True Grit (1969)

True Grit

With the Coen-remake coming up, I had to check out this John Wayne original first. I've never been much of a John Wayne fan myself, but the guy got legendary status.

To me the most stand out about the movie is its wasted potential. In glimpses there's both humor and character potential, but overall it never manages to build character relations, story or dialogue close to its peaks. The good thing about that is no doubt the possibilities for the Coens to do it a lot better.

There's no doubt some qualities with both Kim Darby and John Wayne, but neither manages to give a performance without mayor flaws. How Wayne got Oscar is beyond me, but then again I haven't seen that many movies from 1969. There might not have been better performances for all I know.

Interesting appearances by both Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, while Glen Campbell dragged down the experience in one of the larger parts. How the Golden Globe managed to award him with Most Promising Newcomer-Male is even further beyond me than how the Oscar went to Wayne.

One more good thing about this movie is the scenery and camerawork, which to me stood out more than the Oscar nominated Best Music-Original Song. Anyway. Looking forward to the Coen-take on this, and hopefully they'll have better customized the character relations and the story as a whole.