As I posted before, I watched the remake of True Grit in March. Towards the end of April, I checked the original out from my library. This is the one with John Wayne. I don't know that it was inherently better than the remake, but I know my Grandpa would have thought so. And it made me wish I was watching it with him.
I was a little surprised how closely the remake followed the original. Sure there were differences (the stereotyping of the Chinese shopkeeper in the original was blatant, but the Cogburn in the remake seemed more racist overall), but they were not wildly different.
Generally, I preferred John Wayne to Jeff Bridges (slightly), Hailee Steinfeld to the original's Kim Darby (by a long shot) and surprisingly I found it a toss up between Matt Damon and Glenn Campbell as La Boeuf. I liked the setting in the remake better than the original, it seemed grittier, more realistic. However, this may say more about the time periods when the movies were produced than how things really looked in the old West. If pressed, I'd have to say I enjoyed the remake more, but in the back of my mind I can hear my Grandpa disagreeing. Maybe it's just because I saw that one first.
Anyway, True Grit certainly qualifies as a classic in my book. I may need to read the novel now.
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