Mario Salieri Free Films

100 Dollars for a sheriff

I finally saw the 100 Dollars for a sheriff Henry Hathaway. And to my taste it is much better than True Grit , his successor directed by the Coen brothers, which I previously reviewed on these pages (I recommend reading the article in question before you begin the latter because they are directly related). I still have not read the novel by Charles Portis doubly appropriate in 1970 and 2011, so I do not know if the two films are meant to scrupulous adaptations the letter of the original text, it is certain that the Coen takes almost exactly the unfolding narrative Hathaway, scene by scene, and his dialogues, word for word (except for two sequences on the character of Texas Ranger and few side gags). We can quite legitimately talk about remake, no offense to our cranky cronies. However the two films remain quite different. They share a few flaws, like some lengths (including very slow to initiate action itself of the film), and a certain heaviness through gossip too long. However these works do not really share the same qualities.

In fact I found the original Hathaway much more beautiful than its remake, this beauty is through staging, hanging in the sequence, for example, or simply by what is seen directly on the screen, namely the wide open spaces of the American West, sublime, the Coen brothers ever do filming. As such the original comes to us like a breath of fresh air if it is discovered after his dismal remake. Hathaway's film is beautiful but much more complete, more interesting, more intelligent too. The characters are certainly less directly tasty (It is also necessary to appreciate the broad strokes drawn with a trowel from those of the Coen brothers), but they are also widely richer and denser. This is true for heroin, Mattie Ross, played by Kim Darby in the 1970 film, which very intrepid and fierce child is no less fragile and innocent. It is much more convincing and touching as the unbearable Haille Steinfeld with his head cocked first-class running through the film of Coen reciting dialogue that articulates up to dehumanize them better, while forcing the a tone that quickly becomes exhausting. It is also true supporting roles, like the man which is then cut your fingers down into the cabin, played in the film by Hathaway a very young Dennis Hopper gives body to this ephemeral character - note that the role taken by Ned Pepper Barry Pepper was originally embodied by a dashing Robert Duvall, another aspiring actor and future iconic figure of the cinema of the 70s. To return to this scene in the hut, I must confess that I took this brief orgy of violence for a signature Coen, it is not, even if instead of taking a bullet in the back the second gangster blew himself cheek.



But I cease any digression here and I hang up the cars of my modest demonstration of the supremacy of the characters is especially true for Hathaway's character Cogburn, much less histrionic in the guise of the indefatigable John Wayne, also more ambiguous, as in this scene where he compares the thugs to mere rats should be exterminated. A funny scene indeed frankly, that does not appear in the remake of Coen, like most of the gags and good replica of the original film, usually supported by John Wayne. The Coens have seen fit to erase the already present sense of humor and replacing it with theirs, and unfortunately, the match is final, the film Hathaway wins soundly. It is certainly a sober western too long with a fairly classic plane-plane, but it is nonetheless a very good movie whose remake pales, which failed in erase flaws and he has breathed new, far more damaging.

100 Dollars for a sheriff Henry Hathaway starring John Wayne, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper (1970)