Fill your hand!

Finally, and in the nick of time, I saw the Coen's latest before it went out of theatres (though a few oscar nods may mean it is re-released).

Not sure if True Grit is amongst their best (See: Fargo, Big L., No Country and Blood Simple), but any Coen movie for me is at a level far above most movies. Yes, I am biased, and from the time I saw Blood Simple (three times in the theatre), I knew I was going to be hooked on these boys. When I first talked to my agent, he said that my novel sounded like a Coen Bros. movie written by James Ellroy. Obviously, I like my agent a lot... a real lot!

When I write, I don't think of the Coens - but there is something in the way they tell stories that hits me where I live. I watched a lot of John Wayne movies as a kid, though he rated second or even third to The Man with no Name and Trinity. In later years, when I finally watched the Searchers, I saw levels in Wayne that I had missed when he was spouting and swaggering. But one movie that fascinated me was True Grit - and watching the remake last night, by my favorite film directors no less, I had some parallel experiences going on.

Watching Bridges say some of those iconic lines ("I can't do anything for you son." "Fill your hand you son of a bitch!) made me love the dude all over again. Combined with that was a deep sense of nostalgia - sitting in the back seat of the car at the drive-in, perfectly situated on barren prairie, and watching Wayne yell out the fill your hand line. As my eyes got wet, I knew I was beyond the movie and thinking about my childhood. Maybe that is why I love Westerns so much, they take me back to the time of drive-in movies, mom and dad in the front seat, me hunkered down with popcorn and foil wrapped burgers, the tinny speaker hanging off the window, I loved it all.

So this isn't so much a movie review - I mean, face it, I'm biased... it's the Coens! - as much as wonderful remembrance of things past. But if True Grit doesn't at least pick up the oscar for cinematography... then FILL YOUR HAND YOUR SON OF A BITCH!

(Had to say that).