True Grit

[Byron]

Went an saw the remake of True Grit on Sunday. Well worth your time! Good dry Humor. The girl is a riot. Matt Damon is a better actor than Glen Cambell. Jeff Bridges is good but not quite John Wayne. Guns look great! I think that if you saw this version first you might like it better.

Byron

[metalhead]

Shot ? ..... or ..... Kilt ?

[hambone49]

Hey Byron, would you please review "Little Fockers" for us?

[Tlee]

I'm not typically a Coen Brothers fan, but "The new" True Grit is probably one of the best movies I've seen in years... John Wayne would be proud of it. The recoil from the Colt revolver and the Sharps was a little "over dramatic", IMO, but it did serve a purpose at one point in the story line.

Lil Fockers?.... notsomuch! A waste of entertainment dollars... not even worth a rental when it makes it to DVD/Blu-Ray, etc, again.... IMHO.

my .02,

-Tim

[Byron]

Hey Byron, would you please review "Little Fockers" for us?

Hambone I would have thought you were more of a "Brokeback Mountian" kind of guy! I was also thinking that since you live in Hollywood that you should be our reporter.

[hambone49]

Yeah, I could report on those focking Canadians clogging up my Publix. And Dude, what happens in Ridgway stays in Ridgway. And how bout a review of the "Black Swan" ?

[Jim Beckley]

When I see this post I'm getting a picture in my mind of the two movie critics that was on In Living Color, Loved it! Hated it!

[Bob259]

Yeah, I could report on those focking Canadians clogging up my Publix. And Dude, what happens in Ridgway stays in Ridgway. And how bout a review of the "Black Swan" ?

[Innocent]

Hammy...it is cold in Canada, deal with it until April Buddy that is what we have to do, and they come this far north, trust me.
Byron, saw True Grit on Christmas day, good movie, as for reviewing the others...don't have much interest in seeing them so let Hammy knock himself out in the theaters with the Canucks!

Innocent

[Bigfoot]

For what it's worth Byron I took my girlfriend to see Black Swan for her birthday. It's probably going to win some awards but I felt like I needed therapy after it was done. Very disturbing movie with some very pretty girls in it. You'll just never look at a hang nail the same way again afterwards!

[jneihouse]

As a kind of interesting aside to the movie True Grit, the movie was based on a ficticious account taken from a 1968 book by Charles Portis of the same name, in which a US Marshall of somewhat low character goes out from Fort Smith Arkansas to bring back the cowardly, back shooting Tom Chaney...while not exactly historically accurate the book and movie give some insight into a time not too far in the past. Judge Parker's courthouse still stands and the gallows were re-built quite a few years ago in the manner they appeared during the "Hanging Judge" Parker's heyday. There is also quite a collection of US Marshall memoriabilia from that era housed there on public display and Fort Smith will be the site of the new US Marshall's museum that is to be built soon. It's quite interesting and well worth a visit if you are anywhere near or passing close by.

Haven't seen the new movie (Wait long enough and it will appear on my tv at home) but the original was great, featuring not only John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn but Arkansas native Glen Campbell as the Texas Ranger with the long range sharps rifle. The exchange and interplay between their two characters is priceless.

Kitty

[Innocent]

Wondered how long it would take for a Ft Smith natice to say something!!
Innocent

[jneihouse]

Yeah, hard for me to keep quiet, as you may have noticed...the original movie captured a lot of subtle small things that you would probably overlook unless you were "from here"...The way the young Kim Darby announces herself as "Mattie Ross from Dardanelle way in Yell County" was very much correct...Can remember when I was very young the old timers still referencing geographical locations in the same way...The original film also captured quite well how much of this part of the country viewed Texans (my apologies to my good friends in Texas), braggarts that were fierecly proud of Texas and were not shy about holding forth about Texas superiority......Also Glen Cambell enjoyed some success in recording the theme song to the original movie, also titled True Grit....Campbell was from Delight, Arkansas...had a brother that lived down Booneville way in Logan county not far from here that drove his brother's cast off Cadilliac automobiles....and always introduced himself as Glen Campbell's brother....Indian territory was much as depcited in the movie, lawless and the refuge for murders,thieves and ner ' do wells....If you escaped into Indian territory you were safe as there was no law there....Issac C Parker was sent to Fort Smith charged with bringing justice to the frontier...he set about doing so by sending forth US Marshalls charged with bringing in the outlaws "dead or alive"...justice was dispatched swiftly and there were several multiple hangings at the Fort, an event that, according to surviving newspaper accounts, were gala events that you brought the family to....If you take the tour of the courthouse you are allowed to look into the jail that was, in Parker's time, under the courthouse...It was dark and to say the least, hellish.....The Arkansas river was the natural boundary between civilization and indian territory....several Indian casinos and a "gentlemans club" now occupy the territory just across the border where Cogburn crossed over the river in the ferry....Interestingly, in the original movie the outlaw Tom Cheney's flight from justice seemed to take him north and west toward Kansas, as evidenced by Cogburn taking Mattie Ross to an Indian doctor at McAlister to treat her rattlesnake bite and set her broken arm....a more natural escape route would have been south and west toward Texas and Mexico...

Kitty

[BCloninger]

In the past, visitors were allowed into the old "Jail" which was really just the basement of the courthouse. Dirt floor, rough stone walls, low ceiling and thick iron bars. Now imagine the place packed with scum and savor the aroma... Contemporary jails are claustrophobic, but this place was a special piece of heaven. I believe the original True Grit was partially filmed in that jail and in Judge Parker's actual court room.

Neither film talks enough about US Marshalls killed in the line of duty during that time, or that there were black, indian and female (meditate on that) Marshals. If you were tough enough to survive the job, nobody much cared about the other details; if the Cogburn character was half a bubble off center he would have fit right in. Many of the marshals are buried in a section of Oak Cemetery with their contemporaries. It's no wonder that Fort Smith was chosen for the Marshal's Museum.

[atomicbrh]

The movie "Hang 'em High" starring Clint Eastwood was also based on the Judge Parker and Fort Smith history but the producers labelled Fort Smith as Fort Grant. Not as good a Western as True Grit IMHO.

If you want to see a little known Western of extremely high quality watch "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold". The stunts are real and fantastic if you watch them close. No Computers then but in color. A good theme. The scene where Tonto drives the buggy pulled by two really powerful horses at full speed through town was great stunt work. The buggy slides around the turns hitting buildings but manages to hang together.

Bobby R. Huddleston