I believe that is my daughter's hand coming from the right of the photo. Gave it a kind of spooky and blurry effect, I thought. This tree display is one from the museum that I visited in November. I try to visit every year.
Okay. I finished the book "True Grit." I had to look up a couple of parts, like "blue-john" and if the phrase "bust a cap" was around during that time frame. Research found the phrase being used in Civil War documentation, so there you go.
Richard from
At the Water informed me that the 1969 version of "True Grit" was showing at 7:00 Saturday evening on the
AMC channel. I searched everywhere and could not find it. I was fighting a massive migraine that hit mid-morning. The kids wanted to watch a movie after dinner/before they went bowling and I thought I would miss it. Then I remembered the
"start over" feature and decided to try that - if I could find the movie.
Well, I should have figured. It played at 8:00 my time. Richard must be in the Central Time zone. Yep. Minnesota. I should have considered this from my summer in El Paso (Mountain Time zone). All the television shows came on two hours earlier when I lived out there. All I could think of at the time was how much more sleep I would have been getting if my shows came on earlier. I think the East Coast people get less sleep because of this fact. I would say they could record the show and watch it later the next day - but who wants to do that? When everybody else at the water cooler at work knows what happened?
A HUGE thank-you to
Richard! I watched the movie. I had to cut out at the end a little (dogs must do their business) but I recorded it and plan to go back. I missed the scene where Mattie falls into the snake pit. I thought John Wayne was fantastic. I have improved my opinion of Kim Darby. Glen Campbell? All I can say is "Give me a break!"
If I were going to make a movie, I would sure as hell make my actors at least look like they existed in the time frame of the movie. The pixie hair cut that Darby wore was completely wrong - on all levels. I also caught her wearing black nylon tights. Glen Campbell's hair was hilarious for that time period. People did not bathe regular then and their clothes would have been dirty and dusty. That is why I thought Wayne looked very much the part. He looked un-kept. The women in the movie reminded me of the westerns my dad and I used to watch. They wore such a "1960-ish" hair style fashion, it was ludicrous.
I have looked at the stills and a few of the trailers on the new movie. So far, I am impressed by the fact that they do appear to look like the clothes and hairstyles were from the late 1800's. I also like the fact that they filmed in snow (not like the '69 version which placed the story in the summer or early fall). They are a little bit "too clean" but I can let that go. I like the fact that it appears as if chin stubble is growing on Matt Damon's face. If he appeared clean shaven every day, I would have caught that. We will see when I watch the 2010 version.
I was impressed with Hopper's portrayal of Moon in the '69 version. I kept looking for Hopper throughout the movie and never saw him. When I checked the character names I was shocked he had played Moon. I had not recognized him at all. He was that good! I loved it when Duvall's hat fell off in a struggle with Mattie. It showed him having stringy, long hair and no hair on the top. Perfect, I thought! That is exactly what a cowboy would look like in that time frame. Stringy, un-kept hair. I was so relieved that he did not have one of those cheesy comb-overs. Yuck! I checked many photos on Google to see what women wore and how they wore their hair. I would have fallen off my chair if I had seen one with a pixie cut. LOL!
I was a bit disappointed that they had Mattie wear a skirt through-out the entire '69 movie. In the book she mentioned her jeans a few times and I can see in the new movie they have her in pants. She certainly DID NOT wear black nylon tights. Nice job, Hathaway.
Kudos to Portis because I wonder what sort of research was available to him to be able to write in the time period of the 1870's. Did he talk to old men who had served in the Civil War as he was growing up in the 30's? If they were in the war in the teens - nope. Nix that. Portis was born late in 1933. The youngest members of the war would have been in their 90's during that time. They would have to be in their 100's by the time he was a teenager. Did he read letters, newspaper articles?
If I were writing a book from a certain time, I would have to keep checking myself "Is this a phrase they used in that era?" "Would this type of gun be available to them?" Etc...
Overall, I have discovered that I am turned off by westerns. I watched the sixties' TV shows with my dad, maybe that did it. Overload. I still think it funny that my mom would sit in one room and watch sci-fi, my dad in the other watching westerns. I spent just as much time with my mom, too. I'll tell you what, though. She really liked to read. Her favorites were novels that held information about history, such as Pearl S. Buck's stories. It was nothing for her to read four books at a time, going from one to the next. She always read at the dinner table (when it was just she and I) - not big family dinners. Remember, I was the youngest and most everybody was gone when I became a teen. My dad never ate with us. He was on his own. I didn't find it strange that she would read at the table. I don't remember what I did while she read. I guess I just ate. I may have asked her about the book. She was never upset if I interrupted her reading. She wasn't like that. She did like to talk about stuff and we would talk and talk a lot.
If I had a sibling at the table with me, we would talk. I can remember a lot of times having my niece or nephew with me at the table. I was always watching my sister's children. This kept me occupied while my mom read, I guess.
And spell-checker: "shaven" ??? Really? shaven!??? Eh! See
here!
