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The Coen brothers discuss 'True Grit'
The Coen brothers talk to Ben Walters about their neo-western remake of 'True Grit'
On the face of it, LA’s amiable acid casualty Jeffrey ‘the Dude’ Lebowski – whom Jeff Bridges played in Joel and Ethan Coen’s ‘The Big Lebowski’ – has little in common with the boozy, kill-or-be-killed Civil War vet Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn, whom Bridges plays in their latest film. ‘True Grit’ is their take on Charles Portis’s novel, first filmed by Henry Hathaway with John Wayne in 1969, in which 14-year-old Mattie Ross hires Cogburn to enact vengeance, despite his dissolute ways. Yet if the Coens were asking something very different of Bridges in some ways, in others…‘Not really!’ chuckles Ethan. ‘He’s a substance abuser in both movies. Different substances.’ And each role shows that heroism can be found in unexpected places. ‘Right,’ Joel agrees. ‘He plays a left-of-centre hero in both movies.’ ‘It’s kind of the joke of the book,’ Ethan continues. ‘This Presbyterian, schoolmarmish girl sees him as a hero, which he so little looks like. He’s just this fucked-up guy who shoots people. And in the end she’s right! ’The Coens’ take on the story is altogether weirder than Hathaway’s or even Portis’s – their tone is more macabre, their Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) more a girl than a woman, the result more heightened and storybookish. ‘Yeah, that was conscious,’ says Joel. ‘We were thinking of “The Night of the Hunter” – the exaggerated skies, and we even used the same hymn. And we had this idea that once Mattie crosses the river and goes into Indian territory, there’s a bit of “Through the Looking Glass” – that she’s going into a strange, wild place inhabited by almost otherwordly creatures.”
The character of Mattie is crucial. Previously, she has seemed more or less grown up: she narrates the novel retrospectively as an unmarried 40 year old and was played in Hathaway’s film by 21-year-old Kim Darby. Steinfeld’s Mattie, by contrast, is obviously a child, her intensity and self-assurance set off by puppy fat, too-big clothes and naive moments. ‘Hailee was actually 13 when we made the movie,’ Joel says. ‘We saw girls who ranged from 12, 13 to maybe 17, 18. And, even if they looked like they were 14, once they got beyond the age of, like, 16, you went, “No, this isn’t a little girl any more” and it seemed wrong. It’s not physical, or even puberty, it’s an invisible threshold where you’ve gone from being a child to something in between and it isn’t right.’ Yeah, it’s weird,’ Ethan says. ‘For the same reason that Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” couldn’t be a 17 year old, it was just wrong.’
Yet for all its storybook peculiarities, ‘True Grit’ is arguably the straightest picture yet from filmmakers known for winking at us one minute and pulling the rug from under us the next. The gleeful disregard for genre conventions established in their debut, 1984’s neo-noir ‘Blood Simple’, has been fine-tuned through direct or indirect homage in almost every movie they’ve made since. ‘Quite honestly,’ Joel shrugs, ‘we hear that and we go, “Yeah, that’s all true.” But when you encounter the material you go, “Well, this is a very sturdy story idea.”’
‘It might sound weird,’ Ethan adds, ‘but the whole genre thing interests us less than it interests people who write about movies. In this [case], we were interested in the book. It’s not like we were casting about for a western.’ Joel continues: ‘To the extent that we were thinking about it in genre terms, it was more along the lines of “The Night of the Hunter”, which is not a western, or this “Perils of Pauline” young-adult-fiction kind of thing, you know? There’s a shoot-out in the meadow and then the villain comes back and gets clunked on the head and she shoots him and falls into a pit with snakes…” Ethan concludes: “It has more to do with “Treasure Island” than with “Tombstone”, you know?’
‘True Grit’ follows both ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘The Ladykillers’ as a Coen film adapted from another text. ‘Adapting stuff…’ Ethan muses. ‘Originally, we thought, “We don’t do that. We do our own stuff.” The first movie where we wanted to do it was “To the White Sea”, an adaptation of a James Dickey novel [we attempted] around the time of “The Big Lebowski”, and for some reason our resistance to that idea fell.’ ‘We stopped being so uptight,’ Joel says. ‘We said, “We’ll do whatever presents itself – our ideas, somebody else’s…”’
Certain approaches, they find, still work best with original material. Bridges is far from the only actor with whom the Coens have worked more than once: their collaborations with the likes of Frances McDormand and George Clooney are among the great pleasures of their films. Joel points out that these faces tend to crop up in the Coens’ own stories. ‘We write with actors in mind for movies that are not based on other material.’ Ethan calls it ‘a crutch for characterisation… In the beginning, thinking about “Barton Fink”, we figured John Turturro and John Goodman together in a hotel room suggested things that went places.’
The American landscape – another pleasure of Coen pictures – can play a comparable role. ‘The location of the story often piques your interest,’ says Joel. ‘Again, you do whatever gets you somewhere: thinking about specific actors in a specific room or a specific geographic place.’ Location, Ethan agrees, ‘is part of the appeal of some of these stories. “The Big Lebowski” was very much about LA and we’d spent lots of time there. Or “No Country for Old Men” – we’d each spent time in west Texas and you go, “This is interesting.”’
Like ‘No Country’ and ‘Blood Simple’, ‘True Grit’ was shot in Texas (and New Mexico), making it the closest thing to a regular Coen location. In the earlier films, the Lone Star State was the backdrop to stories in which characters are disastrously alienated. This time, things are different. You can’t always judge by appearances.
Read our review of 'True Grit' here
Author: Inerview: Ben Walters
User comments on this story
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- It's always a relief when someone with obvious expertise aneswrs. Thanks! said...
- It's always a relief when someone with obvious expertise aneswrs. Thanks! Posted on Jan 21 2012 05:23
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- With all these silly wesbiets, such a great page keeps my internet hope alive. said...
- With all these silly wesbiets, such a great page keeps my internet hope alive. Posted on Aug 22 2011 15:37
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- Mike said...
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@ScrumpyJack: I don't usually reply to comments made on here about my reviews. Yes, I remember from a previous comment you made some time ago you used to be a cinema manager. You've probably seen thousands more films than I have.
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Recently, a family ahead of me in the queue spent £34 odd on snacks and drinks. With tickets, the outing must have cost towards £100.
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Yes, I agree it's easy to say "some people walked out". What I think's relevant is when they walk out, perhaps if they don't, what the audience size was, and when the screening took place - and I sometimes mention those things, or the time/date stamp on the review I've left will identify when I saw the film.
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A huge amount of money had been spent on advertising True Grit, and Dave Calhoun - whom I normally trust - gushed in his review. (Sorry, Dave, TO usually gushes over anything to do with the Cohens.) He awarded the film 5 stars.
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The 'audience review' I wrote for "True Grit" was after one of the first UK screenings. I think it's relevant that four people left from a film that carried 5 stars from Time Out. If I was reading through audience reviews and about to spend close to £100 for a family outing, I'd want to know I was trusting an accurate review.
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If you read my audience reviews for "127 Hours", "The King's Speech" and "The Fighter" (all seen around that time) you'll see I mention how packed "The Fighter" was. (Both you and I felt it wasn't so great as to warrant Oscars.) I saw them either immediately they opened in the West End, or shortly after. Not a person left any of those films, yet all had slightly lower star ratings than True Grit. Likewise NEDs. Like I say, I always sit at the back and have good peripheral vision, so see who leaves. So when I correct a review by pointing out a film's failings (overlooked by those who award "5 stars"), I think I'm being reasonable in pointing out it's not all it's cracked up to be. With so many films cynically released in the immediate run up to GG and Oscars, for those who only go to the movies occasionally it's worth being able to sort the wheat from the chaff. Bums on seats from start to finish are a good indicator.
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Most of us will remember "Eat Pray Love", starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, based on the best selling 'chick-lit' of the same name. The trailer was extremely well edited. It turned out to be a dreadful, boring film. On opening night, of an audience of about 250 people, around 30 people left the showing I went to - and most of them women. I stopped counting when it got to 15. I was at the back by the door, so saw/counted them leave. The couple in front of me were asleep. I mention these facts in my review. Time Out's reviewer, Joshua Rothkopf awarded it 4 stars - quickly and unusually withdrawn after complaints to Dave Calhoun.
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I saw "Battle: Los Angeles" on opening night a few nights ago. It was okay. I stuck it out, but the fairly predictable final battle scene was long and pretty boring. Despite only having another 10-15 minutes to run, couples started to leave. It was a Friday evening, at a showing that was due to finish around 11pm - so not late and not followed by a typical work day.
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Given the vast amount of money that goes into courting professional reviewers, and endless advertising to try and assure the public a film's good when sometimes not, I like Time Out's site because audience reviews will substantiate professional reviews if accurate, and bury the film if it not - despite the film industry often clambering in and leaving misleading 4/5 star reviews when a film opens to bump up ratings. See "The Headless Woman", reviewed by TO's David Jenkins, and "A Serious Man" reviewed by TO's "Ben Walters" for details, and audience reaction.
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If a film is flawed, and you can justify those flaws in a reasonable 'audience review', I don't think it's unreasonable to mention the numbers who left. I've noticed other reviewers do the same - particularly when a film has been given a particularly high and unwarranted star rating. I consider it a warning to myself and others that the film's not all it's cracked up to be. As I say, there are plenty of films where audiences don't leave screenings. I don't spend time writing an audience review of a film if I feel the rating the reviewer gave it mirrors mine - within a star either way. However, when they're seriously adrift I justify my opinions.
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You've worked in the film industry - I haven't. We review films from two perspectives - mine usually being caution to those who might see films that I feel have been rated too high. Posted on Mar 13 2011 04:56 - Report as inappropriate
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- Live from the Oscars said...
- And the winner is .... not True Grit (not even one Oscar). Posted on Feb 28 2011 01:06
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- Dave said...
- @Mike: Yea, well, that's just like, your opinion man. Posted on Feb 26 2011 20:33
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- sally said...
- This True Grit is a magnificent experience- TRULY TRULY GREAT- performances , cinematography , beautifully scripted- simply SUPERB Posted on Feb 25 2011 15:32
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- Mike said...
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I’m surprised reviewers are describing this film as a career high. Exactly two weeks after the film opened, audience reviews have given this film an average of 3 stars versus gushing the 5 stars from TO. Main audience complaints seem to be poor and unrealistic script, Jeff Bridges being virtually inaudible, frequent appalling continuity lapses, a not particularly great choice of actors, and a plain poor storyline.
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As someone said on the main review page, the Cohen brothers could film a trip round Tescos and ‘luvvies’ would fall about laughing. I agree. There’s an element of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ about the Cohens.
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Though gushed over by Time Out and other critics, “A Serious Man” disappeared off the film circuit quickly, as did “Burn After Reading”, likewise their appalling remake of the classic “The Ladykillers”. “Fargo” was consistently mildly amusing, but no classic. (Yes, Frances McDormand was good, but not great, in the same way Gwyneth Paltrow was okay but not great in “Shakespeare in Love” but still surprisingly won an Oscar – there are some years when quality is thin on the ground.) I was stunned to read the Cohens are now having a stab at remaking the classic Shirley MacLaine/Michael Caine film “Gambit”. Strewth. Have they no original ideas left?
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The only film they’ve made that was original and genuinely funny from start to finish has been “Intolerable Cruelty”, though I couldn’t help feeling Clooney and Zeta Jones had a natural head start on their characters hence their casting. That’s one film from a score of others – and the Cohen’s didn’t write it – they picked it up as its making had fallen through in the mid-nineties.
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Remakes of a previously popular film are a cheat – you have a head start with a story that has proved popular, so you just need to add a few twists to get the reviewers interested. Likewise, Jo and Josephine Public are likely to go see a reasonably well reviewed remake out of sheer curiosity, providing there’s not much else on. Remakes rarely succeed, and judging by my own feelings on “True Grit”, let alone average audience ratings, and scathing audience comments on the main Time Out review page, I don’t hold out much hope for the Cohens’ “Gambit”. The Cohens’ “True Grit” is not a classic. Posted on Feb 24 2011 01:37 - Report as inappropriate
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