The Coen Brothers Opt for Leftover Gravy.
Friday, December 31st, 2010© A.J. Malouin 2010
(Rating: 10 by A.J. Malouin.) (See our side-bar page “How We Rate Movies”)
(2010/USA. Written and directed by Ethan & Joel Coen.)
Why would the Coens do it?
“True Grit” is a cartoon and summation of all the John Wayne westerns. It is the project for which Wayne won his only Best Actor Oscar.
That Oscar might have been mostly — looking back on Wayne’s performance in it — a reward for a life well-Westerned. A life bred into projects like “Stagecoach” and “Rio Bravo” and “The Searchers” and a fistful of others that made Wayne an icon.
The Western, however, is dead. (more…)