Posted on 08/19/2010 3:19:00 PM PDT by Nachum
In 1969, John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit" -- a grizzled, drunken U.S. Marshal hired by a 14-year-old girl to track down her father's killer. The role ended up winning the aging Western star his first and only Oscar, prompting him to make a rare sequel -- "Rooster Cogburn" -- opposite Katherine Hepburn in 1975. The image of Wayne's craggy, eye-patched visage from "True Grit" has become a cinematic icon.
So film mavens everywhere were taken aback when it was announced last year that Joel and Ethan Coen would been making their own version of "True Grit." But don't expect a straight remake; this movie is based more closely on the Charles Portis novel. And Jeff Bridges, fresh off his Oscar win, was tapped to play Cogburn; that's right, the Duke has been replaced by the Dude.
(Excerpt) Read more at movies.yahoo.com ...
You can’t replace JOhn Wayne with a fruitcake.
It will be a floop.
Bold talk for a one eyed fat man.
Wasn’t it the Coen brothers who produced “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”?
I was horrified to hear of a remake of True Grit. It simply doesn’t need to be done. Don’t mess with the Duke.
But then again... I’m a *huge* Coen brothers fan. I love every one of their movies. They capture characters so vividly... like nobody else. If it’s really a retelling of the book, moreso than a remake of Wayne’s portrayal... maybe it will work.
John Wayne is irreplaceable. That said, I think Jeff Bridges could do a creditable job playing Rooster Cogburn. I’m really curious to see how the rest of the cast shapes up.
Yes, and Raising Arizona too.
I like their movies — quirky, goofy, offbeat. But remaking True Grit? Nah!
Why can’t Hollywood leave a classic alone?
I yield to no one in my admiration for John Wayne, but I think Bridges will do fine in this new version of the book. It’s bound to be a completely different take on the material.
Yes. And others like:
Fargo
Raising Arizona
No Country for Old Men
The Big Lebowski
Burn After Reading
Will never (again) watch anything with Matt Damon in it.
I don’t know about better but I think Tom Selleck would do a fine job in that role.
Most interesting Wayne “sequel” is his own remake of his own film.
Was it Rio Bravo first, followed by Rio Lobo?
First movie had Dean Martin as the sidekick, Walter Brennan and ?Ricky Martin?
Second movie has Robert Mitchum and James Caan, but it’s the same story.
Ricky Martin? Perhaps you mean Nelson.
Loved Wayne in TG, and Duvall was good too. Glen Campbell, not so much. Kim Darby's role could have been played better by the little kid in Lost in Space. (Sorry Bill M.)
True Grit is iconic, but John Wayne made so many better films and deserved the Oscar for earlier work.
Red River, The Searchers, North To Alaska, Rio Bravo, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man. So many others.
If anybody could put a fresh spin on it and get a good performance out of Bridges (who really is a decent actor), it’s the Coens.
Hey, at least M. Night Shamalamadingdong isn’t doing it.
}:-)4
It's coming from the Coen brothers. It won't be a flop.
Yep, Ricky Nelson, thank you.
Yes it was. I love that movie!
I don't like Damon's politics at all but I can't wait for another Jason Bourne movie.
Glen Campbell and Kim Darby were like comic book cut outs in True Grit.
Yep.
My favorite Wayne movie is The Shootist.
Shyamalan has seriously lost his mojo. I liked "Sixth Sense" and "Signs" (for the most part) but after that he took a trip right into toiletland.
Rio Bravo was first, then came El Dorado which had Mitchum and Caan, then came Rio Lobo with Mitchum’s son and Jorge Rivero, the came Assault on Precinct 13 by John Carpenter which was basically Rio Bravo as a cop movie (which has since been remade), and then Carpenter did Ghosts of Mars which is basically Rio Bravo in space. Quite possibly the most remade movie ever.
And any Rio Bravo fans in the Tucson area should plan on getting to The Loft this Sunday at noon, they’re showing it as part of the Tucson’s birthday celebration.
TG is one of my least favorite Wayne movies. It just didn’t work well. I know he won an Oscar for it, but honestly I think that was the Academy looking at his health and saying “if we don’t give him one now we never will”. Hoping the Coen’s pull it off.
I agree with you on the reason for Wayne winning the Oscar for True Grit. While I know a lot of people believe his performance in “The Quiet Man” was his best I was taken with his performance in “Red River”. It was a shame the studio ruined the ending. Wayne was a (GREAT) villain for the entire movie but suddenly morphed into “McLintock” at the end.
Nelson Martin?
You know, the son of Ozzie and Harriet Martin...
Of course and Dean’s brother
Wow I didn’t know it’s a triple remake Western, or that it is the basis for Ghosts of Mars, etc. Rio Bravo still is best, a great classic.
I can wait.
The Happening is passable after seeing it on cable about 10 times. The Sixth Sense got cheated out of Best Picture by that abomination American Beauties.
But we digress.
The apocryphal joke is that when Hawks approached Wayne to make Rio Lobo Duke said “I made it the other two times so why would I say no now”.
Matt Damon is on my Do Not Watch list, too. I’d see it if he weren’t in it.
...Joel and Ethan Coen would been making their own version....
...
would been? Idiots writing copy again.
“...Red River, The Searchers, North To Alaska, Rio Bravo, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man. So many others...”
Stagecoach and They Were Expendable.
My wife and I are in the middle of watching Big Jake. Not quite a classic, but a damn good western anyway.
Hollywood has given up on improving perfection, they hope people will come see a pale reflection now.
But since they brought it up, they chose the wrong actor. There are a number of obvious western actors that would have been an obvious pick.
A non obvious pick that I think would have been great, Bruce Campbell, yep, Brisco County Ash Jr. is the guy they should have picked.
I bet Fred Thompson would have made a fun Rooster Cogburn.
1. Ricky Nelson, not Martin
2. The second movie with Robert Mitchum was “El Dorado.”
3. Rio Lobo had a slightly similar plot, with co-stars Christopher Mitchum (Robert’s son), Jack Elam (he of the crazy eyes), and villian Victor French (Mr. Edwards on “Little House”).
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