Sicario (2015)

Sicario is an excellent new crime thriller currently in theaters. The main star is Emily Blunt, I enjoyed her performance in last year's Edge of Tomorrow. She plays an FBI agent who teams with Josh Brolin and Benecio del Torio to take down a Mexican drug lord. The scenes on the streets and on the roads in Juarez Mexico are very realistic and impressed me. I was reminded of the time years ago when I was in El Paso and crossed the border into Juarez; I didn't come across anything as dangerous as what was shown in the movie but certainly it could have happened. I love how the film is edited and shot by cinematography Roger Deakins; he creates so many great compositions that I want to see the movie again just to watch the photography. There is a great deal of mystery behind an apparent family man, who appears only from behind at the beginning of the film, but may be a dirty cop -- or someone else we're not expecting him to be.

The Goonies (1985)

Last Thursday night I went to a free Park District screening of The Goonies, a movie that I have never seen before. A recent discussion on the Lambcast about this movie piqued my interest in seeing it; it sounded really cool. For a free movie, it wasn't a bad deal! Some of the dialogue was a bit hard to hear so I may need to watch the film again, but I loved the adventure through the underground caves with all the booby traps. Really cool stuff. For the most part the film holds up well with the exception of a few 80s references, and the fact that no one uses cell phones (I always seem to notice that when watching movies of the 80s and 90s...not so much the 1970s or earlier).  The host of the event made a little announcement before the movie started: "This movie is celebrating its 30th anniversary!" Sigh! Has it really been that long? And to think, 30 years prior to 1985 was 1955, which feels like 100 years ago.

True Grit (2010)

For my review of the 1969 classic, click here

What It's About:
In the 1870s, 14-year old Mattie Ross (Hallie Steinfeld) travels to the town where her father was killed - Fort Smith, Arkansas - and hires a whiskey-drinking US Marshall (Jeff Bridges) to bring the killer (Josh Brolin) to justice. The two are joined by a Texas ranger LaBeef (Matt Damon) and they all travel through the wilderness on horseback to find the drifter.

My Take (some spoilers ahead):
I was really looking forward to seeing this movie ever since I saw this awesome trailer ---

If they gave Oscars for Best Trailer - this one should win, hands down!! And I was not disappointed when I saw it on opening night. Jeff Bridges really is the perfect choice I think to play this character. I wonder if he ever met John Wayne through his dad; I'm thinking that Lloyd Bridges and Wayne did some pictures together, but I can't think of any at the moment. Will have to look this up.

I don't think it's unfair to call this 2010 movie a "remake" of the original. That's what everyone is calling it. The directors of the new film, Joel and Ethan Coen, would like us to believe that this a retelling of the novel. It is, but I'm sure they watched the original film at some point, and thought to themselves how they can improve. My library had a copy of the original novel, so I was able to read through and compare some of the parts with the written page.

Hallie Steinfeld and Barry Pepper, both deliver
Oscar-worthy performances

The scenes in the new film play out in almost the same order as the first film, with a few minor dramatic liberties.

If you've seen the first movie, much will be familiar - LaBeef spanks Mattie after she crosses the river on Little Blackie, just like in the first film, and Cogburn still calls him a "brushpopper". Jeff Bridges doesn't say, "She reminds me of me" but you know he's thinking that. And the iconic climax still has Cogburn taking the reins in his teeth, charging up against Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and three others (just as the book describes). I even wondered if this scene was filmed in the same field as the '69 film. It wasn't; it looks just like it.

The Coens add some interesting new elements with this version, which was co-produced by Steven Spielberg. They cast an age-appropriate actress for the part of head strong Mattie, and Hallie Steinfeld is very impressive. I'd like to see her get nominated for an Oscar. Barry Pepper is also excellent, as is the rest of the supporting cast.

John Carradine?

There are a few new interesting characters in this version, including a snoring "Grandma Turner", who we don't get to see in the original. There is also a medicine man who seems to be channeling the great character actor John Carradine. I really enjoyed these new elements, and was expecting such from a remake/retelling.

We also get to see an older version of Mattie (Elizabeth Marvel) at the end, and we learn that she loses her arm (it's not just broken like in the 1969 version). This ending is faithful to the book. LaBeef lives in the end, just as it's written (he dies in the '69 movie version).

I only wish the final scenes lasted a bit longer; the ending seemed to go by very fast after the final climatic sequence. I would have liked to have seen more scenes with this older Mattie character. In fact, I imagined what this story might be like as a 3 or 4-part TV miniseries. Seriously. If the Coens can add a bearskin-clad medicine man character and make him entertaining, why not have Cogburn and Mattie meet some other characters along the way? Show some flashbacks of Cogburn at the Green Frog. Bring back General Sterling Price, the cat!

Some of my favorite parts of the older movie - the scene in Chen's store and the dinner scene in the boarding house - are not in the new film (though the set designers did put in a deck of cards near Cogburn's bed). I recall reading a magazine article where the Coens said they didn't want to slow the film with scenes they felt were unnecessary. That must have included any scenes with Mattie back at home talking with her father before he gets killed.

Sideburns alert! With this outfit, you'll
think Matt Damon just stepped out of a
1960s western and into this picture!

A few things bothered me about the new version, but they weren't enough to spoil my enjoyment of the picture. For one, Bridges' mumbling is hard to understand at times. When this comes out on DVD I'll have to watch it again with "Subtitles: English" turned on. One of my friends thought he was channelling the "Karl Childers" character from Sling Blade.

Also he doesn't say how he lost his eye like in the first film (if he did, I missed it through the mumbling).

Another scene that struck me in a negative way was when Blackie dies and Cogburn goes to pick up Mattie - to me it almost looked like he was going to rape her, which would have been a bit of a disturbing deviation from the original story; thankfully that's not where that went. Also I thought Cogburn would have dropped dead from a heart attack after all that running and huffing and puffing after Blackie dies. The original movie showed them on a wagon for much of the way back, which is more faithful to the book.

In both films, Mattie watches a public execution / hanging in the beginning. In the book, several white men and one Indian is hung, and each of the three give their last public words. The 1969 does not feature any their last words nor the Indian. The 2010 version keeps the Indian and the last words of the two white men, but the last words of the Indian are "not allowed"; a black sack is placed on his head before he can say anything. But according to the novel, the last words of the Indian are: "I have repented my sins and soon I will be in heaven with Christ my savior. Now I must die like a man." Because this was eliminated, I'm not sure if the Coens were trying to express a message about the racism of the time, or to avoid the Christian testimony - which may have confused audiences - or both. Several people laughed at this scene, perhaps thinking this was Coen Brothers' dark humor at work.

Seems like both movie versions were trying to avoid some sort of controversy and failed to be faithful to the novel during this hanging scene.

I think if you liked the original movie, or if you just like westerns, you will enjoy this picture.

The music score by Carter Burwell is wonderful. It's a shame he is ineligible for an Oscar, simply because some of the arrangements borrow a few bars of the song "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", which is my favorite Gospel hymn.

I found some samples of the tracks online. These are from great moments in the movie:




This is "Little Blackie's" (Mattie's horse's) theme. This is played when Mattie goes to the stable:

This is the music played during the climatic "Fill Your Hands!" scene. Very exciting!

Read an essay comparing both films by Entertainment Weekly's Owen Glieberman