It worked most of the time, and then...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX0GsD2K8tc
there were times it didn't.
― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 04:40 (thirteen years ago) link
haha are you kidding that looks AMAZING
"that gun's not licensed, McQ!"
"...neither am I!!!!"
― My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 04:44 (thirteen years ago) link
"I don't like bears."
― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 04:45 (thirteen years ago) link
There's lots of room to disagree about John Wayne. To me, he wasn't really an actor, but a movie star. He could fill a screen. He could carry a film with his presence. But his dismal failures (like that Ghengis Khan biopic) are pretty much of a piece with his best roles; they are cut from precisely the same cloth, delivered with the same inflections, the same facial expressions, displaying the same level of acting ability: it's the only John Wayne we ever got.
But you could say this about many Hollywood actors then and now. Why hold his failures against them?
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 11:57 (thirteen years ago) link
plus, as Pleasant Plains suggested, writing that "He could fill a screen. He could carry a film with his presence" is certainly one way of defining screen acting. What do you think Cary Grant and George Clooney do?
To my eyes, the Method has dated far worse than Wayne's star power.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 12:03 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll take Wayne's worst over Pacino and DeNiro's worst, thanks
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 12:38 (thirteen years ago) link
I somehow didn't know that Deakins has never won an Oscar.
http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/a-q-and-a-with-roger-deakins-the-susan-lucci-of-cinematography/?ref=movies
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 4 February 2011 12:38 (thirteen years ago) link
Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana discuss:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/feb/08/talking-about-true-grit/#
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Thanks for posting that Morbs, that was pretty cool. Kind of wish they had a video version of the discussion...they change gears pretty sharply in the transcript, lol.Ossana bringing up the way the story harkens back to childhood adventure novels, but with a girl in the lead kind of hones in on what I love about the movie, and the book...just the fact that this gutsy, serious, determined girl can lead these two men on an adventure, and us...I mean, it shows the possibility of the genre, of female protagonists and it's done in a way that isn't condescending.
And I'm with Larry. I don't really see how it's a story of Rooster's redemption either. Saving Maddie is some kind of redemption but spending the last of his days in a touring gun show with the James brothers hardly seemed redemptive to me, it almost seemed to suggest that maybe there are only acts of kindness, that you can never truly gain redemption? I dunno. But it never seemed as cut and dried to me.
― VegemiteGrrl, Thursday, 10 February 2011 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link
http://jeffbridges.com/true_grit_book/
― max, Thursday, 3 March 2011 19:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Finally saw this last night, loved it pretty much unreservedly. It was more brutal than I expected, I had to close my eyes at the tongue wrangling scene. The scene where Rooster Cogburn was galloping through the night to get Mattie treated was both otherworldly and viscerally exciting.
Haven't saw any mention of the sniper scene where LaBeouf says a prayer before shooting Lucky Ned Pepper. I'm sure that's a nod to Barry Pepper's character in 'Saving Private Ryan'.
― Cluster the boots (Billy Dods), Sunday, 13 March 2011 12:57 (thirteen years ago) link
I read the Portis last week and was amused to discover than Cogburn is in his early 40s (the headstone at the end of the Coens film follows this too), but "built like Grover Cleveland." So he should've been played by Paul Giamatti.
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link
I liked Bridges in this, but Giamatti would have been a good choice too! But he doesn't have much box office draw power, so --
― lowfat dry milquetoast (WmC), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Watching this for the first time and just realized that our own pleasant plains looks a lot like Barry Pepper.
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Monday, 20 February 2012 05:09 (twelve years ago) link
Oh and this rules. The little girl is awesome as are several others.
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Monday, 20 February 2012 05:14 (twelve years ago) link
yay! I love this movie so much!
― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 20 February 2012 05:17 (twelve years ago) link
god this was a great movie ... love how the dialogue was written in a kind of an obsolete vernacular. most fascinating dialogue in a movie in a while, for sure.
not sure what the best line was, maybe a toss-up between "that is to say ... your eye" or "that's a good name!"
― the late great, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 21:30 (twelve years ago) link
Most of the dialogue came directly from the book, that's what made it so great. If you haven't read it, you should check it out.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 21:42 (twelve years ago) link
^^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj1DZKOeZhI
― Diary of Anne Frank, Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen (scottfree), Thursday, 1 March 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
"VĂ¡monos, amigos," he whispered, and threw the busted leather flintcraw over the loose weave of the saddlecock. And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight.
― RudolfHitlerFtw (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 1 March 2012 00:45 (twelve years ago) link
;-D
― the late great, Thursday, 1 March 2012 01:08 (twelve years ago) link
This might be a bit obscure but if you're interested in more background on Quantrill's Raiders, Cole Younger & his involvement with the James gang, this CBS radio docudrama from the 50's does a pretty good job of it:
http://archive.org/details/OTRR_Crime_Classics_Singles - episode 28 "The Younger Brothers and Why Some Of Them Grew No Older" (geddit hur)(can listen to the ep here online, or it's available on itunes for download too)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 August 2012 02:50 (eleven years ago) link
just watched this again
i liked it when i first saw it, but i somehow failed to notice that it is unbelievably great
― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Monday, 17 December 2012 06:15 (eleven years ago) link
yeah! i rewatched it a few months ago remembering that i liked it a lot when it came out but had still filed it away as minor coens... it really isnt though, its top tier. choked up at the end
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Monday, 17 December 2012 06:39 (eleven years ago) link
yup.
― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Monday, 17 December 2012 06:40 (eleven years ago) link
holds up to multiple rewatches for sure. Gets better as time goes on, I think.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 17 December 2012 06:43 (eleven years ago) link
What a great movie. Guess I avoided it all these years just b/c it was a Western. Should have immediately watched it after I loved (most of) Buster Scruggs.
― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Thursday, 23 April 2020 15:46 (three years ago) link
Just rewatched this last Saturday with my wife. The attention to detail was superb throughout and I appreciated that the Coens reclaimed this as Maddie's story, instead of Cogburn's.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 23 April 2020 18:48 (three years ago) link
just watched this a few months back for the first time. the cast is great is my main takeaway. will have to rewatch after some time passes, didn't see it as top-tier coens but not minor coens either.
this was the only Coen brothers movie - other than the ladykillers - that I hadn't seen. maybe I should take the plunge with that turkey soon
― COVID and the Gang (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 23 April 2020 19:55 (three years ago) link
the ladykillers has one good performance in it by the black landlady and a total stinkeroo from Tom Hanks. I'd be surprised if you stuck it to the end, as it just progressively sinks to lower and lower levels of badness as the time drags on.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:00 (three years ago) link
i love the Coens a lot and can't imagine wanting to rewatch The Ladykillers, but there's plenty of time so
― clap for content-providers (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:02 (three years ago) link
I imagine the Coens didn't audition Hanks for the role in Ladykillers, because Hanks was too big a star to audition. Big, big mistake. His complete inability to cope with his role ruined the movie beyond redemption. But, as the Coens no doubt knew, you don't tell that to Tom Hanks during shooting; you swallow hard, take your lumps, and never work with him again.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:11 (three years ago) link
I thought he was trying to one up Peter Sellers tbh, or, he seems like an OK guy, maybe it was a tribute
― clap for content-providers (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:13 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afRFR2UNYzI
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:30 (three years ago) link
Poor Hailee. Her handlers wouldn't even let her sing in her own voice. They had to run it through some filter and drown it in a sea of overproduction. She was v good in the movie, though.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:41 (three years ago) link
She really was.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 23 April 2020 20:42 (three years ago) link
I like True Grit but feel like it was a good movie brought down a bit from the upper tier Cohen Brothers oeuvre by the completely useless presence of Matt Damon. I'm enough of a classic western sap to enjoy lots of it though.
― calzino, Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:00 (three years ago) link
I completely forgot Matt Damon was in this!
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:50 (three years ago) link
Matt Damon is fabulous! He handled the comedy like a pro.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:51 (three years ago) link
yeah, Matt Damon is great in this
― COVID and the Gang (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:53 (three years ago) link
his comedy paedophilia wasn't enough to compensate for him being a shit boring actor imo!
― calzino, Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:54 (three years ago) link
This was the era when Matt Damon realized he was a blank and shrewdly started to manipulate it for max impactx.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 April 2020 21:56 (three years ago) link