True Grit - quotespam (novel) & picspam (film)
People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood, but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.
Isn’t that a great opening sentence? So begins the endlessly quotable 1968 Charles Portis novel, about a girl who pursues her father’s killer through Oklahoma territory in the 1870s. If anyone’s read my bio they know this is one of my favorite books. Often classified as a western, True Grit actually busts the tropes and conventions of that genre wide open. It manages to tell a captivating and humorous story without once romanticizing or idealizing the American West. If anything, the book de-romanticizes it.
The recent Cohen brothers film adaptation has brought a lot of attention back to the original novel, to which the 2010 version was much more faithful in spirit than was the 1969 John Wayne version. One of the things that people have been talking about a lot recently is the unique language of the film, which was lifted straight from the pages of the novel, and is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the story, imo. I just love the overly stylized, very Biblical, ornate, and formal language, and how it seems almost to clash with the wild and dangerous setting of the lawless, untamed frontier. That paradox more than anything else, I think, hints at the nature of frontier life. That Portis manages to do this with both humor and gravitas is amazing. Don't just take my word for it. See below for yourself.
Mama was never any good at sums and she could hardly spell cat. I do not boast of my own gifts in that direction. Figures and letters are not everything. Like Martha I have always been agitated and troubled by the cares of the day but my mother had a serene and loving heart. She was like Mary and had chosen “that good part.”
[Mattie, on being offered spirits:] “I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”
At the city police station we found two officers but they were having a fist fight and were not available for inquiries.
I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? Some preachers will say, well, that is superstitious “claptrap.” My answer is this: Preacher, go to your Bible and read Luke 8:26-33.
On his deathbed he asked for a priest and became a Catholic That was his wife’s religion. It was his own business and none of mine. If you had sentenced one hundred and sixty men to death and seen around eighty of them swing, then maybe at the last minute you would feel the need of some stronger medicine than the Methodists could make. It is something to think about.
The newspaper editors are great ones for reaping where they have not sown.
[Judge Parker:] “I must insist that the cross-examination take the form of questions and answers instead of dramatic soliloquies.”
[Rooster Cogburn:] “You can’t serve papers on a rat, baby sister.”
[Mattie Ross:] “I never said you could.”
[Rooster Cogburn:]” These shitepoke lawyers think you can but you can’t.”
I also read a little book someone had left on the table called Bess Calloway’s Disappointment. It was about a girl in England who could not make up her mind whether to marry a rich man with a pack of dogs named Alec or a preacher. She was a pretty girl in easy circumstances who did not have to cook or work at anything and she could have either one she wanted. She made trouble for herself because she would never say what she meant but only blush and talk around it. She kept everybody in a stir wondering what she was driving at. That was what held your interest. Grandma Turner and I both enjoyed it. I had to read the humorous parts twice. Bess married one of the two beaus and he turned out to be mean and thoughtless. I forget which one it was.
[LaBeouf:] “He dallied in Monroe, Louisiana, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, before turning up at your father’s place.”
[Mattie:]” Why did you not catch him in Monroe, Louisiana, or Pine Bluff, Arkansas?”
[LaBeouf:] “He is a crafty one.”
[Mattie:] “I thought him slow-witted myself.”
[LaBeouf:] “That was his act.”[Mattie:] “It was a good one.”
[LaBeouf:] “Criminal investigation is sordid and dangerous and is best left in the hands of men who know the work.”
[Mattie:] “I suppose that is you. Well, if in four months I could not find Tom Chaney with a mark on his face like banished Cain I would not undertake to advise others how to do it.”
[LaBeouf:] “Earlier tonight I gave some thought to stealing a kiss from you, though you are very young, and sick and unattractive to boot, but now I am of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.”
[Mattie:] “One would be as unpleasant as the other. Put a hand on me and you will answer for it.”
[Rooster Cogburn:] “I should have put a ball in that boy’s head instead of his collarbone. I was thinking about my fee. You will sometimes let money interfere with your notion of what is right.”
[Mattie:] “The good Christian does not flinch from difficulties.”
[Colonel Stonehill:] “Neither does he rashly court them. The good Christian is not willful or presumptuous.”
[Mattie:] “You think I am wrong.”
[Colonel Stonehill:] “I think you are wrong-headed.”
[Mattie:] “We will see.”
[Colonel Stonehill:] “Yes, I am afraid so.”
[Mattie:] “I don’t like the way you look and I don’t like the way you are cutting up that turkey. I hope you go to jail. My lawyer will not help you.”
“Quincy was always square with me,” said Moon. “He never played me false until he killed me.”
I had not the strength nor the inclination to bandy words with a drunkard. What have you done when you have bested a fool?
You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.
So much for the novel. How did the 2010 film bring these words to life? Just take a look:
So, yeah. If Deakins doesn't win for cinematography I'll be... confused.