The original True Grit is an iconic film; not only did John Wayne finally win an Academy Award for Best Actor, but the character of Rooster Cogburn became a template for other Western stars to reflect on their career through the perspective of a grizzled, cynical hero. However, The Coen Brothers understood the original film had its flaws and had very little in common with the novel of the same name. In their remake, the character of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is essentially the co-lead, and Steinfield’s performance is a massive improvement over Kim Darby’s obnoxious depiction in the original.
Turning a greeting child performance into a traumatized girl who develops her independence in the wake of her parents’ death was a great way to take a different angle on the material. Additionally, Bridges doesn’t use Rooster’s advancing age to turn him into a caricature; he’s been worn down by a life of bloodshed, and he’s reluctant on taking on a new protégé. Similarly, Josh Brolin is able to transform the eccentric villain of Tom Chaney into an embittered, angry man who takes legitimate concerns about the justice system and uses them as an excuse to justify his brutality.
‘3:10 Yuma’ Reworked the Story for a Modern Audience
3:10 to Yuma is also a remake that does a great job of deepening its characters. In the 1957 film, Glenn Ford was certainly entertaining as a version of Ben Wade that relishes in his own villainy, but Russell Crowe’s performance in James Mangold’s superb 2007 remake reflected a more realistic look at what the “Old West” was actually like. Violence was frequent and unpleasant, and men like Wade have been able to live life like giants due to the meager law enforcement in Western territories.
Many Westerners have been accused of ignoring and even lionizing a period of history in which many people suffered, but Mangold’s film showed that no one can escape the violent lifestyle, not even children. Seeing Christian Bale’s Dan Evans explain why a “life of adventure” isn’t what it’s made out to be to his son (Logan Lerman) was a brilliant way to be more historically accurate.
Western Remakes Fail If They Only Replicate
Antonie Fuqua’s 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven is a fascinating example of updating an all-time classic. It’s not incompetently made in the slightest; Fuqua knows how to create an amazing action sequence, and Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio simply don’t know how to give a bad performance. However, the film suffers by being completely irrelevant; the characters are virtually identical to the original, and the story beats play out in the exact same way.
The iconic central theme song by Elmer Bernstein even pops up. Anyone watching Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven most likely enjoyed their experience, but anyone who had seen John Sturges’ 1960 film was left bored and underwhelmed. The most interesting parts of the Fuqua film are the ways that Hawke shows the post-traumatic stress disorder of a veteran and the more significant female character played by Haley Bennett; they’re the factors that distinguish the film the most.
At the same time, changing up a story needs to be done with the right approach. Wayne’s 1960 original version of The Alamo isn’t concerned about historical accuracy in the slightest and simply plays into the bombastic nature of the finale. John Lee Hancock’s 2004 version tried to pay more attention to what actually happened, but it’s done in a way that makes the story more dull. It also creates additional issues; the film doesn’t thoroughly explain Texan politics, and the depiction of Hispanic characters is crude and borderline offensive. 1973’s Ned Kelly is a rather dull, unexciting approach to the Australian icon, and the 2003 version is just longer and makes the same mistakes. Sure, Heath Ledger is an improvement on Mick Jagger, but it’s not enough to justify investing in a slightly better version of a critically-derided story.
There’s no reason to remake The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The Searchers, or Once Upon A Time In The West; those films will stand the test of time, and they’ll always have value. As solidly as Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven is, no one would watch it given the choice of watching the original masterpiece. There are countless bad and deeply insensitive Westerns out there that could be tweaked, and those are the ones that filmmakers should look to.
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