True Grit, 1969 - Henry Hathaway

I'd never seen this film when I was younger. I'm only seeing it now because the Coen brothers are doing a remake. They will be skipping the movie and going to the original novel which this film was based on. The original film was the typical Hollywood studio fare of the time. Given that this came after The Man With No Name trilogy, I was disappointed to see that none of Leone's revisions to the western genre were in use. Perhaps it was too soon. Certainly Wayne comes off as the sort that would never admit that Eastwood was doing westerns, ahem, better than he was. That said, Wayne was actually surprisingly entertaining. I was never a fan of his, he always seemed to be pushing some personal ideology or image of himself rather than simply acting. There are some very good supporting actors (Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper) that I think weren't given enough of a chance to shine due to what seems to be Wayne having to populate a large percentage of screen time. I think the thing that shines most here is the story and the characters populating it. What the Coen Brothers do with the book, makes for one of the few things I'm looking forward to this year. 

This film was watched at home, on TCM HD