'True Grit' offers new take on old-fashioned Western

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In Howard Means' recent history "Johnny Appleseed" (Simon & Schuster), he notes that because of the massive production of corn liquor and hard apple cider, much of the frontier population was in an "alcoholic haze." In his most famous novel, "True Grit" from 1968, Charles Portis' unadorned prose describes Rooster Cogburn as a "pitiless man who loves to pull a cork." The now 77-year-old reclusive writer is the subject of a short feature on the Blu-ray edition of Joel and Ethan Coen's recent adaptation of the story.

"True Grit" had famously been made into a film once before - in 1969 by veteran Western director Henry Hathaway, and it starred John Wayne, who won a best-actor Oscar as the hard-drinking U.S. marshal. The new version hews more closely to the spare poetry of Portis' work. Jeff Bridges plays Cogburn, hired by 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld in a memorable film debut) to settle accounts after her rancher father was gunned down by one of his hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin).

The Scripture-quoting Mattie has all the seriousness and fire of a young religious fanatic, and Rooster's tales of dispatching bad men excite her and convince her that he is a man of "true grit" who will help her avenge her father. Armed with her father's oversized revolver, Mattie and the old lawman head off to Indian country looking for Chaney. Along the way they are joined by a rather prissy Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who calls himself LaBeef and is in it

just for the reward money.

Film Westerns have always been used as a metaphor for whatever the director or studio wanted. Wayne's "True Grit" harkens back to a simplistic good-guy/bad-guy approach.

But it was released in 1969 one week after Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch," a film that helped begin deconstructing the genre. How we view the West has changed in the 42 years since those films. We are more aware that people's motivations then were much foggier - partly thanks to alcohol - than they were portrayed in the black hat and white hat days.

Today, Mattie's righteous words have a different ring to them. There is an irony in some of them that the Coens, no doubt, appreciate. The new "True Grit" is smart enough to have it both ways. It's still a rousing old-fashioned Western on one level, while without calling attention to itself gives us a picture of the Old West through a modern prism.

When Wayne played Rooster, he was playing the role of John Wayne, the actor whose image meant something on American screens for more than 30 years. No one should underestimate that. Seeing the 1969 "True Grit" recently, I was taken with just how good he really was.

But Bridges is an actor's actor, and his Rooster captures the larger-than-life Western hero.

Besides the Portis piece, there are a number of other interesting features on the new disc, including segments on costumes, guns of the era and the cinematography of the great Roger Deakins.

Downsizing drama

Deakins also shot "The Company Men," from writer-director John Wells, which follows the lives of three men on different pay scales who have been laid off from corporate jobs at a Boston-based shipbuilding conglomerate.

On the surface, the film is a fairly interesting take about the effects of downsizing and the sputtering American economy.

On the other hand, for some of us it's a little hard to relate to the situations of the three men, played by Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper. Even the lowliest of them, Affleck's hotshot salesman, was making more than $100,000, and as he looks for a job at the cut-rate salary of $80,000, his biggest problem is that he's in denial about giving up his country-club membership. Don't get me wrong, there is a story to be told in the fact that an MBA and $2 for a cup of coffee gets you a cup of coffee these days, and Wells, the showrunner of successful network TV franchises such as "ER" and "The West Wing," knows how to tell one.

Top TV series

There is a plethora of cable TV series box sets coming out before the shows return to the air this summer. The best of them are AMC's "Breaking Bad: Third Season," which everyone should know about by now, and Showtime's "The Big C: First Season." "C" stars Laura Linney as a suburban mom diagnosed with terminal cancer, who decides to get the most out of life while she can. The actress is simply terrific, and the series is sharp and funny.

Keep in mind

"The Superman Motion Picture Anthology: 1978-2006" includes all of the films from Richard Donner's first with Christopher Reeve to Bryan Singer's reboot.

"Spectacle: Season 2" is the Sundance Channel's show in which Elvis Costello interviews and performs with noteworthy musical artists like Bruce Springsteen and Bono.

A note on 3-D

There are more and more DVDs being advertised as being in 3-D. That's true as long as you have a 3-D player and TV set. Otherwise they are in 2-D, which means you have to lay out a load of cash before you can enjoy "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011: The 3D Experience."

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