RIP Charles Portis

[bruto]

Most notably the author of True Grit, but he wrote a small number of other things, also pretty good fun. But True Grit is surely a classic, worth a read even if you've seen both of the movies.

 

[Trebuchet]

Most notably the author of True Grit, but he wrote a small number of other things, also pretty good fun. But True Grit is surely a classic, worth a read even if you've seen both of the movies.

Also wrote Norwood, which like True Grit was made into a movie with Kim Darby and Glen Campbell.

 

[rockinkt]

“That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.”

 

[Ranb]

Right before the 2010 version came out, I watched the original version of the movie on TV, then read the book. Lots of grit that month.

Book was good, 2010 movie was superior to the 1969 original.

Ranb

 

[bruto]

Right before the 2010 version came out, I watched the original version of the movie on TV, then read the book. Lots of grit that month.

Book was good, 2010 movie was superior to the 1969 original.

Ranb

I agree, even though the original was not bad either. It's been a while since I saw either one, but I did much the same, watching both and rereading the book together. The later movie, I think, does a better job of keeping us in mind that this is essentially an enactment of Mattie Ross's tale, told long after the event. But to get the voice right, you pretty much need the book.

 

[Ranb]

.... But to get the voice right, you pretty much need the book.

I'll say this, if I hadn't read the book I would have needed subtitles to figure out what Cogburn was saying during the trial scene.

The 1969 was movie was entertaining; it was about a federal marshal who let a girl tag along while he hunted her father's murderer. The book was about a girl who hunted down her dad's murder with the assistance of a marshal she hired. No way John Wayne was going to play 2nd fiddle to Kim Darby.

 

[dudalb]

I'll say this, if I hadn't read the book I would have needed subtitles to figure out what Cogburn was saying during the trial scene.

The 1969 was movie was entertaining; it was about a federal marshal who let a girl tag along while he hunted her father's murderer. The book was about a girl who hunted down her dad's murder with the assistance of a marshal she hired. No way John Wayne was going to play 2nd fiddle to Kim Darby.

The 1969 movie was fun and a really good Western,but the 2010 version is even better and much closer to the novel.

"Fill Your Hand, You Son Of A Bitch!".

That is one of the nice things about the novel, Portis actually tried to make his charecters talk the way people talked in the 1870's west.

 

[bruto]

The 1969 movie was fun and a really good Western,but the 2010 version is even better and much closer to the novel.

"Fill Your Hand, You Son Of A Bitch!".

That is one of the nice things about the novel, Portis actually tried to make his charecters talk the way people talked in the 1870's west.

In some ways yes, but I always thought that one of the interesting things about the story is that most of the time, everyone speaks in the slightly stilted manner of Matty, because the story itself is her own years-later recollection.

 

[dudalb]

In some ways yes, but I always thought that one of the interesting things about the story is that most of the time, everyone speaks in the slightly stilted manner of Matty, because the story itself is her own years-later recollection.

A lot of the slang and expressions the charecters use is direct from the 1870's. Portis did his homework.
Only other film that tries that to a degree was "Tombstone" 9'You will be a daisy if you do "and it did not do it consistnelty or as well as True Grit did.