with respect to film adaptations of fiction and 'originals' v's 'remakes' in film, imo it's worth noting that often *remakes* of adaptations do indeed appear to be weak imitations of the original film. However in this instance, the coen brothers have not attempted a remake of the john wayne film, but a fully independent adaptation of the original 'true grit' novel. Of course such a project was bound to inspire comparison to the wayne product, yet as the contemporary western genre in film is already an entirely different beast to the traditional 'cowboys and indians' fare -which is a good thing in my mind- it would perhaps be more interesting to compare this 'true grit' to other contemporary westerns, rather than to the wayne version of the same novel, which as the coen brothers have remarked themselves, it owes no artisic allegiance?