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Connections, in both directions

News of the World poster
The plot is a mashup of two John Wayne westerns, "The Searchers" and "True Grit," that can't match either in emotional impact.
Peter Travers, ABC News • The Walt Disney Company • Dec 18, 2020
go.com ↗
If we were to conduct a poll of the most trusted actors in America, I’d argue Tom Hanks would be near the top of that list — and Hanks is perfectly cast as an 1870 news anchor of sorts in Paul Greengrass’ gritty and visceral and deeply resonant “News of the World,” a rough-and-tumble Texas road-trip movie that plays like a hybrid of the John Wayne movies “The Searchers” and “True Grit” and even reminded me a little of George Clooney’s recent epic “The Midnight Sky.”
Richard Roeper, chicago.suntimes.com, richard-roeper • Chicago Sun-Times • Jan 12, 2021
suntimes.com ↗
It reminds you of both classic John Wayne films–“The Searchers” and “True Grit.”
Dennis Schwartz • Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews • Jan 26, 2023
dennisschwartzreviews.com ↗
Adapted by Luke Davies (“Lion”), the plot is derivative of other father-figure westerns such as “Ride the High Country” (1962) or “True Grit” (1969), but the language barrier makes it a fresh take on an old idea.
Jason Fraley • WTOP • Jan 15, 2021
wtop.com ↗
What we have here is a cross between two classic John Wayne movies: “The Searchers” and “True Grit.”
Peter Debruge • Variety • Dec 11, 2020
variety.com ↗
Greengrass surrounds his star with a stellar ensemble, including Ray McKinnon, Elizabeth Marvel (solidifying the already unmistakable connection to “True Grit”), and Bill Camp (who only has one scene, but it’s a beaut).
Jason Bailey • The Playlist • Dec 21, 2020
theplaylist.net ↗
Fulltime Killer poster
One scene sums up its violent grandiloquence nicely: a shootout in a fireworks factory between the world's number-one hit man, O, a young slicked-back, cooler-than-a-Popsicle Japanese hipster played by model-singer-actor Takashi Sorimachi, and its number-two killer, Tok, a Chinese assassin played — with nervous giggles that echo back to Richard Widmark's old-lady killer in Kiss of Death — by Hong Kong icon Andy Lau.
Moana poster
Además de las inevitables alusiones (conscientes e inconscientes) a su propia obra, ambos directores han referido al western Temple de acero ( True grit , 1969) como una importante fuente de inspiración para Moana .
Charlie Del Río • Cine PREMIERE • Nov 26, 2016
com.mx ↗
Gran Torino poster
Eastwood’s portrayal of Walt echoes a career capper of his predecessor John Wayne, but rather than the self-parodying True Grit it’s the similarly mournful The Shootist (directed by Clint mentor Don Siegel).
Bill Weber • Slant Magazine • Dec 9, 2008
slantmagazine.com ↗
This has always been true of Eastwood, just as it was with John Wayne (who nevertheless won the Best Actor Oscar for "True Grit").
Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor • The Christian Science Monitor • Jan 10, 2009
csmonitor.com ↗
King Arthur poster
I grew up on movies about King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the rest off the knights from the 1953 film “Knights of the Round Table,” “Prince Valiant,” “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” and “Camelot” to John Borman’s 1981 sword and sorcery fest, “Excalibur.”
Reeling Reviews • Jan 10, 2020
reelingreviews.com ↗
True Grit poster
When it was announced that Joel and Ethan Coen were set to remake John Wayne’s greatest movie, “True Grit,” it heralded a culture clash of the titans, as if U2 were to hold a jam-off with Beethoven, or Annie Leibovitz were a finalist against Renoir in “Portraiture With the Stars.”
paperbacknovel.com, johnny c, Diamond Jim, KYLE SMITH • New York Post • Dec 21, 2010
archive.org ↗
REVIEW | Western Competence: The Coens Play It Safe With "True Grit"…
Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen had never made a genuine Western before they made 2010's "True Grit."
DVD Town
archive.org ↗
It’s been well documented the the Coen Brothers’ take on True Grit isn’t a remake of the 1969 film that won John Wayne his only Academy Award but rather a more faithful adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel.
True Grit does, and some Coen brothers fans may think that makes it pandering or lightweight.
Suicide Squad poster
Leto seems to be channeling, consciously or otherwise, Richard Widmark in the 1947 noir Kiss of Death—that’s the one where Widmark’s truly creepy-evil character pushes an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs.
Stephanie Zacharek • TIME • Aug 2, 2016
time.com ↗
The Great Wall poster
It is bad in spite of borrowing liberally from the 1950 Henry Hathaway cult classic “The Black Rose” (stream it!).
Migration User • The Boston Herald • Feb 17, 2017
bostonherald.com ↗
Blonde poster
First are the stylistic choices by Dominik, such as cutting in and out of black and white, impressive recreation of screens from Monroe classics such as “Some Like it Hot” and “Niagara,” and the hard Marilyn POV that pays off – kind of – when she’s with JFK and pumped up on sedatives by a doctor ever slinking around the edges of the set.
Tom Meek, Oscar Goff, Zoe Beketova, Iris Zhan • Cambridge Day • Sep 22, 2022
cambridgeday.com ↗
After engaging in a threesome, Norma, Cass, and Edward are seen attending a screening of “Niagara”.
Pramit Chatterjee • DM Talkies • Sep 23, 2022
dmtalkies.com ↗
One fabulous transition involves an orgasming Norma, head thrown back, clasping at a bed that becomes waterfalls overlaid by the title cards for “Niagara.”
Sophie Monks Kaufman • IndieWire • Sep 8, 2022
indiewire.com ↗
Little Women poster
It is reminiscent of what happens in the first “True Grit” movie between Kim Darby and Strother Martin about a horse.
Spotlight poster
Such films include the famous (All the President’s Men, 1974) and the not so famous (Call Northside 777, 1948).
Will Glasgow, Christine Lacy, JARED OWENS, JACQUELIN MAGNAY, RAY GATT, Kylar Loussikian, Sarah-Jane Tasker, Chris Griffith, Geoff Chambers, DAVID CROWE • The Australian • Jan 22, 2016
archive.org ↗
No Country for Old Men poster
His main pursuer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem in Robert Wagner’s haircut from “Prince Valiant”), is Death, without a pale horse.
WordPress • Nov 19, 2007
wordpress.com ↗
Logan poster
“Logan”, la entrega más reciente sobre Wolverine, una de las figuras centrales de los “X-Men”, es un filme que ha agradado ampliamente a sus fans, toda vez que el director James Mangold llevó a otro territorio el guión de Mark Bomback y Scott Frank, quienes tratan con respeto las claves fantásticas de la saga de Marvel, pero los nutren con referentes del western crepuscular, mediante la directa alusión a “Shane” (George Stevens, 1953), pero que también podría haber sido a “True Grit” (Elmer Bernstein, 1969) e incluso a “The Unforgiven” (Clint Eastwood, 1992), entre otras.
Cámara de Comercio de la Ciudad de México
com.mx ↗
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood poster
Leo DeCaprio plays Rick Dalton, a washed-up B-movie actor who made Westerns in the 1950s and then was forced to work on TV shows similar to “Rawhide” in the sixties when he was no longer a bankable star.
Louis Proyect • CounterPunch • Aug 16, 2019
counterpunch.org ↗
The sun-dappled yet decaying milieu of 1969 Hollywood — a year that saw the rivalry of two very different cowboys, John Wayne in the PG-rated True Grit and Jon Voight in the X-rated Midnight Cowboy — is lovingly realized by Tarantino and cinematographer Robert Richardson.
Captain Marvel poster
Captain Marvel messes up Women’s History Month because its juvenile story goes against the feminine confidence that Inger Stevens showed 50 years ago in 5 Card Stud when she told Dean Martin, “If I wanted to kill a man, I wouldn’t have to use a gun.”
Armond White, Jim Geraghty, The Editors, Noah Rothman • National Review • Mar 20, 2019
nationalreview.com ↗
Unforgiven poster
As "True Grit" was for John Wayne, this is also something of a last hurrah for Eastwood's "man-with-no-name" persona, but because Eastwood is who he is, it is a dark and ominous goodby, brooding and stormy.
KENNETH TURAN, www.latimes.com, kenneth-turan • Los Angeles Times • Aug 7, 1992
latimes.com ↗
Star Wars poster
For example, Lukes return to a burnt-out homestead and Han Solos showdown in the cantina with a hired-gun monster are classic Western confrontations (the former appears to be directly inspired by the key motivational scene in "Nevada Smith" which Lucas has integrated brilliantly into another context.
The Washington Post • Apr 21, 1999
washingtonpost.com ↗
Gunga Din poster
It goes on the list with "National Velvet" and "Robin Hood" and "The African Queen" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Gunga Din."
Roger Ebert • RogerEbert.com • Jul 1, 1969
rogerebert.com ↗

That's all the connections!