Thursday, August 19, 2010

This is just wrong...

In 1969, John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit" -- a grizzled, drunken U.S. Marshal hired by a 14-year-old girl to track down her father's killer. The role ended up winning the aging Western star his first and only Oscar, prompting him to make a rare sequel -- "Rooster Cogburn" -- opposite Katherine Hepburn in 1975. The image of Wayne's craggy, eye-patched visage from "True Grit" has become a cinematic icon.

So film mavens everywhere were taken aback when it was announced last year that Joel and Ethan Coen would been making their own version of "True Grit." But don't expect a straight remake; this movie is based more closely on the Charles Portis novel. And Jeff Bridges, fresh off his Oscar win, was tapped to play Cogburn; that's right, the Duke has been replaced by the Dude.
Read the rest here.

3 comments:

The Anti-Gnostic said...

The Coen brothers are probably the finest moviemakers in Hollywood. Their films are extraordinarily conservative--I sometimes wonder that they're allowed to make them.

Jeff Bridges is an actor with extraordinary range. I don't see the problem here.

Anonymous said...

I can see Jeff Bridges playing Rooster Cogburn more than I could see Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise.
Angela

Sophocles said...

Sorry, I couldn't resist after seeing this clip. I'm quite unfamiliar with John Wayne's films but recognized this scene through a song in the 80's by a band called MDC.

In my old punk days this exchange between John Wayne's character and the one in the clip was used in this song. Thanks for clearing up the mystery for me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewE65q8oEwA