Movie Review: True Grit

Sometimes a film comes around that does exactly what you want it to do, "True Grit" is one of these films. I've seen the film twice now, and I love it the more I think about it. The film is a remake of an old John Wayne western, a film I saw when I was a child, I remember it didn't have much of an impact on me, I enjoyed John Wayne and I still do, but even then I knew this wasn't his best film.

This new film is directed by The Coen Brothers, the greatest filmmakers working today, they are at the peak of their powers. Although this can't be described as a true Coen Brothers film, it's taken from Charles Portis' much loved novel and like they did with Cormac McCarthy, they embraced the language and the characters and made them come alive.

The story is a simple one, a young girl Mattie Ross (14 year old Hailee Steinfeld) wants to find Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) the man who murdered her father in cold blood. She gets the help from Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) the meanest Marshall in the county and one she hears has true grit. Rooster wants to go alone, but Mattie insists on coming, much to his dismay. They are accompanied on their journey by La Beuf (Matt Damon)a Texas Ranger who has been hunting Chaney for another crime he's committed.

Speaking merely as a spectator of "True Grit", I was touched by the film, that may sound strange seeing that the film is basically an action western, but the mood of the film, the playfulness of the characters, and ultimately the heroic choices made by all of them made this probably the most enjoyable experience I had at the movies.

I suspect the true grit intended in the title doesn't just mean Rooster's character, but also Mattie and La Beuf, each one has their own faults, but when the cards are on the table, they come out to shine, the Coens celebrate these characters, they have a strong affection to them.

Much of the magic of the film also comes from the production team behind the film, which include cinematographer Roger Deakins who is sure to get an Oscar nomination for his work and damned if he doesn't win. The nighttime ride between Rooster and Mattie that climaxes the film is one of the most beautiful moments in modern film, it's also a wonderful homage to "Night of the Hunter".

The film also couldn't be the same without the wonderful music of Carter Burwell, his music is probably the most gorgeous he's made with The Coens and the most expressive of the time and place since "Miller's Crossing".

I think it was something pure in "True Grit" that struck a chord with me, it reminded me why I go to the movies in the first place, why my feelings for them haven't changed since I was a kid. Movies have the power to move you more than any other artform, I was enchanted by the world of "True Grit", I loved being with the characters and seeing their stoic heroism in the face of adversity, the uncommon decency when it was needed the most. Few films do that anymore, basically I just wanted to see it again so I could feel that way I did. In my mind, "True Grit" is an instant classic and should be on repeated viewing for people who have forgotten about the power of the movies.

True Grit

More on True Grit Later, but it probably has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years, enjoy this.

The Thin Red Line

How to describe my feelings towards a movie like "A Thin Red Line", or my feelings towards a filmmaker like Terrence Malick. Needless to say, "A Thin Red Line" is a special kind of film and a film that could only exist in the mind of its creator.

I've watched the film four times now, and each time I feel like I'm getting a grasp about what it really means to me personally. It's the work of a philosophical mind, it seems to be a war film trying to ask questions not only about the waist of war, (as one character says "it's all about property")it seems to beg the question about humans in relation to nature and finding transcendence from this world unto the next. Unlike most war films, which deal with the grimy realism and horror of being in the trenches, this film reaches more for meaning of it all and if meaning could ever be reached.

"The Thin Red Line" works on a grande scale and employs many characters to convey its story. It's inspired by the novel of the same name written by James Jones 1962 novel about the campaign to overtake the Guadalcanal during world war 2. I have never read the book so I'm not sure how faithful Malick is to it, but that is neither here nor there, film is its own artform, and this is more Malick's voice than Jones.

The first person we meet and get to know is Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) a soldier who we learn has gone AWOL, he has taken a liking to the native people and has run off to join them. He is found by his platoon and saved from his first Sergeant Walsh (Sean Penn). Walsh is a hard cynical person but he seems to have a soft spot for Witt, or perhaps he is just fascinated by him. Witt seems to have inherited a spiritual philosophy on the whole war, he exclaims it by finding a spark or a light in the darkness. Walsh represents the other end of the spectrum, he doesn't believe such things exist in war and could not be achieved. Walsh and Witt to me resemble the argument Malick intends to make with this film.

There are other primary characters as well, there is a colonel (Nick Nolte) who has seen himself passed over time and time again for promotion and is determined to take Guadalcanal at all costs. There is the sensitive captain (Elias Koteas) who's in charge of his men, but doesn't want to sacrifice them in order to take the hill. There are other soldiers in the outfit, many whom we see throughout the film, some of them have scenes that are fleeting, some are played by unknowns, others are played by some well-known stars, yet Malick makes them less as characters, but more of an organic whole.

One of the primary questions Malick asks in the film is if there is in fact a connection between people, he shows it through the experiences of the soldiers many of which speak in voice over that sounds poetic. Many of the soldiers sound the same like they all come from the same place, sometimes it's as if what they are saying relates to everyone in the film, like they are speaking for the whole world.

When I first saw the film, I was confused by it, I wasn't used to its style, it was the first Malick film I saw, and I thought it to be the work of a poet rather than a filmmaker, I didn't get the intense close-ups of the long strains of grass, or the light shining through a leaf, but I understand it better. This isn't a conventional war film, if anything it tells more about our place in the universe, it depicts war as hell, but it also depicts that perhaps we can rise above it. In fact perhaps it could be thought of as the most optimistic anit-war film ever made. Most war films leave you with a message that war can lead to nothing good, but Malick's film is about finding that transcendence, perhaps it's possible, perhaps it's not, it comes down to if you're more a Walsh or a Witt, whether you believe that the Earth is nothing but a rock that we live on, or if there is that little spark we must cling to to reach a state of nirvana.

"The Thin Red Line" was only the third film Malick made, and it was twenty years since his last film "Days of Heaven" which is one of the greatest photographed films of all time. Malick doesn't seem to be concerned with conventional story telling, he seems to find his movie in the editing room where he can fit his images together into a poetic whole. He is a unique voice in the world of cinema, his films need a chance to breath, to be sucked it, he is thoughtful in his approach, he begs to asks questions, perhaps ones that can's be answered in this world, but it makes things worth while when they are at least asked.

Manhattan

Despite its name, Woody Allen's "Manhattan" isn't just a love letter to the city he holds so dear. "Manhattan" is a love letter to love, why we love being in love, why we hate it, why we keep doing it. It has to do with the mistakes we make about love, the regrets, the wisdom it brings, and the heartache. This is all examined in New York, a city that is depicted in movies more times than any other city. New York seems to mean different things to different people, but to Woody Allen it encompasses whatever you want it to be, that's the magic of the city.

The film begins with a voice over of Allen dictating a story idea, he's trying to describe what New York means to him, as he's talking we are treated with various shots of the city, all in black and white filmed by Gordon Willis who shot many of Allen's films as well as "The Godfather". The shots are accompanied by the music of George Gershwin, it gives you the pure romantic idea of New York City, it has never looked better on film.

We are introduced to Allen's character, he plays Isaac a middle aged intellectual living in New York working as a comedy writer. Isaac is dating Tracey (Mariel Hemingway), a 17 year old drama student, she is young, yet we get the feeling she is wise beyond her years. At the very start Isaac doesn't know what he's doing with Tracey, he's 42, she's 17, he's convinced it can't last.

Meanwhile Isaac's married friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has started having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton), a pushy, opinionated, intellectual who Isaac dismisses almost right away. Yet time passes, Isaac and Mary meet at a party and get to talking more. There is an instant rapport with them, they spend more time together. Soon Yale's marriage gets in the way and he decides to stop seeing Mary. She leans on Isaac for comfort; Isaac sees Mary as a woman who is now available who he falls for, she is more practical for him, she's closer to his age and someone who he feels a connection with. He convinces himself that Tracey isn't the girl for him, she has her whole life ahead of her, so he decides to let her go to pursue Mary, yet Tracey is devastated, she is sincerely hurt by Isaac's rejection, never the less, Isaac begins to see Mary, but it becomes far more complicated than that since these are real human beings we are working with.

Watching "Manhattan" again after so many times, I looked at it somewhat differently, at first I always thought that Isaac and Mary were never in love, that it was just a fleeting thing, yet Allen makes their relationship at times very romantic. I am now convinced that they were in love no matter if it was fleeting or not. Tracey of course becomes the girl that Isaac longs for at the end, yet these are the universal complications love brings. Isaac probably was in love with Mary, even though some may argue that she was the practical choice since she was so close to the same age, yet there are tender loving moments they share together, that are mirrored by Isaac and Tracey. I would argue the two most romantic moments in the film are when Isaac and Mary share a walk around New York, and the scene with them in the planetarium where there is an attraction both of them don't admit only to hide their real feelings through intellectual double talk.

The other person hopelessly in love is Yale who still has feelings for Mary, as she does for him, but can it be possible for people to love someone else at the same time, this is what I think Allen explores. The characters in Allen's films all look at the world in an intellectual point of view, and he excels at this type of world being able to capture the shared nuances but also the hypocritical behaviour they all share. Allen deals with these people as real human beings who all seem to have trouble getting over their own neurosis in order to be happy. The only one who seems to know what she wants is Tracey, probably because throughout the film she's the one who remains the most pure and innocent, and you can tell Allen loves these kind of people, she isn't corrupted, and the film ends in a cautious optimistic moment where she tells Isaac "you just got to have a little faith in people." It ends with Allen giving a small smile, at first I always thought this was a cautious smile a hint that he doesn't quite swallow what Tracey is saying, now when I see it, it's almost as if he's smiling at her since she is probably the only person in the film who would say something like that to him. In hindsight, I'd say the ending is the time Isaac looks more happy than he had in the entire film.

Looking at "Manhattan" now, I'm more in awe of it than I ever, there were small moments I had never noticed before such as Allen's sighing when he's dictating in his tape recorder things that make life worth living and he remembers Tracey's smile, there's also Mariel Hemingway's soft crying as she is told by Isaac he no longer wants to see her. As Mary, Diane Keaton gives a sort of anti-Annie Hall performance, Mary is more needy, and more neurotic than she was in that other masterpiece of Allen's, her break-up scene with Yale just shows just how good of an actress she is.

Along with the moments I've just noticed, there are of course the moments I have never forgotten such as the scene in the planetarium with Isaac and Mary, Gordon Willis outdoes himself with some of these shots, some of which show them as if they are in space talking among the stars and the planets. The conversation becomes about the universe and the scene with the two actors mostly in shadow becomes very romantic.

"Manhattan" is among Allen's best films, it encompasses much of what he explores over and over again, yet only a few times has it been this perfect, other instances would be with "Annie Hall", and "Hannah and her Sisters". "Manhattan" was made when Allen still had that little faith in people, he would struggle with his optimism but that's what made his films so endearing, lately he's gotten hard and cynical, pointing more and more to the meaningless of life, I hope he finds that faith again that Tracey was talking about.

Metropolis

There have been few films that have reached the now legendary status of “Metropolis”; a film which has been available in many versions throughout the years is now almost fully complete. As if by some miracle, twenty-five minutes of footage thought lost was found in 2008 and restored for the first time for all the world to see. The find is considered to be one of the most significant in cinema history; and it was unveiled for the first time last year, and is now available on DVD.

I first saw one version of “Metropolis” when I was very young, probably about 15 or 16 maybe even younger. It was in rather shabby condition, I don’t remember the running time, but many scenes that were available were missing on my version, it also omitted the spectacular original musical score by Gottfried Huppertz, as well as the influential state of the art opening credit montage.

I actually didn’t know what I was missing until only two years ago when I saw “Metropolis” for the first time on DVD on a large screen in a friend’s film class. The film struck me as operatic and epic in scope. Everything about it was big and wonderous. Fritz Lang’s vision of the future hasn’t really changed much in film’s today, he mapped out the destination for all science fiction films to follow.

Seeing “Metropolis” now in its most completed form (Only two scenes are still missing from the original product) it is now more spectacular than ever. It is more complete, it flows more smoothly. There were some cases where a couple of shots were missing in a sequence, while there are others where the sequences themselves have been fully restored, but they now give you the full “Metropolis” experience, at least the fullest one we can hope for for now. Much of the newly found footage has been damaged beyond repair, the scenes still look grainy, but at least it’s still there.

The theme of “Metropolis” is very blunt, it has to do with the battle of the class system. The Metropolis of the title is a huge futuristic city, but it is run from the underground by working class people. The workers trudge away in long hours working the mighty machines, while the higher class people live above in luxery. The son of the founder of the city is Freder, who goes sees what life really is like for the workers underneath. The workers are becoming fed up and threaten to revolt against their boss unless they are treated better; their spiritual leader is Maria (Brigitte Helm) a saintly woman who preaches that some day a mediator will come and bring both classes together.

Freder’s father hears of this revolution and hatches a plan with a mad scientist to kidnap Maria. The scientist does so and uses her image to copy onto a new robot that he has just invented. The robot takes over the place of Maria and tells the workers to revolt.

“Metropolis” is anything but subtle, especially in its allegories of the tower of Babel and the seven deadly sins, each of which come alive in some form or another, but “Metropolis” is more a film about cinematic ideas, and about new ways of storytelling. It is one of the greatest of all silent films, and perhaps the one that most people are familiar with not counting the comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

The film came near the end of silent film and the period known as German expressionism, it’s director was Fritz Lang, thought by many to be a tyrant; however no one can deny that he wasn’t a visionary. Lang’s films always have a dark underbelly, in this case it was a fear of mob rule as the workers unite under the orders of the phony Maria, thus they almost destroy themselves in the process. Lang’s cinema has always been unique, he would go on to create some of the great film noirs in history when he moved to Hollywood, but “Metropolis” is an entity unto itself, it’s his most ambitious and epic film, it stands the test of time, it shows filmmakers today what great imagination and vision can accomplish. “Metropolis” is a great film, and it’s great to finally see it to its full glory.