Hello Posse,
Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations."
With this in mind I wanted to talk a bit about movie remakes. Sometimes they are great and are a box office success while others miss the mark in such a horrible fashion that it almost physically painful to watch.
One of the remakes that I was pleasantly surprised by was True Grit. The original is of course a John Wayne classic that still holds up today. So when the remake was announced, I was very worried how it would turn out. Give the stellar cast, it had good odds of being a decent film with stars like Jeff bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper, just to name a few. But sometimes even will time tested stars in place, a film can still be disappointing. However, this was not the case with True Grit.
These actors did a phenomenal job of making these classic characters their own. Jeff Bridges did not just replay Waynes performance but instead found his own character for Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben J. " Rooster" Cogburn. Playing opposite Bridges as Mattie Ross is actress Hailee Steinfeld. She had been acting since the age of 10 but was fairly unknown until her performance as Mattie. Her work earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and was the breakout performance that led to more noticeable roles in subsequent films including her work in Pitch Perfect 2.
This version of True Grit was released in 2010. The film written, produced, directed, and edited by the Coen brothers. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer. This film had a budget of $38 million and earned $252.3 million at the box office. That is a significant financial success. This was the second adaptation of the 1968 novel True Grit written by Charles Portis 1968. The first adaptation starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell was released in 1969.
If you get tired of all the holiday movies on TV this time of year, why not take a break and check out True Grit this weekend.
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