The Coens' True Grit remake saved the western
Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT It’s incredibly rare that a remake manages to outdo its classic predecessor, but the Coen brothers’ True Grit is superior to the John Wayne-starring original. Remakes are usually a pointless endeavor, because if a movie is beloved enough for a remake to be financially viable, then it’s probably a timeless gem that can’t be improved on. But the Coens’ revamp of True Grit is an exception to this rule.
Henry Hathaway’s original adaptation marked a creative departure for Wayne. Wayne tended to play clear-cut heroes who don’t hesitate to save the day, but his True Grit character, Rooster Cogburn, is a hard-drinking antihero who’s reluctant to spring into action. The role gave way to one of Wayne’s strongest performances, and True Grit ultimately went down as one of the actor’s greatest westerns.
Not only did the Coens tell the True Grit story as it was meant to be told, through Mattie’s eyes, but they also retained the gritty, realistic tone of the novel much better than the Wayne version. Despite coming out around the time that films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were pioneering the anti-western and deconstructing the genre’s tropes, 1969’s True Grit is very much a traditional western.
The True Grit Remake Proved The Western Genre Is Still Worthwhile From the 1930s to the 1950s, westerns were as popular as superhero movies are today. But, as with any popular genre, the western’s heyday eventually came to an end. For more than half a century, new western movies have struggled to have any cultural relevance.
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