Remake

I have managed to actually watch two movies in the past two Sundays.  Let me explain that I don't watch many movies.  If I had to take a survey about the number of movies I see in a year they would have to create a new check box.  Mine would be somewhere at the top and would probably look like this:  0-3.
Okay...maybe it would be 0-5.  I might need to adjust it since I've already seen two already in two weeks.
The thing about these two movies on two Sundays is that it was the same movie.  So does that count as one movie seen twice?  No, not really.  I would have to say they were two movies.  One movie was produced recently and one was produced back in 1976.
I saw the most recent one at the movies last week with Jay.  He is a fan of westerns and there aren't many of those being made any more.  If there were I would probably have to adjust my survey meter a bit again.
So I didn't mind when he suggest last week that we go and check out the remake of this movie.  It, of course, was True Grit.  It would be easy enough to figure out if you are not like me and actually know what is showing at the movies.  I don't believe there are many other westerns...but then I don't really know, do I? 
Jay, like many others, is a great John Wayne fan.  He has probably seen all or as close to all of the movies he has made including extremely early titles that no one heard of before they marketed the poor things on DVD (or was it VHS) and made the only money they could from them there.  So he has seen quite a few John Wayne movies.  As we came out of the theatre from the remade movie I could have predicted his comment but I waited for him to say it on his own.  I didn't have to wait long.  We hadn't even gotten into the car and he already had said, "It was good...but it wasn't John Wayne."  Gads, how predictable!
And that's okay.  I actually enjoyed the movie.
Then yesterday we were able to download the John Wayne version...the original...and watch it.  The script was almost the same.  There were blocks of dialogue that matched word for word.  There were some minor differences but the remake stayed very true to the original.  The action seemed much more focused in the newer version.  It moved right along and kept the intensity.  I think in the old version I saw too many wide shots of riders on horseback with panoramic views.  In fact, at one point, Jay asked during one of these scenes in the original..."Doesn't that look kind of like the same scenery from the remake?"  My reply was, "I don't remember a whole lot of these scenes in the new movie.  I didn't know we were watching the travel channel."
So the original seemed longer since things didn't move along as well.  But both were very good.  I am not saying either/or although there were just a few differences that might be accountable to the fact that movies aren't made the same way as they were before.  Times and the way we do things change.
My take is that the main character is Rooster Cogburn.  John Wayne played Rooster as John Wayne.  Jeff Bridges played Rooster as Rooster.  I preferred Bridges.  Hands down not a second thought about it.  He was a dirty, drunken, trigger happy, rough old guy.  He was Rooster Cogburn.
So, it was a good two movies.  And who would I have preferred to go on this rough, tough, dirty hunt with?  Jeff Bridges any day...bet he cleans up real good.
TT