Sunday, January 2, 2011

True Grit, A Review.

Movie Review, True Grit

I rarely go to the movies nowadays. Not for the usual reasons people complain about (obnoxious crowds, increasingly high admission prices, unhealthy food, etc) but because cinema much like everything else in American culture has been on a downward spiral of intellectual degradation. Cinema is no longer geared for the intelligent viewer who appreciates long uninterrupted scenes (e.g., Ozu) or complicated and witty writing (e.g., Forman) but rather it has deteriorated into the shortest possible scenes (usually only a few seconds long), virtually no dialogue other than terse one or two liners and visual effects, lots and lots of visual effects.

And so I took my wife out last night to see the Coen Bro's remake of the 1969 John Wayne film titled "True Grit." I give the Coen Bro's high marks for at least some interest in the writing of the film (which is sharp and humorous) but other than that the story is rather predictable and a bit banal. As far as modern Western's go I much preferred Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) or as an early Americana piece, Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007).

"The only thing free in this world is the grace of God."
_______________


REA

No comments: