**I love John Wayne in 1969's "True Grit" for which he won an Academy Award for "Best Actor". When I first heard they were remaking "True Grit" I couldn't believe they would remake a Classic. Was "Casablanca" next?
While John Wayne will never be equaled, Jeff Bridges does a nice job and this is a very good movie and it is nice to again see a well made Western that is not cynical or revisionist. I liked Kim Darby better in the original. Matt Damon does better than Glenn Campbell but not by as much as you would think. The music is also very good. If you liked the music in Ken Burns PBS documentary "The Civil War" you will like this score. The new "True Grit has great cinematography and more graphic violence. I was very skeptical about the movie when I heard it was going to be made by the Coen Brothers (Fargo) but they play this one straight and it works. This is more realistic but then our tastes has changed in 41 years. I hate it when we judge old movies by today's standards and tastes.
One added feature I liked about the new movie, as a Civil War buff, was the argument between Jeff Bridges as Roster who "rode" with Quantrill's Raiders and the Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) who served in the "Army of Northern Virgina".Quantreill was a ruthless southern gorilla fighter who burned Lawrence, Kansas and generally is credited with war atrocities.
In any case both movies have True Grit.
Film Critic Roger Ebert:
isn't Rooster Cogburn where Jeff Bridges started out 40 years ago? The first time I was aware of him was in “The Last Picture Show” (1971), where he and his friends went the local movie theater to see “Red River,” starring John Wayne.
(John Wayne in "Red River" 1948)
( Jeff Bridges in "The Last Picture Show" 1971)
