's portrayal casts a long shadow over this revision.
Good points, M; looking back, I do believe that reading Portis' novel @ age 15 was the best time at which I could have encountered it, even though it was narrated by an equally young female protagonist; more bizarrely, it was recommended to me by my good old risque, bare-knuckle Uncle Hollis, who called it one of his "best reads ever", which seemed odd coming from a man whose secular reading tastes were usually limited to dog-eared mapbacks by Hammond Innes, Erskine Caldwell & Max Brand, not to mention his secret library of "Tijuana bibles". :oops: 8) :oops:
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by charliechaplinfan »

It's an interesting prospect, it sounds like they are taking it in a different direction to the Wayne movie, I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by rudyfan »

It looks very good to me. Matt Damon looks lovely.... :lol:

I am a Coen Bros. fan. Miller's Crossing is still one of my fav movies of all time.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by Lzcutter »

I like the trailer. I hope the film is as good, if not better, than the trailer. Jeff Bridges looks awesome. The young girl looks good, too. And Josh Brolin, he looks really mad.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by mrsl »

.
Well, I've never read True Grit, and I've only seen the movie back when it first came out and once recently but Kim Darby ruined it for me both times. I guess that was her impression of the character, but it wasn't really a whole lot different than the way she did several other roles - with that 'in space' attitude.

This is not to be a critique before seeing the movie because I think Jeff Bridges is fabulous and has been overlooked too many times by Oscar circling above, and possibly Oscar will repeat history and give him an oscar for this role as they did for the Duke. However, The Alamo was remade, Red River was remade, and now True Grit. The other two were done by James Arness, a great actor in his own right, and if I had never seen the originals, I would have thought both were terrific movies. My problem is neither Arness or Bridges have the Wayne aura that made him that special cowboy. His walk, his talk, the look in his eye - all rolled together to make that legendary man that we all loved, barring what we thought of his politics. That 'aura' is what is missing and impossible to capture.

As for going a different route with the story; I watched the original Alamo and the remake back to back. In Dukes' version, the back stories of the main characters are told, making them more real to us, but the remake concentrates only on the days of fighting, and we have to try to figure out why these guys are all here in an obviously impossible situation. However, it was good for an attempt at a Western in today's market. I don't know about the relationship between the girl and Rooster Cogburn, but if, in the book it became a 'cover your back' situation, as it did in Wayne's version, I wonder if that is a vital part of the story, and shouldn't be changed.

As I said, none of this is a critique, it's just some thoughts I'm throwing out and hoping someone can debate my conclusions.
.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by mrsl »

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Another post to mention that somewhere on one of these threads, someone described the impossibility of the scene where the Duke gallops out with a six gun exploding in each hand and the reins in his teeth, but at the same time, we accepted with childlike belief that John Wayne could do it. It was funny after writing about his 'aura' to come across that on another thread, but it explained what I meant much better than I could. I've been going over some older Jeff Bridges movies and I think a possibility remains that I may find a remake I like even better than the original, with the exception of the Dukes part. I also think Josh Brolin is pretty special.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by JackFavell »

I think you are right Anne. I hate to say it, but the outside wrapping of the original movie is not nearly as good as John Wayne. I think I am looking forward to the remake a lot now that I think about it. It's a shame they couldn't get John Wayne for the remake, but if I had to go with someone from our time, it would be Jeff Bridges. He's really about the only old school movie star around still getting hired and doing incredible work.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by movieman1957 »

Wayne, and maybe the story, were the best parts of the original. Replace Darby and most certainly Campbell and they sure would have had something better.

I wonder if they'll keep Cogburn's humor about it or play it straight? There is most likely a first rate drama underneath all the facade of the original.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by klondike »

movieman1957 wrote:
I wonder if they'll keep Cogburn's humor about it or play it straight? There is most likely a first rate drama underneath all the facade of the original.
As I recall it, Cogburn's character from the novel was a towering, glowering, moody, perpetually drunken braggart, not above brutalizing prisoners, or stealing from suspects & corpses, and often falling back on vulgar buffoonery when failing Mattie's standards of heroism and/or manhood.
And believe it or not, Portis' depiction of LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger, was left pretty shallow & simplistic, and was actually fleshed-out & expanded for the role in the film, making for a fairly accurate, albeit instinctive, portrayal from Campbell.
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Re: True Grit -- the Remake

Post by pvitari »

Confession time.

True Grit is the first western I remember seeing in a theater. (I may have seen another western first, but this is the first one I *remember.*) It also was the cause of my first actor crush. (A lot of crushes have gone by since.) No, not John Wayne. At that point in time for me John Wayne was just this big, old, fat guy. (I am much smarter these days about John Wayne.) Yes, my first actor crush was Glenn Campbell. Oh, did I have it bad for him! Not only did I think about him in the movie all the time, but I bought all his records and listened to them over and over. Since Campbell is a terrific guitar player and has a beautiful voice, and those songs included classics like "Gentle on My Mind," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Dreams of an Everyday Housewife" and of course the movie's title tune "True Grit," I had a pretty good time. :)

I haven't seen True Grit in several years (the DVD is around here somewhere) and I don't even remember what about the character or Campbell's performance captured my tween heart but it must have been something. I'm going to have to dig out the DVD and watch it again before the remake shows up.

Nowadays I am a Matt Damon fan, so I am looking forward to seeing what he does with LaBeouf. (Possibly an ancestor of Shia?) :)
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