Wow, these events are creeping up on me!

Lots of True Grit events coming up this month--some of them this week! Here's what I have on the calendar:

March 30th--Jacqueline West leads a discussion and has a short presentation on reading True Grit as a Fort Smitherite. That's at 9:30 and possibly again at 12:30 in the Holt building. Call the English office for details or watch this space.

April 1st--True Grit film showing and panel discussions in Echols conference room at 9:30 and then again at 1:00. You don't want to miss this! This will be fun. Come to either showing.

April 7th--Faculty panel presentation at the Delta Symposium at Arkansas State on teaching True Grit and our various projects.

April 16th--A presentation by Roy Hill on the firearms used in the book. Time and place to be announced. This will be good. Call the English office for details or watch this space.

April 17th--An actual firing of some of the weapons at Roy Hill's place. This one makes me nervous. English faculty and live ammo? Hmm.

April 19th--Some of us will be talking with the Central Presbyterian Book Club about their reading of the novel.

April 26th--Sigma Tau Delta and high school readers of True Grit discussion at the Fort Smith Public Library at 6:30 pm. Great service project for Sigma Tau Delta!

Great events coming up. I'll fill in some of these details as I have them. Feel free to email me at jhardin@uafortsmith.edu if you need more.

Film and Updates

Just a reminder that if you're just joining us the bulk of the blogging about the actual book is in the January archives in the posts labeled as Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc. I was reading and blogging at that time and there are many responses from smart students and faculty. That's a good place to catch up if you're just reading the book now.

In addition, here's a note from the Chair of English, Dr. Whiting, on the film date:

"Through the Center for Life-long Learning, we will be showing the 1969 film True Grit in the Echols Conference Center on April 1st. I can provide directions if you are unsure where Echols is. The first showing of the film will begin at 9:30 and the second will be at 1. The film is 128 min. long. Here’s the link for the film at the imdb website:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/

"We will conduct a short panel discussion/Q & A after each showing. I plan on having a sign-up sheet at the table in the entryway and having my students sign that – I am giving my class extra credit points for attending. You all are certainly welcome to do the same. Obviously the majority of students have class that day, but you are certainly welcome to approach the showings any way that you wish, or you can ignore it too. That’s okay. April is a busy month.

"In case you are interested, you can click on the imdb link for the new version of True Grit. It is quite informative of what we can expect when the film comes on in late December. It includes a casting call for extras (we missed it!) and some other interesting tidbits.

Melissa

Thanks for that update, Dr. Whiting.

Happenings

Hi, folks. I'm on the road and things are happening with True Grit. When I get back, I'll be posting lots and lots of event details. In the meantime, here's a link to some photos from a student field trip to downtown. Looks like they went to the Clayton House, the National Historical Site, Miss Laura's, and the Fort Smith City Museum.

In addition, here's a suggestion from Kevin Jones:

You might check out the local festivals coming up as a way to connect our students to TRUE GRIT. The Fort Smith Heritage Festival is April 10, beginning at 10am downtown. For more info, contact the Community Services Clearinghouse 782-5074, the United Way, or the City of Fort Smith. All proceeds benefit the "Meals for Kids," which feeds more than 2,400 hungry children in area Oklahoma and Arkansas schools. I thought the specific presentations at the Fort Smith Museum of History, National Historic Site (Parker's Courthouse), The National Cemetery, Miss Laura's, the Sebastian Co. Courthouse, and the Fort Smith Convention Center would also be of interest.

In addition to FREE tours at many of the above historic places, special presentations will be held at the FS Museum of His., the NPS site, Cemetery, Co. Courthouse, and the Convention Center.

For example, "The Fort Smith National Historic Site will present a living history tour following the experiences of a US MARSHAL bringing in a criminal from the Indian Territory." hmmmm, sounds like a good book.

People could also ride a mule wagon down Rogers Ave. from the Sebastian Co. Courthouse, see a shoot-out on the Sebastian Co. Courthouse Lawn (although I think this would be better at Parker's courthouse), plus, Baridi Nkokheli "brings the heroic" and "legendary US Deputy Marshal, Bass Reeves," to life in the FS Convention Center Children's Area.

Additionally, for the diversity sought after by some on this campus, you might check out the 2nd Annual Natchez Nation Benefit Powwow Honoring Families, or the numerous exhibits and vendors of Native American art, "Beautiful Asian and Spanish dancers," "Cultural Ambassadors," hands-on projects, and meet other living history participants, perhaps?

I am encouraging my students to attend this festival. I believe it would help us connect our chosen novel to a sense of place and help our community connect to our department a bit more, as well?

Some of you may have already known about this information, but in case you did not, I can provide copies of the pamphlet.

For what it is worth,
Kevin Jones

I think it's worth lots, Kevin. Thanks for writing.

Remake News

Ok, so today's picture is of Hailee Steinfeld, who has been cast as Mattie. Too late, all you Mattie wanna-bes.

Here's another link to someone's blog who has read the Coen Brothers' script. It's an interesting read. I'm not sure it bodes well for those of us who were hoping for a more faithful adaptation of the book. Still . . .

We've also heard at least two rumors that the Coen's representatives have been in Fort Smith. I only have this third-hand, but it seems they were in the library asking questions and down on Garrison looking at the street. I've also heard they were asking at the museum and at the Federal site about authentic costuming. It could all be rumor of course, as your faithful blogger has the info third-hand at least. I've read that most of the filming will take place in New Mexico, which doesn't look a thing like West Arkansas and East Oklahoma, of course.

Poster session

Wow. I just got back from visiting Sarah Griffith-Smith's fabulous 1213 class. The students had prepared four poster sessions on research from True Grit. Two of the groups had put together poster sessions on Judge Parker--one complete with small, working gallows. Another group had a wonderful poster on the weapons used in the book, and then a fourth group had a very interesting and unique poster session on fashion and textiles used during the time and clothing mentioned in the book. It turns out that those jeans that Mattie was wearing in the book wouldn't be invented until the 1930s. Hmm.

We've encouraged the group to submit the poster session for research day. I hope they do. We've also stored the posters and hope the students will allow us to show them at various other True Grit events that are coming up. We'll keep you informed.

Way to go, Sarah. Great class with obvious grit. Thanks for inviting me.

What are you doing with Grit?

As always, if you're just joining us, you really should go back and read all the blog entries for January--the ones with chapter titles. There, you'll find lots of great comments from students and faculty that came in while I was reading the book and blogging each chapter. Good stuff back there. Keep adding to that section.

As for now, every day I'm hearing more and more cool things about what people are doing with True Grit, especially in their 1213 classes but off-campus as well. For instance, we've just been invited to visit the group presentations for Sarah Griffith-Smith's 1213 class. As she says, each group has been assigned to create "a science fair-style display of a topic that was inspired by True Grit." The presentations will be up at 8:00 on this Friday morning in the Holt building on campus. I'm not sure if they'll be in a specific classroom or in the hallways, but I'm sure that she wouldn't mind if other people showed up to see them, too. Sarah? Are they up all day? All week? Can they be?

We've also been invited to go and visit the Central Presbyterian Book Club
on April 19th at 10.20 am for their monthly meeting where they will be discussing True Grit. I'll probably go myself, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I brought interested and knowledgeable faculty or even a bright student or two (do we have any other kind?). Let me know. I'll be going for sure.

The chair of the English department, Dr. Whiting, and I met today with Jacqueline West, who will be giving a short presentation and leading a discussion on how to read True Grit as a Fort Smither (Smyther? Smithite? Smithian? Smitherington?). The tentative date for that is March 30th and we're currently looking for a place. Details for follow.

And don't forget to mark April 1st on your calendar for the film festival and panel discussions. Those will be in the Echols building on campus. I'll post details again soon or you can visit the Lifelong Learning link.

Which brings me to my point: please tell us all what you're doing! Don't hide your light under a bushel! Tell us if you're reading. Tell us what you think about the book and about the project. Tell us what you're doing in class, in your bookclub, etc. Post it as a comment or if you're on Facebook, join us on the Got Grit page there.

One of these days, I'll finish watching the movie, too.

Watching the Original Film

Well, I'm desperately trying to find some time to watch the original movie with THE DUKE. I did watch the first thirty to forty-five minutes while I ate my lunch today. It's good so far--no Citizen Kane, though. Here are some thoughts:

1. I sure hope they never say this is supposed to be Arkansas and/or Oklahoma, cause it sure ain't. Pretty scenery, but it ain't nothin' like it looks 'round here pardner. So far, they haven't made any mention of exactly where it is; they just say "Fort Smith" and "Indian Territory." Please, I hope the Coen's make the scenery at least look a little like AR and OK.

2. It's weird to have the action of Mattie's father going off and getting killed on the screen instead of being told to us by Mattie. It really takes something away from the story. They need more exposition than they have just by showing it. I'm not sure if I'd know what was going on for the first 15 minutes if I hadn't read the book. It ruins the framing mechanism of Mattie's narrative at the beginning and the end, too.

3. You can really tell when Marguerite Robert's screenplay relies on Portis' language, which it does more than I had been led to believe, but the directing is weak and so the lines don't really "pop" like they could with a good director. The section with Rooster testifying in front of Judge Parker contains lots of exact lines. Of course, the guy that's playing Judge Parker--James Westerfield, you'd recognize him--is all wrong for the part. He just plays Parker as your stereotypical disinterested bumbling judge--more concerned with his indigestion than the trial. It would be interesting see all the movie representations of Parker--I know there are lots of them. Anybody wanna make a list?

4. I enjoyed the "bad manners" at the boarding house table--lots of smacking and chewing with your mouth open. Funny.

5. Does Rooster have a patch over one eye in the book or is that something they made up for the film? I can't remember.

Some technical stuff for the "film" people (as opposed to "movie" people):

1. Isn't it odd to have the theme song--you know the one with the vocals and all--playing over the opening titles? Don't they usually save that song for the ending? I guess that's an older technique.

2. Lucien Ballard's cinematography is great. What do we expect, though, he's Sam Pedkinpaugh's cinematographer. This kind of thing must have been second nature to him.

3. The direction, by Henry Hathaway, seems workmanlike at best. Stilted. I'm sorry, but it's just weak.

4. I'm usually a fan of Elmer Bernstein's scoring, but this seems a bit overblown and like something he had left over from another project. The opening music after the theme song seems like it was actually composed for some other film. I do like the scoring when Mattie is looking at her father's watch. Very sensitive.

Well, maybe I'll have time to watch the rest of it tomorrow at lunch.

Remember that I have three copies if you want to view the film.