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When I saw version I of True Grit I liked it immensely never having seen John Wayne play someone not 10 feet tall and altogether altruistic...even in the Green Berets, the pro-war, a-historical nonsense fable of the role of the Special Forces in Vietnam, it was a laughable role. I was also about 13 when that came out. I always thought the condensation toward Wayne from Hollywood was for his role in the Shootist, played opposite Kathleen Hepburn, where Wayne truly played his cancer-ridden self. Interestingly, Wayne converted to Catholicism on his death bed. Odd, that. Having read the original novel "True Grit" this version was closer, it seemed, to the novel than the first version with Wayne. It was...grittier...to say the least, being more Coen brothers than Disney, which the Wayne movie was with the sappy music. I thought Hailee Steinfeld's performance was as good as it could be from a 14 year old actor. She stole the show, quite honestly, and did so far better than Kim Darby's version of the Ross girl. Her bargaining with a horse trader in town is almost worth seeing the movie for this reason alone. Though no fault of his own, the Lebouf character played by Matt Dameon was, IMO, terrible...never quite establishing what the 'character' of the character was supposed to be. He seemed poorly directed by whatever Coen brother was in charge that day. Glen Cambell actually played him better in 1969 that Damon, a real actor, played him in this film. I also thought it rather cheap (as in cheap laughs) the Cogburn's character's rough treatment of the Native American kids sitting out in front of the house that Louis describes in his review. Racist? Probably. True to character? Absolutely. Louis, however, fails to explain Cogburn's anger at these children in his review: they were torturing a horse with sharp stick as he and Matty rode up on them. I suspect his attitude toward this kids would be the same had they been white. Unlike Louis, I go into any movie with the view of watching the film of what the movie *itself* is trying to show me, with little expectations, and as little prejudice as possible. I couldn't care less, nor would I let it color my view of a movie because of the *politics* of the actor involved. I loved the Jesse Stone mini-series of detective shows on CBS despite Tom Selleck's pimping for National Review and Ronald Reagan. Don't care. Never will. Lastly, I don't even own a DVD player. I see movies the way they were meant to be seen: on a BIG screen, with lots of people in the theatre. I know Louis is a kind of "professional" online movie reviewer, gets free movies in the mail (he once wrote here) and envy him for that, in a way. But I remember the discussion around Avatar and couldn't help but wonder, never did ask, if he watched this in the theatre or at home? Movies, *especially* Westerns, should be seen on big movie screens. David ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
