Grit in Granger

In honor of the full length trailer to True Grit being released, let me repost this little tour of Granger, Texas, where scenes for the film were shot. For example:




Granger, Texas (population: 1,299), is 16 miles NE of Georgetown, 44 miles NE of Austin via I-35, and 7 miles N of Taylor (small town post to come) on Hwy 95. According to TexasEscapes.com, Granger is the hometown of Patches O'Houlihan.
See a slideshow.


Wrigley's Doublemint Chewing Gum ghost sign
Wrigley pwned Granger - this old ghost for Spearmint





Ever hear of Anderbock? Me neither.
SPJST Building, c. 1909 (former Martinets Store)

red brick streets of Granger

Return of the Coen Bros.

I loves me some Coen Brothers....except for perhaps Miller's Crossing, Intolerable Cruelty, or The Ladykillers, and due to my love for their films, I have to assume I just didn't get those three. Put on The Big Lebowski (an endless loop), Fargo, Raising Arizona, Burn After Reading, etc., etc., I'm a happy camper. When I heard their follow-up to A Serious Man was to be a remake of the John Wayne film, True Grit (1969), I must admit my heart sank just a bit, but it is the Coens. And I'm in the right mood for a Western, having just recently completed Red Dead Redemption, as well as being in the process of re-reading Lonesome Dove (so damn good! Gus just rescued Lorena):

The Man Who Wasn't There

I've been going back through the Coens' less successful (commercially or critically) films recently, including Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). I've yet to see Intolerable Cruelty (2003) or The Ladykillers (2004). Of those four, The Man Who Wasn't There is the best, followed, in order, by Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Miller's Crossing (yawn).

The IMDb summary ties up all the plot's various loose ends better than I could:

1949, Santa Rosa, California. A laconic, chain-smoking barber with fallen arches tells a story of a man trying to escape a humdrum life. It's a tale of suspected adultery, blackmail, foul play, death, Sacramento city slickers, racial slurs, invented war heroics, shaved legs, a gamine piano player, aliens, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Ed Crane cuts hair in his in-law's shop; his wife drinks and may be having an affair with her boss, Big Dave, who has $10,000 to invest in a second department store. Ed gets wind of a chance to make money in dry cleaning. Blackmail and investment are his opportunity to be more than a man no one notices.

What a cast! It's seems as if everyone wants to work with the Coens. You've got Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand (of course married to Joel Coen), Tony Soprano James Gandolfini, Scarlett Johansson, and Tony Shalhoub mixed in with Coen stock actors like Jon Polito and Michael Badalucco. I love the black and white and would agree with a comment someone makes in one of the DVD's special features that the film could not have been made in color. It fits in nicely among the classic noir films it emulates, such as The Big Sleep (1946) and Double Indemnity (1944). Here is the trailer:


And some screen captures:

This is not a film I'd recommend to anyone who is trying to quit smoking.
The Butch
The Flat Top
The Ivy (as in Ivy League)
The Crew
The Vanguard
The Junior Contour
The Executive Contour