A Father's Thoughts.

Jamie here. This handsome man is my daddy, Greg. Like Sean and I he is a very opinionated movie fan. When Sean and I were planning the blog we talked at length about asking people we know to contribute insight into movies we are discussing. With the Golden Globes just around the corner I wanted to do an entry about one of the nominess that we really enjoyed. I am not the biggest Coen Brothers fan, but found True Grit to have the second best script of the year (1st place goes to The Social Newtork). Also, Hailee Steinfeld did an outstanding job at holding her place next to Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon.  

True Grit, directed by Joel & Ethan Coen is a remake of the original that came out in 1969. John Wayne starred as Rooster Cogburn (the role Jeff Bridges plays in the 2010 version). My dad was around in 1969 and saw the original movie. I asked him to go back and watch it again and see which version he liked better.You'll find out really quickly that he is not the biggest John Wayne fan.  Read his thoughts after the jump. 

We saw the current movie, "True Grit" and very much enjoyed this movie.  We would give it a B+ score.   This movie is directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.  These guys are from Minnesota.  They also directed the movie "Fargo" and I DID actually enjoy this movie.  Coming from Nebraska, I understand the mentality of people from the Mid West.  The movie was a bit dry and in a way the people there are the same.    The current movie "True Grit" was MUCH better than the original we think.  The original "True Grit" was directed by Henry Hathaway and came out in 1969.  It starred John Wayne, GlenCambell and Kim Darby as the young girl.  Sally and I were living in San Antonio at the time.  I was 26 years old and Sally was 25.  We probably would NOT have seen this movie as we had become disenchanted with John Wayne.   John Wayne had devolved into an actor that only portrayed Western Sheriffs or similar roles.  Also it should be pointed out that John Wayne always seemed to play himself.  His range was - well, rather limited and his character was always a braggadocio, almost bullying self righteous man who brought pain to the bad guys.  Frankly, the plots of his movies were fairly simple, really bad guys that needed to be brought to justice with a vengeance.  These movies almost bordered on vigilante, with dear old John Wayne riding to the rescue to met out violence to all those that needed it.   Actually, he did make some movies that were semi-enjoyable.  Check out "The Searchers" directed by John Ford - 1956.  It is almost a bad movie but has some entertainment value.  It is interesting to see a young Natalie Wood playing the role of a girl that was kidnapped by Indians and raised to be one of them.  BUT..  It IS actually such a stretch to try to imagine Texans trying to grow Cotton in what is supposed to be a ranch that is actually situated in Monumental Valley: Look at this..  Do you actually think this looks like Texas?  Or that you could grow cotton here?  What were they thinking.   I netflixed it to try to see if I would enjoy this as much as when I saw it in 1956 and paid 15 cents to get into the theater back then. Also pop was a nickel and so was pop corn.  BUT you know what?  The movie actually only WAS worth 15 cents. I kept falling asleep and finally we sent it back.  I should have tried to get my 15 cents back too!!   Another movie he made was called "The High and the Mighty" (1954).  This movie had a most beautiful haunting song that won the Academy Award for that year.  It gave us the FIRST disaster airline movie that started all the amusing comedy spoofs that we enjoyed.   In "The High and the Mighty," Daddy John Wayne takes us flying.  Then things go horribly wrong and the plane MUST come back or it will crash and everyone will die.  People begin to be truthful at this moment of impending doom, and this (truth) is always a bad thing. The heart-rending truths that came out of people made us lose all respect.   We learn all kinds of things in this movie like "Past the point of NO return" and also shoving out all the suit cases to make the plane lighter.  I will go  ahead and tell you the ending of the movie since it is actually so bad there is nothing to  spoil.  Daddy John Wayne makes it back to Los Angeles safely with all the neurotic people on board even though most of us in the audience were earnestly and desperately praying for all of them to die horribly.   By 1969, most intelligent people didn't like John Wayne.  I hated him a lot because I was in the Army and at the time, the mission of the USA was:  "Kill for Peace".  By the way, it STILL is.  Most of our effort of our country is still up for this.  John Wayne LOVED this banal philosophy.  He would!   SO, in 1969 Big Bad John Wayne is this huge political conservative at the time and tells us to suck it up and we need to NOT be cowards but be very patriotic.  He even makes a hugely sick movie called "Green Barret" which was so bad, mostly people that were dragged into this movie ended up vomiting in the aisles.  No one seemed to notice that John Wayne never actually got around to serving his own country.  He pretended that he had, and this is good enough for all the plastic people that pretend to think.  People back then were hugely disappointing.  Not much has changed..   So, Sally and I didn't really want to see this miserable man pretend to act. BUT, we all DID like Glen Cambell who was mis-cast in the role that in the current version is played by Matt Damon.  Glen Cambell was nothing like John Wayne.  Glen Cambell in 1969 was a cross over country western singer who has performed some amazing songs that you still hear today.  He was ALSO very much against the war in Vietnam and was present often on the Smothered Brothers comedy  show which really took the pro-war bunch to task.    Kim Darby was actually 22 years old when she played the part in the original  movie in 1969.  She was a bit stiff and not NEARLY as good as Hailee Steinfeld.  Hailee Steinfeld is adorable in her part, quite convincing, vulnerable, yet steely strong.  She was huge in the current movie.  I loved her.   And of course, Jeff Bridges was perfect in the 2010 version of True Grit.  He plays his role sardonically, with a lovable gruffness that wins us over.   HANDS DOWN the 2010 version of "True Grit" was WAAAAAY better than the 1969 version.  They actually gave that tired hunk of buffalo scat called John Wayne an Academy Award JUST for playing himself and he always did just that anyway.  AND frankly John Wayne never did a very good job of playing himself to begin with.  For starters he didn't have much material to work with.  AND he, himself was NOT authentic, and was always so filled with himself, you lost interest in him before the credits rolled up.  People either adored John Wayne or they loathed him.  Guess where I stand??   I actually was tricked into seeing this movie in 1969 because they had given John Wayne an academy award.  So I went to see what the fuss was about.  It permanently affected me in that I now KNOW the Academy is corrupt and does NOT honor people authentically, except because of political reasons..  This is so sad!   When Jamie was home, we saw "Black Swan".  This was a difficult movie to watch.  It was riveting and technically quite correct.  BUT it was unpleasant.  This is because it is a true story portraying the performance of art.  Thus it is depressing by definition.  I should NOT want to see it again, right now, but it is very good and I highly recommend it.   This may be hard for you to understand but you will get it if you see this extraordinarily fine movie.  It deserves to win awards (even if the Academy actually is inauthentic - see above).   We also saw "The King's Speech" and the movie was great.  We like Colin Firth.  He was brilliant!  He was sensational and we found his performance deeply moving.  AND it was a period piece and accurately portrayed the mood of England just before WWII.  Frankly, as an American I have trouble accepting the Monarchy with the patriotic respect that is due them according to the British custom. But this movie was such a good stretch I actually found myself understanding all this. Go figure!  A great flick.   Please - while we are on the subject of Historical period pieces..  Someone needs to make a movie about the Swede: Raoul Gustav Wallenberg.  This movie is just begging to be made!  When will it happen?  This man is my all time hero and the story is so absolutely unbelievable as to be utterly fantastic.  And yet it is all true!  Why hasn't anyone made a movie about this incredible guy?   It has everything, mystery, great courage, tragedy, love, patriotism, and History - it all actually happened.  What a fanstatic story!   Love,   Greg Link, father of Jamie Link ps. John Wayne sucks.