Although I was apprehensive, True Grit turned out to be very watchable.I've nothing much to compare this experience to - I can't remember ever sitting through a John Wayne movie before. You can count on one hand the number of westerns I remember seeing - Shane, Unforgiven, Dances with Wolves (if that counts).
The "girl" (she was played by a 22 year old) helped, as it gave me an entry, someone to relate to, while the story got underway. She veered wildly from being likeable to irritating, but was never once recognisable as a human being. The lighting and photography was very yellow and green; much brighter than I expected for a western (I was expecting reds and browns). Robert Duvall was quickly spotted, but I missed Dennis Hopper completely.
I was wondering how this could have been picked as the career-capping Oscar-winning film for Wayne (he seemed gruff and agreeable enough, but not outstanding in any way), right up to the last 5 minutes. That ending - the girl's thawing into sentimentality with her gesture at the graveside, and Wayne's spirited fence-jumping (complete with freeze-frame) ended the film on a real high. I was left thinking "gee, he didn't do such a bad job after all" (the same way that last half hour of The Full Monty was so fun, and left you feeling so good, that you forgot the crummy first hour).The "girl" as I keep calling her was Kim Darby - she began her career at age 16 in Bye Bye Birdie and ended it at age 40 in Teen Wolf Too. True Grit would appear to have been a highlight for her.
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