Daily Dialogue — June 12, 2012

Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!
Rooster: Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!

— Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall), Rooster (John Wayne), True Grit (1969), screenplay by Marguerite Roberts, based on a novel by Charles Portis

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=8LSTi

— Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper), Rooster (Jeff Bridges), True Grit (2010), screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, based on a novel by Charles Portis

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=QWVe

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is originals and remakes, suggested by Saint716. Today’s suggestion by Jeff Messerman.

Trivia: In the original True Grit, Rooster Cogburn wears his eye-patch on his left eye. In the remake of True Grit, the eye-patch is worn over Cogburn’s right eye.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Here are Jeff’s thoughts: “Here’s my take… as much as the Coen boys have shaped my entire worldview of the cinema, I can’t abide their choices here. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy their take on True Grit. Their depiction of the west was, to be sure, appropriately grimy and unromantic. But they took what was a ROUSING moment in the first film and turned it into a relatively pedestrian action sequence. Also, Wayne’s reading of the line has more humor and panache… Bridges just seems pissed off.

But then the two really shouldn’t be compared, ultimately. The focus of the original was Rooster (not surprising since it was a Wayne vehicle.) Mattie Ross took center stage in the remake. Both versions serve the story well.”

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