{"id":11220,"date":"2011-01-03T18:17:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T02:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11220"},"modified":"2011-01-03T18:42:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T02:42:50","slug":"true-grit-coen-brothers-2010-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11220","title":{"rendered":"True Grit (Coen Brothers, 2010): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at Camino Real Cinema, Goleta, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\" The Coen brothers have\u00a0attempted to remake\u00a0an eternal classic, starring Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn\u00a0in True Grit<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Being a fan of several Coen brothers’ films, but also a\u00a0die-hard fan of classic westerns and\u00a0of Duke Wayne\u00a0(John Wayne for you greenhorns), I approached the screening of this film with much trepidation – wondering why the brothers would attempt such a feat and also hoping they did justice to the original.<\/p>\n

It is explained early in the film through VO narration\u00a0by Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), that at 14\u00a0she set out to collect the murdered remains of her father and became hell bent on\u00a0capturing the murdering\u00a0fugitive Tom Chaney (James Brolin).<\/p>\n

After inquiring about the best man suited for the job of bounty hunter, she\u00a0is given several recommendations and settles on the least likely Rooster Cogburn.<\/p>\n

Cogburn is a crusty, one-eyed old hoot who “pulls a cork” now and then, and is known to shoot first and ask questions later.\u00a0 Initially he rejects Mattie’s offer of $100, but finally agrees on it until he meets Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), who apprises him of the reward offered\u00a0on other charges from that “great state of Texas.”<\/p>\n

The three\u00a0endure a long, arduous journey\u00a0into Indian territory and encounter pitfalls along the way, before\u00a0finally meeting up with Chaney.<\/p>\n

Supposedly staying truer to the\u00a0Charles Portis novel and deflecting from the original 1969 Henry Hathaway classic, the Coen brothers repeated scenes and the best dialogue (almost verbatim) from the original film.\u00a0 For those not familiar with the story, the remake is acceptable and some scenes did indeed receive a few laughs.\u00a0 As a fan of the original, the dialogue lacked freshness, felt rushed in recitation and lacking in believability from the actors.<\/p>\n

The Coen brothers managed to\u00a0forgot the basics of Screenwriting I – show don’t tell.\u00a0 In an attempt to speed the story along, too much is said with very little shown – this is what\u00a0I refer to\u00a0as lazy filmmaking.\u00a0 There is only one scene in the film\u00a0where the audience can actually\u00a0experience\u00a0a real\u00a0connection between Mattie and Cogburn, but even\u00a0this gets screwed up\u00a0in a\u00a0rush\u00a0from daytime to nighttime with a\u00a0phony starlit sky, missing the beat entirely.<\/p>\n

Bridges’ performance is not bad, but his character\u00a0lacks the heart and soul of Rueben J. Cogburn – he delivers crusty but is unable to project the warmth from within.\u00a0 Steinfeld is a fourteen year old actress portraying a fourteen year old young woman – she’s got the lines down solid, but her character lacks the depth of what is being spoken.\u00a0 Brolin is completely forgettable, while Matt Damon’s performance is the closest to redemption.\u00a0 There is one really good scene that is typical Coen brothers and it concerns LaBoeuf’s tongue.<\/p>\n

I challenge anyone who has not had the opportunity to screen the original, action-packed,\u00a01969 Hathaway version, complete with terrific stunts, perfectly timed humor, great cinematography, and heart-stopping scenes that are edited succinctly to an unforgettable Elmer Bernstein score.\u00a0 This may sound corny, but the Coen brothers’ version lacks grit – true grit!<\/p>\n

Hint to filmmakers – hang your ego on a hat rack and don’t attempt\u00a0to remake an already\u00a0perfect film, it doesn’t work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at Camino Real Cinema, Goleta, CA. The Coen brothers have\u00a0attempted to remake\u00a0an eternal classic, starring Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn\u00a0in True Grit. Being a fan of several Coen brothers’ films, but also a\u00a0die-hard fan of classic westerns and\u00a0of Duke Wayne\u00a0(John Wayne for you greenhorns), I approached the screening of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}