True Grit (1969) v True Grit (2010)

I saw the new True Grit on Christmas and it blew me away.  I thought it was a fantastic movie, another Coen brothers great.  Of course I then wanted to see the original 1969 True Grit staring John Wayne.  I finally watched it last week and thought I would give my humble opinions on the two.  Here we go...

I will first off say that I am sure I would have a totally different opinion if I had grown up watching John Wayne films in the 50s and 60s and had the experience of being alive while he was one of the biggest movie stars.  My father in law did grow up during this time and after watching True Grit (2010) told me that if I saw the old True Grit I would have a hard time picking one as better than the other.  Now that I have seen both I can give an opinion on which one I like more, and that is definitely the new one.  I do want to make it clear though that I did like the old one but the new version is a much better overall film.

True Grit (1969): No matter what the characters went through their clothes were always clean.  They were the cleanest cowboys I have ever seen.  John Wayne was always wearing a freshly washed shirt, it became kind of distracting.  This is probably due to the technology at the time but every scene except for two took place during the middle of the day.  There were a number of scenes where you were supposed to believe it was night time, as there was a campfire going, but it was totally light out with blue sky in the background.  John Wayne was a very good actor, even if totally typecast.  His performance as Rooster Cogburn was good but everything was done with a rose colored lens.  In the original film Rooster Cogburn is an old drunk but one of those "silly drunks that really means no harm."  His drunkenness is more for comedic relief than showing that this old man is getting near the end of his rope.  He plays a couple of scenes where he is drunk but other than that you don't get much depth.  The other big distraction for me with this film was the music, it is terrible.  It is a great stereotypical old time western where the good guys win in the end and life is good.  There is one or two twists thrown in to kind of bend the western film rules but overall it follows the traditional story line.  What I am saying is that you just need to embrace it.  There are also some good scenes with a young Dennis Hopper, and Robert Duvall.



True Grit (2010): This sounds dumb but the new True Grit is a grittier way of telling the story.  The acting by Hailee Stanfield as Mattie Ross is far superior to the performance by Kim Darby.  Kim Darby's performance could have easily been done by one of the Brady Bunch kids and seemed like it should have been.  The Coen brothers version just goes deeper than the first while still paying homage to the original.  Much of the dialogue is the same and some of the scenes are shot very similar but overall this is just a much better made film.  Characters actions have consequences and their faults are shown.  I think a big part of watching this film if you are older is it brings back the memories of what it was like to watch the original.  I believe that is what really drew my father in law to it.  The Coen brothers are much better directors than Henry Hathaway was.  I would like to believe that part of that is simply because the Coen brothers came a number of years after Hathaway and the art of film making has progressed.  A big part is also that the Coen brothers are just extremely talented and make good films.  Their comedic sense of timing is really amazing.  They were able to bring in some pretty humorous moments when the film was overall somber.  Jeff Bridges also did a great job as Rooster Cogburn and really let you see that this old drunk definitely had some skeletons in his closet.  To sum it up, True Grit (2010) is a great modern rendition of the original that overall stays true to the old film but is told from a different angle and without the rosy lens.



John Wayne did win an Oscar for his performance in True Grit.  It was his only Oscar.