True Grit: The Remake
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin
Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Other Nominated Categories: Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Adapted Screenplay
The Academy loves the Coen brothers. Their films have been honored with close to 30 nominations through the years. Ten of those noms are from one of this year’s biggest Oscar contenders and latest Coen cinema feats, True Grit. The film is a remake (excuse me, adaptation) of the 1969 film starring John Wayne and the 1968 novel by Charles Portis.
True Grit is about 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Steinfeld), who travels to Fort Smith, Ark., in search of her father’s murderer, Tom Chaney (Brolin). Hoping for vengeance with a side of justice, Mattie hires Rooster Cogburn (Bridges), a man who is said to have enough “true grit” to hunt down Chaney and his gang of bandits in Indian Territory. Cogburn, though a boozed and seemingly slothful man, is the toughest U.S. marshal around. He agrees to take Mattie, albeit unwillingly. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon), who is also on the hunt for Chaney for other committed crimes in his great state, soon joins the two. And so the unlikely trio begins an adventure.
While the 1969 version of the film had a mere two nominations, it also had John Wayne. Wayne won Best Actor for his role as Rooster Cogburn — the same role and category that Jeff Bridges is up for come Sunday’s big reveal. Bridges does have his own take on the role, though his character is vaguely reminiscent of his Best Actor win last year as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart — except that you’d need to go back in time about 150 years and add more humorous dialogue. But don’t expect to understand anything Bridges says. He needs to be given the Brad Pitt Snatch treatment. Pitt’s character Mickey O’Neill, an Irish gypsy, is so difficult to understand that he is given his very own subtitles. Even though Bridges isn’t that bad, the audience does struggle to make out most of his dialogue.
Of course Bridges’ nomination is well deserved, but he is slightly overshadowed by newcomer and costar Hailee Steinfeld. This is the first feature film for the young actress, who was only 13 when she played the part of Mattie Ross. Not surprisingly, Steinfeld is nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though critics argue she could have easily been in the Best Actress category. She’s young, but she keeps good company in her category. Previous young nominees for Best Supporting Actress include such names as Abigail Breslin, Anna Paquin, Saoirse Ronan and Jodie Foster. The youngest winner was 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal for Paper Moon in 1973. Age, clearly, has not stopped the Academy before.
As previously mentioned, this is a remake. For most viewers, especially from our generation, this is probably their first introduction to the film. I, in fact, have not seen the original. From everything I’ve read, it wasn’t changed all that much. Why bother changing something that already works, right? It’s a remake done right, though the Coen brothers are adamantly denying that it is a remake at all.
“I can honestly say we didn’t re-watch the first movie, or even dwell on the fact that our film is a Western,” Joel Coen says in an article from The Telegraph. “The other movie was just something we saw as kids. We didn’t read Charles Portis when we were young; we discovered him as adults. But, when I read True Grit to my son, I thought that it would be a fun film to make.”
Clearly the little changes have made all the difference. The Academy loves the story told from Mattie’s perspective instead of Cogburn’s like the 1969 version. Tune in Sunday to see if the Coen film (which was snubbed by other awards circuits) can take home some Oscar gold.
The Bottom Line: Jeff Bridges needs subtitles.
SOURCES:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/movies/22true.html?pagewanted=1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403865/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/True-Grit-s-Oscar-Nomination-Is-A-Surrend…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmmakersonfilm/8287138/Joel-an…