Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Daniels) and Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) in the 2010 version of "True Grit."

Pam and I saw “True Grit” this afternoon. I love westerns, and always try to see them on the big screen. That’s the only way to do a western justice.

The 1969 John Wayne version, of course, is a classic. He won “Best Actor” for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn. When I heard that Jeff Bridges was playing that role in the 2010 remake, I thought, “What?!?” It just didn’t strike me right. But let me tell you: Bridges was superb! It was a very, very different Rooster, but an incredible performance. Or so I thought.

The two versions of Mattie Ross: Hailee Steinfeld (left) and Kim Darby.

But the real star was Hailee Steinfeld, playing the Mattie Ross role. Kim Darby played that role as a young adult woman, or at least that’s how I remember it. In the 2010 remake, as in the book, Mattie Ross is a 14-year-old girl. And whereas Kim Darby’s Mattie was cute, Hailee’s version is plain.

The movie begins by focusing the first 15 minutes or so on Mattie Ross, cementing in our minds that the movie is about her, not about Rooster Cogburn. In those early scenes, I developed a real fondness for the Mattie Ross character, who is bright, spunky, fearless, and mature beyond her years.

Jeff Daniels as a very different Rooster Cogburn.

Glenn Campbell played the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf in the original. It wasn’t a standout performance, but a good one. Likewise for Matt Damon’s work in the remake. Nothing special about it.

Robert Duvall played Ned Pepper in 1969. Barry Pepper, best known as the sniper in “Saving Private Ryan,” played him in the remake. You could hardly see Pepper in the character. He gave a different take on the classic line, “I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man”–same words, but different delivery. I think I like the way Duvall did it better, but both were good.

Both versions played the shootout scene almost exactly the same way.

The remake, from what I understand, is much more faithful to the book, especially in  revolving around Mattie Ross. Much dialogue is taken verbatim from the book. That’s pretty obvious, because the wording and phrasing is by no means contemporary, as was the dialogue in the 1969 version. The dialogue is very foreign to the way we talk today.

The story is roughly the same. You see Mattie Ross recruiting Rooster to pursue the man who killed her father. The scene at the cabin by the river is very similar (yet different). There’s the open-plain charge by Rooster against Ned Pepper’s gang–Rooster taking the reigns in his teeth and firing with both pistols, with similar results. There’s Mattie’s fall into the snakepit, and the mad dash to get her treated. So many similarities.

And yet, there are scenes that don’t appear in the original, and new takes. They travel through snow, for instance. And the epilogue is new.

I really liked this movie. I knew I would, but it’s different than what I expected. Especially considering that the Coen Brothers made the movie. These are the guys who made Raising Arizona, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, No Country for Old Men, and other movies with serious quirks. But here, with True Grit, they played it straight. And that was the right choice.

Here are some movies Pam and I have watched recently on DVD. Haven’t been to a theater all year…yet.

• “Law Abiding Citizen,” with Gerard Butler (of “300” fame), was a lot better than I expected. Butler’s wife and daughter are brutally killed in a home invasion, and he later exacts horrific revenge. That’s not giving anything away. The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game with police, and it all comes to a surprising conclusion.
• “Twilight: New Moon” is the second movie of the Twilight series. Pam and I liked the first movie, and we liked this one just as well. Vampires dominated the first movie; now we have werewolves. The movies are well-done, and have a definite tone to them. They are not high-action movies, but romances with a, uh, bite.
• We also watched all six of the Jesse Stone TV movies, starring Tom Selleck–5 on DVD, and the latest this past Sunday night on CBS. These are based on the books by Robert Parker. Parker started this series around 1998. We loved these movies. If you watch a movie and then read a Jesse Stone book, you can picture Selleck in every scene and saying every line. He plays Jesse Stone perfectly. Like the Twilight movies, they have a slow-paced, smalltown mood.
• Having watched the Jesse Stone movies, we decided to try the Spenser movies made in the 1980s. “Ceremony” is the first one. I liked Robert Urich in the title role, was okay with Avery Brooks as Hawk, but didn’t like the gal who played Susan. She just wasn’t Susan. I didn’t particularly care for this movie, and it had a lot of gratuitous nudity. But we’ll try another one.
• “All About Steve” is a Sandra Bullock movie, and who doesn’t like Sandra Bullock? In this movie, she plays a very quirky character who pretty much stalks a guy. It’s a fun, light-weight movie.
• Finally, “Blindside,” the movie which won Sandra Bullock an Oscar. This was a great story, an inspiring story. This family took a huge step in adopting a basically homeless young black man into their family…but they changed his life. Now I know why everyone has raved about this film.

Thanks to tax season, Pam and I haven’t seen a movie all year. But now, since her emancipation on Wednesday, we’ve seen three movies.

• Taken. This Liam Neeson film came out in January and is still hanging around. A really good thriller. Saw it Friday.
• State of Play. This one came out on Friday, with Russell Crowe and Ben Afflect and one of those young actresses I can’t remember. Another really good thriller. It’s set in a journalism context (Crowe is a reporter). I like that stuff. Saw it Saturday.
• Facing the Giants. Saw this tonight at Anchor’s movie night. I’d heard it was really good, and wasn’t disappointed. A football movie that makes you teary-eyed. It shouldn’t be.

While everyone else was going to see “The Dark Knight,” Pam and I saw “Mama Mia,” the musical based entirely on Abba songs. I was a huge Abba fan (particularly of Agnetha–hey, I was a college student), back when they were the biggest band in the world. “Take a Chance on Me” and “Dancing Queen” were my favorites, and both appeared in the movie. However, I didn’t recognize several songs.

I suspect “Mama Mia” will do great, particularly with us folks in the older demographics who remember Abba. It was not as good a musical as “Hairspray,” and certainly not as good as “Phantom of the Opera.” But it was very enjoyable–fun, funny, tear-jerking in places, a happy ending.

Two observations:

• Mery Streep can really sing.
• Pierce Brosnan can’t, but gets an A for effort.

I think the movie could have done just as well without Brosnan, but I imagine they were going for star-power equal to Streep. Hey, it worked out, and I did kinda enjoy the final song he did.

Anyway, go see it. You’ll enjoy it. And you’ll be humming Abba songs the rest of the day.