Soulstation1 Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Anyone see this yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Very good — a virtually flawless pastiche, and “pastiche” might not be fair. The use of the novel’s rather studied diction (so I’m told, haven’t read the book myself) was a fine idea; the dialogue doesn’t come across as arch at all IMO, nor do the actors deliver it that way; it just fits. About the pastiche feeling, seems to me that there are some definite but unobtrusive echoes of “The Night of the Hunter” — Mattie is a character who is soberly and shrewdly living out, or living inside, a righteous fable, and you’d better not get between her and her goal because she’s wearing chain-mail underwear. Also, in emotional terms, she’s essentially a person who is exasperated at the foolishness and weakness of the world and the people around her (this is what gives her much of her power). Also she is at once keyed up and somewhat saddened by the fact that at age 14 she’s not only the most grown-up person in her family (including her late father) but also, probably, the only grown-up person she’s ever going to meet. In effect, as the epilogue suggests, Mattie was an orphan from the moment she saw what the world was like, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way. She even tells Jesse James to go —- himself. Mattie reminds me of Lillian Gish’s character in TNOTH (and Frances McDormand’s in “FARGO” for that matter); the girl who plays her is excellent. I can see that some might think that Bridges is playing a character he’s played many times before, but it worked for me. Matt Damon is quite good too. About what all this says about the Coens, I’m still thinking, just as I’m still thinking about how much of a pastiche their TRUE GRIT is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcello Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Saw it and liked it. She told off Frank James, not Jesse. He be dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Saw it and liked it. She told off Frank James, not Jesse. He be dead. Right. Stupid of me. The other guy in that scene was Cole Younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 I enjoyed this very much. If for no other reason, it would be worth seeing for the performance of 14-year old Hallie Stienfeld. She goes toe to toe with seasoned vets like Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin and more than holds her own. A terrific performance made more remarkable by the fact that this is the first movie she's ever done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Awesome movie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Am I not asking the question correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 A boring, pedestrian western to me. Matt Damon was excellent, Bridges not so much. Steinfeld was very good (and not as irritating as Kim Darby, if you want to compare). But I found myself glancing at my watch, something that never happens at movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Am I not asking the question correctly? It's not that but that I saw the new "True Grit" and don't recall any song at all, just some discreet background music, but I wouldn't want to swear that the song from the original "True Grit" is'nt there in some form or other. Actually, my recollection is that the new "True Grit" was so gripping that even that discreet background music, when I noticed it, seemed a tad artificial and intrusive. Music credit for the new one is Carter Burwell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I sure liked that song.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDhBW597Rx0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinuta Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Am I not asking the question correctly? No, the song isn't featured, thank goodness. I'm with the fans of the film, I really enjoyed it and didn't think it was pedestrian at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 It was enjoyable, but I actually felt the film was not long enough. It felt like scenes were missing, that they found the man too quickly. And the characters of Brolin & Damon were underdeveloped, like each should have had another scene. She was too, although the film (and the book?) are from her recollected point of view, so it makes sense that she is present for every scene, whether as observer or motivating force. In a way, it seemed to have a flaw that many Hollywood movies have for me - too short, every scene advancing the plot, not enough character moments or observations of the world. Of course, most people think that's how films should be - move them quickly, keep advancing the plot, cut a nice picture. But most people seem to prefer movie entertainment to be rooted in distraction (or escapism)(from the real world), and I tend to prefer entertainment in absorption, which requires greater depth. Of course I can go for the escapist lark (I did for Scott Pilgrim, for example), but I think i wanted more in this, and it wasn't there (to me). Westerns always seem best to me when a good story also serves as commentary on contemporary times, and this one didn't seem to, that it didn't have deeper intentions in mind. Lots of entertaining moments, but I don't think it will stick with me. Larry, you're not the first to see the borrowings from Night of the Hunter... <br clear="all"> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyJazz Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) A big fan of Coen Brothers films (Miller's Crossing, Big Lebowski, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, the underrated Burn After Reading and quite a few more), this offering left me cold and also gazing at my watch from time to time. Bridges was unintelligible a good portion of the time, there were periodic scenes of wanton cruelty (Cogburn kicking the Indian natives off their seats on the fence two too many times), and a few scenes that either bored or didn't work at all (Cogburn repeatedly throwing provisions up in the air, all to show an unnecessary and quite unbelievable prowess with the gun). Yeah, the young actress was quite good, but so what? Comic exaggeration is a part of many wonderful films and certainly with Coen Brothers endeavors, but not this time IMO. Edited January 4, 2011 by MartyJazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Am I not asking the question correctly? No, the song isn't featured, thank goodness. Oh. Guess I'll wait for it to come to cable then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrence69 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 As per my view True Grit is one of the best movie of 2010..I love this movie,I watched three times with my friends... Awesome Movie!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedwork Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 A boring, pedestrian western to me. Matt Damon was excellent, Bridges not so much. Steinfeld was very good (and not as irritating as Kim Darby, if you want to compare). But I found myself glancing at my watch, something that never happens at movies. It was enjoyable, but I actually felt the film was not long enough. It felt like scenes were missing, that they found the man too quickly. And the characters of Brolin & Damon were underdeveloped, like each should have had another scene... In a way, it seemed to have a flaw that many Hollywood movies have for me - too short, every scene advancing the plot, not enough character moments or observations of the world. Of course, most people think that's how films should be - move them quickly, keep advancing the plot, cut a nice picture. But most people seem to prefer movie entertainment to be rooted in distraction (or escapism)(from the real world), and I tend to prefer entertainment in absorption, which requires greater depth. Of course I can go for the escapist lark (I did for Scott Pilgrim, for example), but I think i wanted more in this, and it wasn't there (to me). Westerns always seem best to me when a good story also serves as commentary on contemporary times, and this one didn't seem to, that it didn't have deeper intentions in mind. Lots of entertaining moments, but I don't think it will stick with me. A big fan of Coen Brothers films (Miller's Crossing, Big Lebowski, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, the underrated Burn After Reading and quite a few more), this offering left me cold and also gazing at my watch from time to time. Bridges was unintelligible a good portion of the time, there were periodic scenes of wanton cruelty (Cogburn kicking the Indian natives off their seats on the fence two too many times), and a few scenes that either bored or didn't work at all (Cogburn repeatedly throwing provisions up in the air, all to show an unnecessary and quite unbelievable prowess with the gun). Yeah, the young actress was quite good, but so what? Comic exaggeration is a part of many wonderful films and certainly with Coen Brothers endeavors, but not this time IMO. i'm w/ the above quoted opinions. the girl's performance was the only thing i can think of to actually praise. she was terrific. everything else in the film left me flat. sometimes i get the feeling that the coen brothers are too interested in archetypes and style. ie: in True Grit they became enamored with "the western," or "revenge," or "headstrong girl," etc... and forgot that these genres/styles/archetypes are only useful when they help to flesh out a good story. my impression is that they spent too much time on technique and stylization, and left the characters/story behind expecting to make up for that with detailed archetypes and visuals - like an awesomely garnished plate with no main course. that almost never works for me. imo, truly great westerns like Unforgiven or Shane make it clear that True Grit is nothing but slightly above average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 ...there were periodic scenes of wanton cruelty (Cogburn kicking the Indian natives off their seats on the fence two too many times)... Geez -- it's a period Western, and Cogburn was not only of his time but also was far from a nice guy (and at that point in the film I think we needed to be reminded of that by those acts of casual inhumanity, in case we were beginning to sentimentalize him). He should have patted them on the head/chucked them under the chin? Also IIRC, the household those kids were part of was under the aegis of a bad guy who probably had aided the very bad guys Cogburn and Mattie were in pursuit of. As far as the other wantonly cruel scenes you're probably thinking of, to me they all seemed very much of a piece with the rest of what was going on. In fact, the movie as a whole seemed a lot less cruel and violent than I expected it might be, certainly less so IIRC than Eastwood's "The Unforgiven" (which admittedly was a movie that set out to be much darker in tone). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 So, how dark is this movie, really? I like a really dark Western if the darkness isn't sentimentalized, sensationalized, or otherwise ized out of The Truth Zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Certainly not as dark as "The Unforgiven" IMO but dark enough, if you can take the plucky, ornery girl at the heart of it. I can because she's really quite a piece of work in nicely specific ways, as I tried to point out in my initial post. Also, without giving anything away, the woman she is in the epilogue is satisfyingly in tune with her "quite a piece of work" young self. The only possible sentimentalized moments come at the end of the main action, but I took them in terms of similar moments in "The Night of the Hunter," which these moments specifically echo. To me they don't seem sentimentalized, as in imposed by the filmmakers in order to soft-soap us, but rather are expressions of certain pools of sentiment that reasonably would lie within these characters (i.e. semi-noble fictions or beliefs that they would, under certain conditions, be moved by and act upon). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I don't go to the movies too much anymore, but this one might get me out, should an opportunity present itself. I'd still like to hear the song, though. I know it's anything but dark, but not-dark is a field of darkness unto itself, sometimes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not. Am I not asking the question correctly? No, the song isn't featured, thank goodness. Oh. Guess I'll wait for it to come to cable then. The new score -- by longtime Coen Bros. collaborator Carter Burwell -- is actually pretty interesting, if occasionally a little too Ken Burns-y. It's based almost entirely on "new" solo piano arrangements of old spirituals (e.g., "Hold To God's Unchanging Hand," "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms.") My wife recognized quite a few of these motifs. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/01/soundtrack-review-carter-burwells-true-grit.html http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2010/04/carter-burwell-on-scoring-coen-bros.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" figures prominently -- if perhaps ironically, given that Robert Mitchum's villainous psychopath is a fake preacher -- in "The Night Of The Hunter." That movie never fails to reduce me to a puddle of goo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1887) (uncredited) Music by Anthony J. Showalter Text by Elisha A. Hoffman Sung a cappella by Robert Mitchum often Also sung a cappella by Lillian Gish That it's sung in TNOTH both by Mitchum and Gish encapsulates the movie's equivocal power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" figures prominently -- if perhaps ironically, given that Robert Mitchum's villainous psychopath is a fake preacher -- in "The Night Of The Hunter." That movie never fails to reduce me to a puddle of goo. NOTH is the only film ever directed by Charles Laughton. When you talk about all-time creepy movie villains, Harry Powell has to be in the conversation. I'd still like to hear the song, though. I know it's anything but dark, but not-dark is a field of darkness unto itself, sometimes... Take your iPod and play it during the opening and closing credits. Problem solved. This is worth seeing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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