|
|
Post by wmcclain on Mar 25, 2021 11:34:15 GMT
The assertiveness, feistiness, and indignant nature of the Darby character in True Grit may seem like an ode toward the burgeoning feminist revival of the time, but I feel that it actually represents retro-girlish spunk, the kind of prairie spirit that could be found in an earlier generation of films and that would prove palatable to 1969's more traditional audiences. That's well put. I'll try to revise the review on my own site an incorporate that dimension. Even the 60s counterculture wanted to run time backwards. Back to the land folks wanted to be pioneers again and you see it their fashions, art and music. So a film could appeal to both youngster and oldster nostalgia.
|
|
|
|
Post by TheGoodMan19 on Mar 25, 2021 14:20:51 GMT
It is hard to evaluate an icon, but several of his roles for John Ford and Howard Hawks seem at least nomination-worthy to me. ... definitely. Wayne's performance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Ford, 1962) combines strength with subtlety and proves quite intricate, with the Duke achieving genuine pathos. And in The Searchers (Ford, 1956) and Red River (Hawks, 1948), he tests the limits and nature of heroism in ways that are quite daring. But Westerns historically received scarcely little Oscar attention, and Wayne was younger then. By 1969, he was aging, and his role in True Grit proved broadly comedic and thus lovably nonthreatening. One might argue, though, that Wayne was at least as deserving of Academy attention for his performance in The Cowboys (Mark Rydell, 1972) a few years later. In one of the seventies' most memorable Westerns, he blends a more naturalistic form of "grit" with unsentimental vulnerability. The more "ambiguous", for lack of a better word, Wayne's character was in he film, the better the Duke's performance was. Red River, Liberty Valence, Searchers. He never went full out bad, like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. If Wayne had, I bet it would have been amazing.
|
|
|
|
Post by joekiddlouischama on Mar 26, 2021 9:25:26 GMT
... definitely. Wayne's performance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Ford, 1962) combines strength with subtlety and proves quite intricate, with the Duke achieving genuine pathos. And in The Searchers (Ford, 1956) and Red River (Hawks, 1948), he tests the limits and nature of heroism in ways that are quite daring. But Westerns historically received scarcely little Oscar attention, and Wayne was younger then. By 1969, he was aging, and his role in True Grit proved broadly comedic and thus lovably nonthreatening. One might argue, though, that Wayne was at least as deserving of Academy attention for his performance in The Cowboys (Mark Rydell, 1972) a few years later. In one of the seventies' most memorable Westerns, he blends a more naturalistic form of "grit" with unsentimental vulnerability. He never went full out bad, like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. If Wayne had, I bet it would have been amazing. ... good point. When there was some aspect of the character that seemed to keep Wayne on his toes, so to speak, his performances could be intrinsically compelling and remarkably layered. Now, he was also very good at the more stock-in-trade role and could hold an otherwise forgettable film together on that basis—perhaps as well as anyone in history. In other words, he knew how to "entertain," but when challenged by the script and/or the director, Wayne was also capable of more.
|
|
