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With the Oscars a couple of days away, I had the brilliant idea of comparing the classic 1969 John Wayne version of True Grit with last year's Oscar nominated version starring Jeff Bridges. The good, the bad, and the eye patches. Here are the results.
***Final warning, I give away some plot points so if you don't want to know them, turn back now.***
Cast Overview
Old True Grit
Rooster Cogburn: John Wayne
Mattie Ross: Kim Darby
LeBoeuf: Glen Campbell
Tom Chaney: Jeff Corey
Ned Pepper: Robert Duvall
New True Grit
Rooster Cogburn: Jeff Bridges
Mattie Ross: Hailee Steinfeld
LeBoeuf: Matt Damon
Tom Cheney: Josh Brolin
Ned Pepper: Barry Pepper
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
Plot Overview
The story is about a young woman of the old west, Mattie Ross, who hires a hard drinking U.S. Marshall, Rooster Cogburn, to find her father's killer, Tom Chaney. Mattie is a feisty young woman who's good with numbers and can bargain better than any horse trader you've ever seen.
After eventually hiring Cogburn to find Chaney, Mattie insists on going along -- after all she's paying -- and the two are accompanied by Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf, who's got his own reasons for tracking Chaney down.
Mirror Mirror, Flora and Fauna
What I found surprising about the scripts of both movies is that they're nearly identical. I remember reading somewhere the Coen Brothers talking about how different their version was from the Old TG because they went back to the original novel for the New TG script.
Well they didn't go back very far. Most of the scenes are exactly the same. The dialogue has changes and some scenes have been added, but for the most part, the same.
Visually, the most striking difference between the two movies is that the Old TG looks like a Disney western. It's all pretty and clean with blue skies and crisp green grass, almost as if someone had gone back in a time machine with a mower to cut it.
There's no dust, mud or stains of any kind.
Even the deaths are neat and clean. When Tom Chaney shoots down Frank Ross (John Pickard) in the Old TG, it's got no more impact than if he bent down to tie his shoes. For a plot point that launches the whole narrative of what is a revenge movie, I was expecting a scene with a bit more drama.
Oh, and the movie was Rated G.
In the New TG, it's the dead of winter, the sun is never out, it's cold, it's snowy and the mattress Cogburn sleeps on looks like the horses used it as a bathroom before he went to bed.
The deaths are dirtier enough for a PG-13 rating.
Opening Credits
The opening credits to the Old TG had me laughing until I was nearly falling on the floor. Part of Glen Campbell's contract to play LeBoeuf must have included that he got to sing the opening theme song. Remember, Glen was a popular singer back in 1969 and the producers at Paramount must have thought they had pure box office gold by casting him.
And truth be told, his acting was okay. What wasn't okay was the awful syrupy ballad he was forced to sing over the opening credits. It was a dreary little ditty about needing to find a man with "true grit," played over stark white titles and a static long shot of the Ross ranch.
The opening credits of the New TG were a huge improvement. We hear the voice of Mattie as an older woman, telling us about how when she was 14-years-old, she went on the hunt "to avenge her father's blood." Meanwhile, we see white titles over a black background with the strains of a sad piano playing in the background. As Mattie finishes her narration, the camera pushes in to a lifeless body lying in the street outside a saloon, a light snow falling all around.
Much better. Much more effective. And we don't even need a "Tom Chaney shoots Frank Ross" scene.
John's Rooster Cogburn vs. Jeff's Rooster Cogburn
The Old TG is a John Wayne vehicle from start to finish. He's the star of every scene and he's got pages and pages and pages of dialogue. As far as I'm concerned, Wayne could never hide himself in a role. He was always John Wayne playing a John Wayne western character who looked and sounded like -- John Wayne.
But I will say his Rooster is fine enough and if you're a John Wayne fan, this is a movie you wouldn't want to miss. Wayne won his only Oscar
