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The Music of "True Grit" (2010)

Jim Emerson has written a wonderful piece about the music (both the score by Cartel Burwell and vocalizations of the actors) for the Coen Brothers' superb film True Grit. From the moment I saw the movie, and then upon thinking about it afterwards, I knew there was something different about the dialogue of the characters, and how it was spoken. This has been the subject of a few conversations between myself, Ashley and friends, and Emerson manages to provide a unique theory for it:
... if you compare some of the very same lines in the 1969 film with the 2010 film, you'll immediately hear the difference between speaking and singing. Henry Hathaway tried to make the words sound as conversational as possible; the Coens go for Baroque -- high stylization that's not quite horse-operatic, but in an American vernacular that's like Bach transposed to "Deadwood."
Read the whole thing, as Emerson makes some truly interesting observations.

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