Thoughts on TCM

[movieman1957]

Nancy, it is all on me.

If worse comes to worse then we still have the Taylor Film Festival this spring or summer.

[knitwit45]

Okay! Is Leslie Caron going to stop by? Oh, well, we can watch Gigi....

[movieman1957]

With Leslie Caron who needs "GIgi"?

[MissGoddess]

I hope there's going to be a MALE guest star as well? I need a Robert Ryan, Clark Gable or John Wayne or I'm going to be spending too much time with the vino consoling myself.

[movieman1957]

You pick!

[Rita Hayworth]

I hope you get to watch THE HANGING TREE on TCM tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. (EST). It's extremely rare and quite interesting I think. I enjoy True Grit though I haven't seen the remake yet. I'll have to rent it when it comes to DVD. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is my favorite John Wayne western...and my favorite western period. Please keep posting and let us know more of your favorites!

Miss Goodness - I loved it read my post regarding The Hanging Tree - In the Western Section of this Forum

[mrsl]

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Movieman 1957:

Chris, you might want to get a printed review of the new True Grit before doing a solo to see it. I understand that although it has the same name, and some of the same scenarios, much of it is a completely different story from the original. It has to do with the story being given from two different points of view, and thus making it seem like a totally new movie. Unfortunately last week Jeff Bridges was a guest on either Dave or Jay and the clip they used was the carbon copy of the ride across the meadow to meet with the gunslingers by John Wayne/Jeff Bridges, reins in teeth and yelling "fill your hands". Once again, as great as Jeff is, and as much as I admire his acting talents (loads), he could have ridden in on his head if he wanted to because doing it exactly like the Duke, is nothing more than a copy. Once you've viewed that scene with Wayne, you don't need to see it again with anybody else, because the Duke is etched in your brain, and nobody can replace it.

Welcome Kingme, glad to have you aboard, your favorites are also mine - Westerns, war and action.
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[movieman1957]

Thanks Anne. I've read several reviews and spoken to some people. I know it follows the book (which I have not read) than Wayne's. Being done by the Coens and being a newer version of anything will have a different treatment.

[knitwit45]

Chris, I've seen it and it is a really good movie. You'll like it.

[klondike]

Chris, I've seen it and it is a really good movie. You'll like it.

I'll second that motion, Chris; I've been fortunate enough to have seen both versions on the big screen - at the same theatre, no less! - albeit 42 years apart, and I can firmly & truthfully declare (and you may quote me):

1) One is no better, per its individual strengths, than the other, and they both triumph on behalf of their creators, and their audience.
2) They are both big, bold, heartfelt dynamic tellings of Charles Portis' tale of justice, retribution & the costs thereof, and both of these motion pictures achieve their goals first & foremost by the total investment of their directors & screenwriters, and penultimately through the commitment they inspired in their casts.
3) As Dances with Wolves first informed us, the Frontier exists as much within, as it does outside, the Individual - and the best stories of the Old West embrace the experiences of the people involved from the inside and the outside..
4) For 40+ years, no-one but John Wayne could be pictured as US Deputy Marshal Reuben Cogburn. That has now changed, and I, as one among many, judge that nothing has been diminished, betrayed or lost.
5) No-one with a discerning mind should ever trust excerpts to do justice to the true tone or texture of a new film - it is my opinion that excerpts, or "clips", are chosen by sales research teams.

[knitwit45]

what he said!

[mrsl]

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I, too agree with all that Klondike has said. I guess I should have shut up until after seeing the Jeff B. version first, but I have for so long admired and loved the Duke, that the thought of anybody 'diminishing' any of his work (especially after the remake of the Alamo), just made me wonder, as well as having seen that particular scene so many times and considering it to be one of the things that added to his acceptability for the Oscar. Even out of context, Jeff's voice did not have the strength of fiber and amount of dismissal that the Duke's had. Now, don't dismiss me Klondike, seriously, did Jeff get the same "yeah's, - get 'em's, - go Pop's" that the Duke did? When I saw the original, nearly everyone in the theater had something to say, and that's the type of response that the Duke evoked. True Grit is my least favorite John Wayne role/movie, but that scene is one of my favorites, so my priorities are a little screwed up on this one, but it's like the feeling of the French patriotism shown during the singing of their national anthem during Casablanca, you can't help but feel - That one scene makes the whole movie worth watching.
.

[MissGoddess]

Ann---I'm similar in that it's certain scenes I like in True Grit, though the movie as a whole is not in my Top Ten John Wayne's and probably not in my top 50 westerns. I'm actually somewhat more partial to *Rooster Cogburn* simply because I love seeing Wayne with Katharine Hepburn. What a pair. Oh my.

[klondike]

Amen, and well said.
I think upon reflection, that much of what I hold dearest from The Shootist (beyond the plain fact of it being the Big Man's goodbye role) was just watching the comfort he took from being in company with Lauren Bacall.
It's hard to warm a hearth with a single andiron.

[MissGoddess]

Amen, and well said.
I think upon reflection, that much of what I hold dearest from The Shootist (beyond the plain fact of it being the Big Man's goodbye role) was just watching the comfort he took from being in company with Lauren Bacall.
It's hard to warm a hearth with a single andiron.

Another unusual and fascinating pairing, I agree.