True Grit vs. True Grit

[Crockett]

I loved the latest True Grit movie so much I read the novel, which was really a masterpiece. For my birthday, I received the DVD, plus a DVD of the version with John Wayne.

I gotta say the Coen Brothers are damned good movie makers. Every single character in the latest outshown their counterparts and they milked all the good from a really well written book. Considering there were some damned fine character actors in the 1969 version, including Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, it wasn't so much the talent on screen as how they were prepped and filmed. My son, who didn't live in the era when John Wayne was idolized, had really interesting observations on line delivery. The latest version was so natural. Unusual for an action-western, the dialogue was what made the movies and the book so memorable.

 

[Statalyzer]

The new movie was great. Best new movie I've seen in awhile, including Inception.

 

[bevo barry]

I know its un-American to knock The Duke, but I was never impressed with the original TG nor Wayne's performance in it. I remember a collective groan as a bunch of us gathered around a TV in Jester my freshman year to watch the Oscars and he was announced as Best Actor. The Coen's TG was a damn fine film and IMHO a better flick than King's Speech (though Firth deservedly won Best Actor).

I'm not totally down on the Duke however. Loved Big Jake.

 

[Perham1]

I found the Coen Bros. remake to be far superior than the original in many ways.

In all ways, actually.

 

[A. BETTIK]

Robert Duval's mannerisms were the most memorable for me in the original.

The remake was good. I especially liked the way the frontiersmen were protrayed, almost something out of a Harry Potter or Tolkein story. My late hermit-like uncle had that quality: almost slow, scruffy, socially retarded but possessing and practicing a highly defined sense of honor, ethics or manners.

I was particularly taken by the character of the Texas Ranger, namely the accent and the almost Quaker like adherance to a morality that combined to just barely contain his emotions/passions.

The little girl was awsome haggling with the banker guy. I also liked the courtroom scene.

Although I am aware people did talk and write formally, I doubt seriously they did so on the frontier sans contractions. Contractions existed before the founding of America in the English language and are used pervasively wherever Engish is spoken natively.

I suppose I will have to read the book.

 

[Y Sanchez]

The dialogue in the remake was fantastic.

I have always thought the Duke got the Oscar as a salute to his body of work more than what did in True Grit. That he did not get the Oscar for The Searchers or The Quiet Man is a disgrace.

Glen Campbell was painful to watch in the original.

Hopper and Duvall as always were magnificent.

Normally I HATE remakes but not this one.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

Did anyone else notice how the actors that played Col. G. Stonehill, Strother Martin/1969 and Dakin Matthews/2010, not only are so similar looking, but how similarly the latter played the character to the original?

Loved them both, but the original movie will always be my pick, if for nothing more than sentimental reasons.