My recommendation of True Grit is based almost entirely around the fact that I really don't enjoy westerns. The fact is that I just don't find them enjoyable as a genre. The color palette is filled with drab tan and brown colors, everyone talks with a southern accent, and action scenes are difficult to make exciting because of the lack of technology (horses and 6 shooters are no sports cars and machine guns).
When I like a western, and it's rare (I can only think of 3 others and one of them doesn't count), it has more to do with the actor's performances and the characters they portray. If the characters aren't intriguing I won't care about anything that's going on. In this case I was really impressed by Hailee Steinfeld's portrayal of 14 year-old Mattie Ross. I enjoyed her character's persistence and her ability to take charge of a situation and control the older characters in the movie. Obviously this would have been impossible without the great writing that she was reading from, but it was her job to convince me believe that this young girl was capable of doing the things she was doing. She convinced me.
Jeff Bridges was good although I couldn't understand most of his drunken, southern, old man, raspy dialect, and Matt Damon was fine too although it really was a strange role for him. Josh Brolin's character was weird and I'm not sure he was the best choice for the role.
I haven't seen the original and I have no desire to. True Grit (2010) was enough for me and since I actually kinda liked it even though I hate westerns, it was probably a very, very good film.
No comments:
Post a Comment