I voted for the Bridges/Coen-version...
I never really cared for John Wayne's brand of non-acting. I know that the man is some sort of "Hollywood Icon," and played in some good films, but to me, he just wasn't a very good actor.
RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Wayne's TRUE GRIT Oscar® win, for his second nomination (LINK) was clearly a sentimental one -- Among the performers he beat out that year were Best Actor perennials Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole, and both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in that year's Best Picture winner, MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Here's an IMDb LINK to see what all the Academy nominated as 1969's supposed "best."
Pitting the two versions of TRUE GRIT head-to-head as Oscar® contenders, the 1969 film received 2 nods (its other one was for Best Song - LINK) while the 2010 version racked up a more impressive 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (for Jeff Bridges - LINK). The 2010 remake, though, did not win a single Little Gold Naked Man®...
