True Grit (1969/2010)

John Wayne won his only competitive acting Oscar for playing U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 Henry Hathaway-directed adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, TRUE GRIT. That original film co-stars Kim Darby as the young Mattie Ross, a revenge-seeking girl who hires Cogburn to help locate Tom Chaney, the man who killed her father. The two are accompanied by Glen Campbell as La Boeuf, a Texas Ranger, and the original band of criminals included Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper.

And yet, in virtually every conceivable way, the Coen Brothers top the original film with their remake of TRUE GRIT, based more directly from the novel than from the original film, though watching the two back-to-back reveals countless commonalities.

There are many reasons why I like the new TRUE GRIT better, beginning with the acting performances. For me, Jeff Bridges (himself nominated for the same role that won Wayne the Oscar), acts circles around Wayne as Cogburn. Wayne deserved his Oscar for “The Searchers,” a John Ford masterpiece made a decade and a half prior to this film and the go-to answer to any accusation that Wayne could not act. But in the 1969 TRUE GRIT, he really does feel like John Wayne with an eye patch, not nearly as offensive, cantankerous and dangerous as Bridges’ foul Rooster.

And new discovery and fellow Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld is miles better than Darby as Mattie Ross. Darby, with her pixie bob haircut, is far too Disney-looking for a tale as dark as this; she’s a squeaky-clean androgyne and far less believable than Steinfeld’s acid-tongued, independent Ross. I never once could imagine Darby’s Mattie taking care of herself, but I never had that thought with Steinfeld. In fact, it is her performance that ratchets the film up from great to greatness, and though Melissa Leo was great in “The Fighter,” I secretly wished that Steinfeld would win that Oscar.

The Coens’ TRUE GRIT also outguns the original in terms of art direction and cinematography, both of which set distinct tones between the two versions. There’s a surprising amount of green grass and daylight in the original film, whereas the remake is all brown and grey and happening under the cover of night and in the shadows. The new GRIT is more dangerous and surprisingly more antiquated in look and feel, and it does the material justice.

As I continue to grow as a fan of the Western genre, my expectations for attempts to revive the genre for modern audiences continue to elevate, and I found the new TRUE GRIT to be the best film of its kind since “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” a few years back. With a supporting cast that includes Matt Damon and Josh Brolin in memorable roles, this is a film I can’t wait to buy on Blu-ray and watch over and over again. The original, sadly, is too innocent looking now and lacks the impact of what the Coens brought to their modern adaptation.

One complaint about the 2010 version: no Oscars? The film was the second most nominated this past year with 10 nods, and not a single win. Steinfeld and cinematographer Roger Deakins were, in my mind, the most noticeably robbed of the accolade. In a year when the love was spread around on Oscar night among many films, it’s a crime that this TRUE GRIT was left out. But like many great Westerns, including the aforementioned “The Searchers,” it joins a list of vital classics of its cinematic genre overlooked at the time of its release for just how profoundly perfect it is.

1969 TRUE GRIT: 2.5 0ut of 4

2010 TRUE GRIT: 4.0 out of 4