The Dude, not The Duke in Coen's 'True Grit'
Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. (Paramount Pictures)
"True Grit"
Running time: 110 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images)
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Saddle up, "True Grit" fans. Here's some bold talk from a two-eyed fat man.
I say hold your horses, Joel and Ethan Coen. If you're taking on John Wayne and remaking "True Grit" (1969), the iconic Western that provided The Duke with his sole Best Actor Academy Award, you could at lest get the eye patch right.
Wayne's U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn sported his eye patch on the left eye. The current "True Grit" production notes state that the writing/directing Coen siblings let their Rooster Cogburn, Oscar's reigning Best Actor Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), choose which eye should get the patch.
Bridges got it right, which is wrong.
Isn't that a little like asking newcomer Hailee Steinfeld (who's out-of-this-world sensational as 14-year-old Mattie Ross) if she'd rather wake up snoozing rattlesnakes or hibernating bears when she tumbles into a cave in the final reel?
Some things are sacred. I'm a huge Coen Bros. fan. But there's no reason to dis The Duke. Not that it really matters much, I suppose. There was no eye patch in Charles Portis' "True Grit" novel, originally serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1968.
So the Coens ("O Brother Where Art Thou"," Oscar winners for "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men") give us The Dude (Bridges' character in the Coens' "The Big Lebowski") instead of The Duke.
For those unfamiliar with the Western tale, Mattie (Steinfeld) travels to Fort Smith, Ark. in 1878 and hires hard-drinking, coarse-talking Marshal Cogburn (gravelly voiced Bridges) to track down her father's killer, Tom Chaney. Chaney (Josh Brolin) has fled into Indian Territory.
The forthright young teen, bearing the brassiness of a seasoned adult, forces herself on Cogburn for what will become justice, not to mention the adventure of a lifetime.
There's a third member of the abbreviated posse. Matt Damon turns in a strong performance as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who's after Chaney for reward money for killing a Texas politician.
Let's just say I have no quarrel with Damon's LaBoeuf. Of course almost any warm thespian body would compare favorably to singer Glen Campbell's stiff turn as the Texas Ranger in the original.
If you've seen any Coen Bros. movie, you know that these guys are no slouches. Their "True Grit" is visually stunning (Jess Gonchor, production designer) and a wonder to behold on a big screen thanks to Oscar-nominated director of photography Roger Deakins ("O Brother Where Art Thou?").
My problems with the remake -- excuse me, new translation of the original novel -- have to do with things the Coens do they simply can't seem to avoid. Like the dialog, for instance. In an attempt to capture the novel's almost poetic cowboy vocal style, what we see in their movie comes off as over stylized and too formal.
There are outstanding elements, of course. My hat's off to the Coens for finding young teen Steinfeld to play Mattie. Steinfeld, a newcomer, was only 13 when she got into costume and character for Mattie in Texas (Granger, just outside of Austin) and New Mexico.
Bridges is very good as Cogburn. But I couldn't help wondering what Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones (who co-starred in "No Country for Old Men") would have done with Rooster.
I bet if Jones gave Rooster a go, the eye patch would have remained on the right left eye so as not to dishonor The Duke.
Sorry, Dude.
I say hold your horses, Joel and Ethan Coen. If you're taking on John Wayne and remaking "True Grit" (1969), the iconic Western that provided The Duke with his sole Best Actor Academy Award, you could at lest get the eye patch right.
Wayne's U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn sported his eye patch on the left eye. The current "True Grit" production notes state that the writing/directing Coen siblings let their Rooster Cogburn, Oscar's reigning Best Actor Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), choose which eye should get the patch.
Bridges got it right, which is wrong.
Isn't that a little like asking newcomer Hailee Steinfeld (who's out-of-this-world sensational as 14-year-old Mattie Ross) if she'd rather wake up snoozing rattlesnakes or hibernating bears when she tumbles into a cave in the final reel?
Some things are sacred. I'm a huge Coen Bros. fan. But there's no reason to dis The Duke. Not that it really matters much, I suppose. There was no eye patch in Charles Portis' "True Grit" novel, originally serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1968.
So the Coens ("O Brother Where Art Thou"," Oscar winners for "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men") give us The Dude (Bridges' character in the Coens' "The Big Lebowski") instead of The Duke.
For those unfamiliar with the Western tale, Mattie (Steinfeld) travels to Fort Smith, Ark. in 1878 and hires hard-drinking, coarse-talking Marshal Cogburn (gravelly voiced Bridges) to track down her father's killer, Tom Chaney. Chaney (Josh Brolin) has fled into Indian Territory.
The forthright young teen, bearing the brassiness of a seasoned adult, forces herself on Cogburn for what will become justice, not to mention the adventure of a lifetime.
There's a third member of the abbreviated posse. Matt Damon turns in a strong performance as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who's after Chaney for reward money for killing a Texas politician.
Let's just say I have no quarrel with Damon's LaBoeuf. Of course almost any warm thespian body would compare favorably to singer Glen Campbell's stiff turn as the Texas Ranger in the original.
If you've seen any Coen Bros. movie, you know that these guys are no slouches. Their "True Grit" is visually stunning (Jess Gonchor, production designer) and a wonder to behold on a big screen thanks to Oscar-nominated director of photography Roger Deakins ("O Brother Where Art Thou?").
My problems with the remake -- excuse me, new translation of the original novel -- have to do with things the Coens do they simply can't seem to avoid. Like the dialog, for instance. In an attempt to capture the novel's almost poetic cowboy vocal style, what we see in their movie comes off as over stylized and too formal.
There are outstanding elements, of course. My hat's off to the Coens for finding young teen Steinfeld to play Mattie. Steinfeld, a newcomer, was only 13 when she got into costume and character for Mattie in Texas (Granger, just outside of Austin) and New Mexico.
Bridges is very good as Cogburn. But I couldn't help wondering what Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones (who co-starred in "No Country for Old Men") would have done with Rooster.
I bet if Jones gave Rooster a go, the eye patch would have remained on the right left eye so as not to dishonor The Duke.
Sorry, Dude.
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