Proverbs 28:1

Yesterday mid-day found me in a darkened theatre watching something that I have been putting off since Christmas: watching the 2010 version of "True Grit." The movie is ripe with accolades, has been featured in bits and pieces on several television and radio programs, so it may seem surprising that I would put it off, but I did, because:

• I was raised on the 1969 version, with Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, and John Wayne. I can recite practically the entire movie, from MEMORY. My mother loved John Wayne, so "The Sons of Katie Elder" and "True Grit" are burned on my brain. (Remarkably, I know very little dialogue from "Rooster Cogburn," the sequel to "True Grit.") My favorite line from that movie is the last one--"Well, come see a fat old man sometime!" I heard from clips that this picture wouldn't have that.
• I like Jeff Bridges, but in the clips Bridges looks and acts a LOT like his character in "Crazy Heart," so I didn't see the acting capability. John Wayne usually played the guy in control, so I could see the stretching of chops there.
• Who the heck is Hailee Steinfeld? (To be fair, what else has Kim Darby done?)
• The 1969 version has beautiful country, even if it isn't the right territory for the book. The 2010 version looks like it was shot in black and white.
• In 1969 there was standards of violence in movies. When someone shot someone in the 1969 version they just fell over--the worst part of the movie is when the boy running with Quincy gets his fingers chopped off. I didn't think the Coens, who created "No Country For Old Men," would have that much restraint. (And I was right, but it was tamer than I thought.)

Here's why I have done a complete 180 on my hesitation and will probably never watch the original again:

• I can still recite 80% of the movie. And I didn't read the book, which this movie supposedly follows more closely. My new favorite line was also in the 1969 version: "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!" Purely poetic way to say put a pistol in each paw, 'cause I'm gonna do it at this end.
• And speaking of language, the language in this one is gorgeous. Not just pretty, or interesting, but if someone put the language on an audio feed on iTunes with no film to watch, I'd buy it. For starters, there are no contractions. You read that right. Logic would lend that a western set in Arkansas would be rim-full with "ain't" and "cain't" and even something as innocent as "let's," but in this film the proper cadence is "is not," "cannot," and "let us restrict it to killed that we may have a manageable figure." Goodness. What a mouthful. A mouthful like Shakespeare is a mouthful. Delicious. And remarkably...
• This Hailee actress has the most intricate of these mouthfuls, and she delivers them as though she talks like that in high school English. She also does some pretty incredible things with subtle facial movements that kill a whole realm of emotions--and I understand that at the time of shooting she was, in fact, 14 years old. Kim Darby didn't have that range in her 20's, when she portrayed Mattie Ross. I hope Hailee has a long and rich career, like Jodi Foster.
• Which leads me to the acting of Jeff Bridges...this isn't Crazy Heart. Yes, he's drunk and southern. But things happen in his face, too, despite the beard and despite the thick phlegm of his voice. There's one word in here that he says where his voice cuts deep and strong, and it's in response to Mattie's inquiry of "When will we depart?" "We?" he responds, and the word is heavy, clear, and ripped like a guitar note. He also has quite the horse sense, so to speak, but I understand that was a Coen pre-requisite.
• There's always negative space in great paintings that lend to the painting without taking credit, and that would be Matt Damon. He's not the goof that he was in the "Oceans" movies, but he's the best anchor of comedy relief that could have steadied this subtly unravelling film. True, he didn't sing the title song, but he was darkly funny.
• And the music...in the 1969 version Campbell sang in the opening, there's typical western movie music, rising strings, and so on and so forth. In the 2010 version, there's a spiritual. That's it. On piano. "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Played six notes at a time, drawn out, until the hair on your arms stands up. And as the end of the film rolls on the reel, Iris Dement joins the piano, and I try not to gasp.
• As to the color scheme, everything has to be dark and dirty because that's the way it was. Think about the colors in the 1969 version--all three of the protagonists look like dandies, and in the 2010 version one person looks like a dandy because he is one--Damon's LaBoeuf. The first one looks like a "coon hunt" as Mattie calls it, but the second one looks like what it's supposed to be: a cold, wet, rough, dirty covering of life. That, and if I were departing in the 1969 version with John Wayne I'd be eager; if I were departing with Bridges in the 2010 version my heart would be permanently in my throat until I got home.

When does the 2010 version come out on DVD?

Onward.