Greeting SURFACEDWELLERS,
"HAPPY NEW YEAR" and welcome to the dark mysterious place known as "SURFACEWORLD" of which I am a lifelong resident. This is my first film review of 2011 so sit back warm up that stale ass popcorn and pop open a flat soda as I tell you a blood curdling tale of "two Grits".
A good friend of mine (Mr. Vince Vinson/friend/collaborator/webmaster) surprised me one day and gave me a present, a copy of the new 2010 version of "True Grit" based on the classic 1968 book by Charles Portis. I have been a longtime fan of the Coen Bros.(Joel & Ethan) since I saw their film "Raising Arizona" and have followed their careers and films since then. I think they are one of the most original creative teams in the film business today, films like "Arizona", "Hudsucker Proxy", and their two academy award winners "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men" have challenged the norm and depicted some of the more eccentric and quirky aspects of the Human animal.
Their latest endeavor-a retelling of "True Grit" starring Jeff Bridges("the Big Lewbowski"), Matt Damon("the Bourne Identity") and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is again a well filmed and well scripted story ,my major problem with it though is that it is not an original Coen Bros. film. Paramount who put out the picture for some bizarre unexplained reason decided to greenlight the remake of a classic and popular film, yes ,Hard to believe I know but as scary as that sounds there are actually a good majority of the movie going public who are not aware of the original 1969 version starring the legendary John Wayne as "Rooster Cogburn" and directed by the late great Henry Hathaway. The original film was a huge hit and has become a classic over the years and it was an academy award winner(John Wayne garnered his only Oscar win for the film)to boot. With all due respect to the film makers and cast of the new film I feel this was a highly unnecessary remake and it still boggles the mind on why they did it to begin with. I have read some reviews and people are just falling over themselves with accolades about it and the performances...I just can't bring myself to agree with them. Granted I am a tad biased cause I am a fan of "the Dukes'" and his films-but as a fan and somewhat of an amateur authority on cinema I have to say that this was a waste of film talent(writing, acting, and directing)and should not have been made...PERIOD!
I am aware that "Hollyweird" is starving for product and has been for some time and is currently obsessed with remakes and making films based on video games, comic books etc...but c'mon people do your damn homework! You want to remake a film, great, find a sucky old film property and improve upon it, don't remake a past hit and have it pale in comparison to it's original incarnation.
For those younger than myself "True Grit" tells the story of a precocious little 14 year old named Mattie Ross(Stanfeld{2010}/Kim Darby{1969}) who is looking for justice for her father who was gunned down in cold blood by a work hand, Tom Chaney(Josh Bolin{2010}/Jeff Corey{1969}).In her pursuit of said justice she hires the services of one Marshall Reuben J.Cogburn(Bridges{2010}/John Wayne{1969}),a gruff overweight, liquor swilling federal Marshall to hunt down the killer.In the end they get their man but not without sacrifice. Its a good story and was a good entertaining film...back in 1969!
Some of the performances in this new version are sorely lacking compared to the original; the parts that stand out the most for me are the characters of Texas Ranger LeBeouff(Matt Damon{2010}/Glenn Campbell{1969}) and the ruthless gang leader "Lucky" Ned Pepper(Barry Pepper{2010}/Robert Duvall{1969}),and last but by no means least Tom Chaney(Josh Brolin{2010}/Jeff Corey{1969})in my opinion Damon and especially Pepper didn't have their hearts in their work...and Brolin was just inconsequential and un-interesting, pretty bad when you are the main villain of the story. I have watched both films(the 69' version several times- and the better version by far) and am regretting it-just glad that I didn't pay a ticket price to see the new 2010 version cause in all honesty it was a waste of time...do yourself a favor, watch the superior 1969 version instead with John Wayne...you won't be sorry..."pilgrim". ;)
