Truly Gritty

Have been doing some quiet soul-searching the past few days, and needed quiet.

Today, I ran across a full version of the remake of 'True Grit' on the internets. Seemingly one that was intended only for awards jury members, because it would run a banner on the lower screen pertaining to that, and so on. 'For your consideration', it read.

And I thought, 'Good gawwd, why remake that horror???' And shuddered at the mere thought.

That 1969 piece of dung drove me crazy. Disneyfied Americana. And John Wayne was a cartoon in it as far as I felt at the time, and it had Glen Campbell, who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, and it was syrupy, ballsy, punch in the shoulder, oh how the West was friggin' dandy. I hated it, in other words.

Now, I will admit, I am extremely predjudiced as to that. I hate Westerns, always have. And I hated John Wayne as a person, and especially his politics at the time with a vengeance, and punched a dent in the lobby wall of a cinema after seeing the horrible 'Green Berets', which was so propagandistic, I was incensed.

Whatever, I saw that the new version is available.... shuddered, and passed on by. Till I read that there was Oscar buzz out there for the girl and others.

Well, it being Sunday, I decided to take a look, certain I would start yelling at the lap-top screen within the first ten minutes.

That was after having looked at over one hundred reader's reviews on the NY Times website. Those told me the viewers were clearly divided into those who revere the first version, and those who loved the new one. Both sides maintain the films remained close to the novel, which I have never read.

After having seen the new one, and cringing over some YouTube excerpts of the original version, especially the credits with Glen Campbell twanging his vocal cords out, I DID see the new one in its' entirety. And was surprised. I actually liked it. I had skipped over the opening credits, thinking there was no sound to the upload, but was wrong, so I missed them. At the end, I should have known. It was by the Coen brothers. A-hah....

Just for those who love language, it was worth it. So archaic, funny, biting, I loved that.

The cinematography breathtakingly ugly.... dark, dank, cold, bleak. Exceptional. The music underscored, but never intruded. All fine values that make a fine film.

The girl who plays 14 year old Mattie was fine, which was a risk, because in this version, the story is hers, seen from her eyes. Matt Damon gave a stupendous 'in-love-with-himself' Texas ranger. Nothing over the top, just layered, and the script was complex enough to show who the man was beneath. Nice work.

Jeff Bridges took on the most thankless job of all. Playing Rooster Cogburn. That is one hell of a task to take on. I think he did very well indeed. His Rooster is a guy who mishandles Indian children without a second thought. (Throwing them over a railing off a porch to the ground. Twice. Little girls, by the way.) Mean to the bone, but also has his good side. Like lots of people.

And yes, they had the scene with him taking the reigns in his teeth and charging alone against five or six bandits, but it was more frightening than anything else. But they also had him in a scene being dead-drunk, and so mean and turning on his own, it was sort of shocking.

What impressed me was that this was probably closer to the novel than that piece of treacle from the Sixties, where 'Murkins were He-roes. The people in the new version aren't heroes at all. They are out for greed and revenge, and they never flinch causing damage if it helps them reach their goals. It is like looking at history through a dark mirror.

Undercurrents run through it, which I found menacing. Like Mattie waking up to find LeBouef watching her as she is sleeping in a boarding house from Hell, and making an insinuation that was sexual and dangerous. It kept me in suspense and wide awake for a change.

The ending wasn't 'happy', but supposedly in keeping with the novel. Mattie wants to look up Rooster twenty five years later, and had lost her arm due to a snake bite. He had saved her. She arrives to find out he had just died. He'd been trick riding in a travelling carney show. She has him interred in her family plot. It was a sad, but very appropriate ending. About people single-mindedly going after what they want, and damn the consequences, but in the end, all they have are hollow victories.

I can't say I 'enjoyed' the new version, but admire it very much. It stays with you. And that dark vision of a not so recent past was 'inspired', and it felt right. Someone on the Times reviews said it was 'a PG13 Deadwood'. Might be, never ran here. But it was gritty, all right, you could almost taste the dust and dirt. Whatever.... it stays with you.