When the Coen Brothers remake of this movie came out, I had a vague recollection of the first movie (not firsthand, of course, just it’s existence). I have to be honest, thought: I don’t like John Wayne movies, and I don’t like spaghetti Westerns…. I like Westerns just fine: Lonesome Dove, Tombstone, and Conagher all come to mind as some of my favorites. I’d never wanted to see the original True Grit.
But I love Coen Brothers movies, and I like Jeff Bridges, love Matt Damon, and Westerns, so I was super-jazzed about seeing this version. This was cemented by the fact that DadZ said that it was amazing and the language was beautiful. I was sold.
Getting to the movies, however, was more tricky. I finally took myself to see it last Saturday: I didn’t have anything else to do in the afternoon, and I’d literally never taken myself to the movies by myself before. I took in the Saturday matinee, skipped the barrel-o-popcorn and the gallon of soda and just enjoyed a movie.
And enjoy it, I did.
Through both Pop Culture Happy Hour and the Monkey See blog at NPR, Linda Holmes mentioned that she thought there were blocks of dialogue that were downright funny. I agree. I also felt her same awkwardness that she was the only one laughing in the movie theater. I think this is true of Coen Brothers’ movies: you feel awkward for laughing because you don’t think you’re supposed to, or you don’t get the joke. I got the feeling from my audience that the former was true.
I mentioned via Twitter that I didn’t have enough adjectives for how much I loved True Grit, I also don’t have enough time to elaborate what parts were my favorite. All I will say is that on the whole, the dialogue was fabulous, the story was steady, the picture was beautiful. I will not spoil the movie for you, but I was snot-bubble-in-the-nose-complemented-with-drool sobbing at the end of this movie. And yes, I’m a big sap, but not that emotional.
The last movie I enjoyed this much was The Town, and True Grit was way, way better.
I’m really looking forward to owning this movie for keepsies.
The Blog of JulZ 