My Writings

The cinematography is excellent as we follow Rooster, Mattie and Le Boeuf into Indian Territory, even if we follow Rooster's dialogue a little less easily as he mumbles his way through too much chewing tobacco. The Dude plays Rooster convincingly and Bridges is a good choice to reprise the role, but the Duke's original performance is still the definitive one - it is much more charismatic. Barry Pepper (The Green Mile, Saving Private Ryan) shows his versatility as Ned Pepper, (played originally by Robert Duvall), who takes Chaney in, and gets a chance for revenge against old enemy Cogburn and the famous scene where Cogburn faces the four on horseback is nicely re-shot.

If anything this adaptation is too faithful to the original material, and also does not differ enough from the original movie. When re-making a movie of this stature and familiarity, we expect a different slant, perhaps the development of some of the minor characters, or the flushing out of some aspect of the plot. Hathaway was correct in ignoring the epilogue (which is set years later), but it is included here, and to the detriment of the film. We do not need to be told what happened to these characters when the film portrays a legend. Instead, there was the opportunity for the Coen Bros to try to emulate some of the great endings to Westerns, whether by freeze framing and fading to sepia (Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid), or through a final showdown (The Outlaw Josey Wales), or with the hero riding off into the sunset (Shane).