# Anyone else anxious to see True Grit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670 "2010-12-10T16:23:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/41 "2010-12-12T06:21:55Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He lives here, dude. So did I, for a couple of decades. Some of my family is from near Dardanelle, in Yell County. And I never heard anyone speak that way. Or any hint that their ancestors spoke that way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/42 "2010-12-12T15:01:21Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > So did I, for a couple of decades. Some of my family is from near Dardanelle, in Yell County. And I never heard anyone speak that way. Or any hint that their ancestors spoke that way. Then I must stand corrected. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/43 "2010-12-12T15:41:58Z")
The term “family movie” is making me a little nervous, but I will definitely see it. The Coen brothers have given me so many hours of joy, that they have earned my trust. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/44 "2010-12-12T16:58:41Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > So did I, for a couple of decades. Some of my family is from near Dardanelle, in Yell County. And I never heard anyone speak that way. Or any hint that their ancestors spoke that way. Yeah, the dialogue is often…poetic. But I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, it’s one of the things I like about the book and the movie. People didn’t really talk the way they do in _Hamlet_, either. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/45 "2010-12-12T17:08:16Z")
The NYT on the movie: [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/movies/12grit.html?\_r=1](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/movies/12grit.html?_r=1) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/46 "2010-12-12T18:05:52Z")
I’d wager most people under 40 know John Wayne the same as they know Johnny Carson and Liberace- “somebody who was big back in the day”- so I think it’s audience will be fine. I liked the first movie and while I think Wayne did a great job Campbell and at times Kim Darby damned near wrecked it. If successful I wonder if they’ll remake\* Rooster Cogburn\*. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/47 "2010-12-12T18:09:32Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > If successful I wonder if they’ll remake\* Rooster Cogburn\*. They could get Martin Short to play the Hepburn part. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/48 "2010-12-13T02:19:28Z")
I am anxious to see it. I think the original is a classic American film. That said, I’m not a huge Coen Brothers fan and I’m not sure I’ll like what the do with the story. I do like Jeff Bridges as an actor. So I guess I’m in it for the story and for Jeff Bridges. I recently looked up Kim Darby on Wikipedia, and they said that great things were predicted for her after True Grit but she didn’t live up to the promise. In the original, Kim Darby had this vibe of a proper young lady who doesn’t know what she’s in for. From the commercial, the new girl seems to have a different presence. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/49 "2010-12-13T02:24:08Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Damon has no experience pretending to sing and play the guitar as Glen did, or look like he normally chews his cud.. Dude. Huge fail. Glen Campbell was a member of the Wrecking Crew ([The Wrecking Crew (music) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_%28music%29)) and a hot picker in his day. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/50 "2010-12-13T06:12:12Z")
> [@11811](#): > > Dude. > > Huge fail. Glen Campbell was a member of the Wrecking Crew ([The Wrecking Crew (music) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_%28music%29)) and a hot picker in his day. I assume TriPolar knows that Campbell was a singer. It was a comment about how the new version isn’t a remake of the movie, otherwise Damon would have to pretend to sing and play guitar, because he’s not a singer like Campbell. I don’t remember Campbell singing in the 1969 movie because it’s been decades since I saw it (I do know [he sang the theme song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDhBW597Rx0) but don’t remember it in the movie itself), but if he did, it was only a sop to his superstar singer status, like Dean Martin singing [“My Rifle, My Pony and Me”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IpEnsdXwFM) and Ricky Nelson singing [“Cindy Cindy”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPYCJlFfhW8) in the highly-regarded [Rio Bravo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053221/combined), an otherwise very serious and excellent movie, also with John Wayne. Which reminds me that Wayne never balked at sharing the screen with other superstars or dreamboat hunks. Good for him. Off-topic to the new movie, I saw a 35mm print of a really good 1965 movie called [Mickey One](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFqOhNJLUU) last night. One of the characters not shown in that trailer looked and sounded very familiar but I couldn’t place him until after I got home. It was [Jeff Corey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0179786/), who plays Tom Chaney in the 1969 True Grit. He can be seen at about [2:22 in the trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN-j4GDqjv4). He also played Wild Bill Hickock in [Little Big Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/combined) (he comes in [at about 3:30 in this clip from the movie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fm5S1xcDP4)), and about a thousand other roles as a character actor. What an interesting man! He was a Shakespearean actor, a character actor, an acting teacher who taught the likes of Robert Blake, James Dean, Kirk Douglas, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson. He was Blacklisted during the dark days of the Hollywood Witchhunts. > [@](#): > > When he was summoned to a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee, he not only refused to name names but also offered an acting critique of the previous witness. He was promptly blacklisted and did not work in films or television for 12 years. > > … > > Quote from Corey: > “I’m a good person, fortunately. That’s why I’m a pretty happy person now. I’ve been married for 51 years, have six grandchildren. I’m very proud that I behaved well and didn’t make a begging, obsequious fool of myself. The blacklist hurt my career. I probably get considerably less in pensions now as a writer and director than I would have, but I’m not bitching about it. I think of my kids. They know that I was tested and behaved well, which makes me feel awfully good. I couldn’t have lived if I had just gone against all of my inclinations, everything I ever believed in. I just couldn’t be an informer. I know I’ve got guts and I know I care so much for my country. I demonstrated it.” (from a 1989 interview) ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/51 "2010-12-13T06:53:23Z")
I notice John Wayne wore the eye patch over his left eye and Bridges over his right. Anybody think this is stylistically deliberate, or is it more likely that each actor wore the patch on the side that was most comfortable? FWIW they both shoot right handed. Wouldn’t that make their right eye dominant? Does it say in the book which of Cogburn’s eyes was covered? I’m overthinking this, but I wouldn’t put it past the Coens to address such a detail. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/52 "2010-12-13T07:08:36Z")
> [@11811](#): > > Dude. > > Huge fail. Glen Campbell was a member of the Wrecking Crew ([The Wrecking Crew (music) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_%28music%29)) and a hot picker in his day. > [@Equipoise](#): > > I assume TriPolar knows that Campbell was a singer. It was a comment about how the new version isn’t a remake of the movie, otherwise Damon would have to pretend to sing and play guitar, because he’s not a singer like Campbell. I kind of left that ambiguous. Allowing the reason you mention, but implying I wasn’t a fan of his music. He did seem pretty good at the guitar. His singing… well I guess it’s a matter of what you like to hear. His acting was unintentionally funny, but the part could have been cast much worse. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/53 "2010-12-13T07:10:52Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#): > > I notice John Wayne wore the eye patch over his left eye and Bridges over his right. Anybody think this is stylistically deliberate, or is it more likely that each actor wore the patch on the side that was most comfortable? FWIW they both shoot right handed. Wouldn’t that make their right eye dominant? I have a dominant left eye, and I shoot right handed. It’s easier to compensate for my tendancy to shoot to the left of the target than it would be to shoot with my off-hand. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/54 "2010-12-13T16:10:55Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > …Off-topic to the new movie, I saw a 35mm print of a really good 1965 movie called [Mickey One](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFqOhNJLUU) last night. One of the characters not shown in that trailer looked and sounded very familiar but I couldn’t place him until after I got home. It was [Jeff Corey](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0179786/), who plays Tom Chaney in the 1969 True Grit… Corey may also be familiar to _Star Trek_ fans for a single appearance on the original series: [Plasus | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Plasus). He was also in _Little Big Man_ and _Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid_, two other great Westerns from that era. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/55 "2010-12-13T16:42:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Corey may also be familiar to _Star Trek_ fans for a single appearance on the original series: [Plasus | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Plasus). He was also in _Little Big Man_ and _Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid_, two other great Westerns from that era. Also had a memorable episode of _Roseanne_ as a door-to-door salesman who comes to her house, asks to come in for a drink of water, and dies. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/56 "2010-12-13T18:36:58Z")
I think this movie is going to be awesome. At the same time I would give everything I have and more to see Jeff Bridges play Rooster Cogburn in his Dude persona. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/57 "2010-12-13T19:29:29Z")
And John Goodman as Le Bouef, and John Turturro as Ned Pepper. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/58 "2010-12-13T19:40:47Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#): > > I notice John Wayne wore the eye patch over his left eye and Bridges over his right…Does it say in the book which of Cogburn’s eyes was covered? ::checking:: In the book, Cogburn’s left eye is bad. So much for the Coens being truer to the book! 😛 Actually I think I did read somewhere that Bridges made the decision to wear the patch over a different eye as a symbolic acknowledgment that he had no notions of replacing John Wayne. If so, a classy move. I may be misremembering, though. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/59 "2010-12-14T01:01:50Z")
I’m looking forward to the new movie. I think that Jeff Bridges will be perfect for the role. I never read the book, but suspect the new adaption of the movie will show more grit. The original with John Wayne captured a little (very little) of what the late 1800’s may have been like. I hope the Coen’s capture a bit more of not just ‘True Grit’ but the actual grit that was life at the time. With respect to John Wayne’s character and himself, I think that Jeff Bridges will do a great job. Heh. The Dude vs. the Duke. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670/60 "2010-12-14T01:04:07Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I think this movie is going to be awesome. > At the same time I would give everything I have and more to see Jeff Bridges play Rooster Cogburn in his Dude persona. :D:D Thanks for the laugh. And… that could work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-anxious-to-see-true-grit/563670.md?page=4)