Exclusive: Coen Brothers Talk True Grit

David Dangelico on 10-27-2009 09:13 AM

Sounds great to me. I trust the Coen's with anything.

Also...this sounds very No Country for Old Men-esque...which is obviously a good sign!

Andy B. on 10-27-2009 09:53 AM

I really loved the original, but I can see how it could have been very Hollywood-ized to become a standard western rather than a "gritty" novel. Since my opinions of the Coens are so mixed, I'll be really interested to see what they do with it.

Andy B. on 10-27-2009 09:55 AM

Gordon Franklin Terry Sr on 10-27-2009 10:22 AM

You know, with the Coen Brothers its going to be an sickening slow gait through an amoralistic cinemascape where all the characters are all unlikable and unkind people who routinely commit unkind acts against other equally unkind and unlikable people.

Just like Sergio Leone didn't like people to look too beautiful in his movies, the Coen Brothers don't like "good" people in their films; Sergio Leone would give people scars or blemishes or zits or whatever to "real-ize" (to make believable as being real).

. . . and of course the girl is going to get shot and die and discarded into the same mass grave next to her father and the credits will scroll-up over an empty, pessimistically lit landscape.

aside from the levity of RASING ARIZONA, everything by the Coen Brothers celebrates the art of pessimism as opposed to an optimistic somewhat jovial outcome.

Brendon F. on 10-27-2009 11:16 AM

Nesfaratu is such a forgiving character, so you obviously have the high moral ground.

BUCK69 on 10-27-2009 11:19 AM

Hey Gordo, I didn't recognize your post, what with the new avatar and the appropriate [almost] use of capitalization. But your take on the Coens is dead wrong. Life usually doesn't have a "jovial outcome" so their view is realistic, not pessimistic. Usually the bells that you hear are funeral bells, not angels getting their wings. In spite of that, there's a lot of humor in their movies [Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, even No Country For Old Men]. It's the thought-provoking kind, which is appropriate, because their movies are as well. I teach an ethics class from time to time and I've screened Fargo, Miller's Crossing and No Country For Old Men to demonstrate how people confront ethical dilemmas. I'm confident that their take on True Grit will be equally thought-provoking, as well as entertaining.

Brendon F. on 10-27-2009 11:26 AM

Amen, Buck. I hate to see anyone characterize their work with such a heavy hand. Well said.

BUCK69 on 10-27-2009 01:13 PM

Thanks. Just to play the devil's advocate, the only real critical failure that the Coens have had was the remake of Ladykillers. The original, like True Grit, was considered a "classic."

CFM on 10-28-2009 09:00 AM

I agree 100% with what BUCK69 said.

K on 10-29-2009 09:10 AM

Good point man, I was gonna say the same thing but you perfectly said what I wanted to say and more.

Lord Naseby on 10-27-2009 10:39 AM

I didn't care too much for the original and I definitely disagreed with John Wayne getting Best Actor for it. so I will be interested to see what the Coen Brothers do with it. They have been pretty good in the past for me.

vogonpoet on 10-27-2009 11:54 AM

I love the Coens, but the way Joel and Ethan describe the book makes me smile a little bit. It's funny, violent, and consistently odd. Hm, wonder what attracted the Coen Brothers to it?

Salty Gritts on 10-27-2009 12:08 PM

If the Coens are attached to write and direct I'm always going to be on board. A great cast list as well, especially like the idea of them working with Jeff "The Dude" Bridges again, as well as Josh Brolin.

Dave J. on 10-27-2009 12:29 PM

1969 True Grit had alot of sarcastic humor which didn't seem was part of the original script, which was how The Duke was able to win his first Oscar. It was really the result of his performance that had really stood out for me.

It's really iinteresting to see that the Coen brothers had read the original story which True Grit was based on and to have them expressing their own version which explains that there version is obviously will be a Coens version and not a remake.

It's going to be interesting to see how the Coen brothers are going to pull this off since they have been doing well consistently with critics!!!

rt_hire_me on 10-27-2009 04:00 PM

I'm all for integrity and following your inner muse, but I hold out hope that someone convinces the Coens to redo the ending to NCFOM so that Llewelyn jumps out of a tree and breaks Javier's good arm in half. When I watch True Grit, whatever character Brolin plays, if he's in a cowboy hat, he's Llewelyn incarnate and he's out for sweet vengeance.

Sunday A. on 10-27-2009 04:51 PM

I'm not a fan of a 'True Grit' remake, even though I love the Cohen brothers' work. 'True Grit' has always been one of my favorite movies; why fix what isn't broken? This reminds me of a score of other 'remakes' Hollywood puts out to capitalize on an idea that worked then and viewers either won't remember, or are too 'mainstream' to watch the original. Sounds like a money ploy rather than a labor of love. I wouldn't be for remaking something like 'Citizen Kane' and I certainly don't support a re-do attempt at an arguably perfect movie. Replace John Wayne's performance? It's not going to happen.

Boo, Cohen brothers. Sometimes a movie is just too good to remake.

Paul B. on 10-27-2009 07:33 PM

I wouldn't call the Coen Brothers' film a "remake" just yet. I think a second adaptation of the book would be more appropriate. As odd as it may seem, the Coen Brothers might be onto something as they have actually read the book by Charles Portis. I read the book and then saw the movie circa '69 and there was a glaring difference between the two. As Joel Coen said, it is a very odd book. The book is told from the viewpoint of 14-year old Maddie Ross, a prematurely narrow-minded girl, who is far from a sympathetic character. In fact, none of the other characters in the story like her, and for good reason. Maddie's perspective on life, in which she finds fault in everything she sees, is so skewed that the things she says are unintentionally comic. That was lost in the movie because of the delivery and rewrite of the dialogue. However, the Coen's adaptation might make her obnoxious ramblings into a strong point of the film. So, I have high hopes about this film.

Also, someone asked, "why fix what isn't broken?" In fact, the weak point of the original film was the unfortunate acting debut of Glen Campbell, and it detracted from the film. Campbel put in such a poor performance he should have got an award for worst actor of the year. Instead, he received some obscure award for "Best Newcomer" and he quickly abandoned acting in short time.

martinscorsese25 on 10-27-2009 05:45 PM

Hopefully, Brolin won't look alot like he did in No Country because this film feels like in the No Country vein. Remember Eckhart in TDK and Thank You For Smoking?! that was distracting.

also, hopefully, Roger Deakins isnt busy. i mean, i'm a big fan of Emmanuel Lubezki(he's my fav DP). But nobody works with the Coens better than Deakins.

plus, what about Hail Caeser? i saw on IMDB that it will be their next film. perhaps, things have changed.

Keyser Soze on 10-29-2009 12:30 AM

TDK reminded me of Thank You For Smoking, too. Especially the end where the lobbyist gets half of his face burned when he falls asleep with a lit cigarette.

King Kubrick on 10-27-2009 05:48 PM

Sign me up. No Country was the best film of the decade (that just happened!) and True Grit will mine the same thematic territory. Plus it's going to reunite the Cohen's and the dude and josh brolin. I sense another classic!

martinscorsese25 on 10-27-2009 06:05 PM

@King Kubrick

looks like "the best film of the decade" talk has begun and will continue on the comming "post" to come. LOL...

personally, I don't agree with you. No Country is a great film, that's a fact. and i think there are alot of great films this decade. so "the best" will be determine by "what is your favorite from the best". if you asked my "best film of the decade", well, i just think there's something masterful about "There Will Be Blood".

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David W. on 10-27-2009 07:45 PM

Can't wait! "A Serious Man" was their latest masterpiece.

n.die.jaedong on 10-28-2009 08:48 AM

what a bunch of ****. no country was boring as **** and did not have a point. way to ruin a classic john wayne film- therewillbeblood FTW

BUCK69 on 10-28-2009 11:29 AM

That is your opinion, and you're in the minority. I'm sorry that you didn't find one of the most critically acclaimed movies in the last ten or fifteen years entertaining and thought-provoking. I reckon that's your loss.

CFM on 10-28-2009 09:02 AM

Remake or not, Coen Brothers Inspiration should always get the Green Light.

Alex R. on 10-28-2009 03:02 PM

I'm a huge fan of the Coen brothers. I completely fell in love with No Country For Old Men, it was such a perfect movie in my mind.

So this sounds to be right down the Coens' alley. I'm sure they'll bring this one to the screen with all the great things one expects to see in their movies.

will s. on 10-28-2009 03:22 PM

i don't think it's fair to dismiss gordon's comment, he's not entirely wrong.. the 'amoralistic cinemascape' and unlikeable characters are staples of the coen's work. However, to assume this movie will be mediocre is, well, stupid. The Coen's are almost always great, despite the often unlikeable characters and bleak -- what's the word?? mise in scene? how's THAT for cinema vocab, eh??

brandon s. on 10-28-2009 10:30 PM

Well at least Jeff Bridges is playing the part...a billion times better than a piece of excrement like John Wayne.

Scheherezade on 10-29-2009 10:02 PM

I re-read the book when it was announced that the Coen Brothers were adapting it. Like Vogonpoet, I smiled too. The book seems right up their alley; It's dark, it's funny, it's violent and it's really well written. The main characters are all bad-***, they don't wear their hearts on their sleeves, probably dictated by the harshness of the times, but you do get a glimpse of warmth under the tough exteriors here and there.
Since the Coens have emphasized that they want to be true to the novel and have it told from the perspective of the narrator, the casting of Mattie Ross will be just as important as the other roles, if not more so. A film came out the same year as NCFOM called Grace is Gone and the girl that played the older daughter was brilliant. In fact, I saw a lot of similarities in the quiet strength of both Tommy Lee Jone's character and the girl's. Not a lot of actors can do such heavy lifting so quietly, and watching a 12 year old, first time actor do it was stupefying. Reading True Grit again with a Coen Brothers adaptation in mind, it was easy to picture this actress as Mattie.

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