Ask Mick LaSalle: 'True Grit' eye patch picks sides

Dear Mr. LaSalle: Why did the Coens put the patch over Jeff Bridges' right eye in "True Grit"? John Wayne's was on the left eye.

Gary Gee, San Francisco

Dear Mr. Gee: John Wayne was such a right-winger he had no vision on his left; whereas, the Coens, just a guess, probably go the other way.

Hi Mick: I saw the list of actresses you like. You left out Ann Harding.

Jim Forgione, Oakland

Hi Jim: I sure did. She's one of my favorites. I even wrote the introduction to Scott O'Brien's book "Ann Harding: Cinema's Gallant Lady."

Dear Mr. LaSalle: Read your story on "True Grit." It is obvious you are no John Wayne fan and never watched the original "True Grit." John Wayne was to us an American hero, in the days when it meant something to be an American hero. Yes, we "old farts" are outdated, but we still have the old American values, not the values spouted by the media, current moviemakers and the current administration. Suffice it to say also, none of the current crop of spoiled, whining actors would make a pimple on a real actor's rear end.

J. Black, Madison County, Texas

Dear Mr. Black: Nice parody. You had me going, and then you had to go gild the lily with the cliche about pimples and rear ends. That was the tip-off. Still, I get letters not so far off from yours all the time. For example, I'll praise John Wayne twice in a review, and someone will say that I "obviously" don't like him. Or, as in the case of the 1969 "True Grit," which I saw two hours before I wrote my review of the new one, someone will say I "obviously" didn't see the movie. It's amazing: These days people actually reply to articles they haven't read - to disagree about movies they haven't seen! But you know all about that. By the way, very funny about John Wayne being a hero, when alone among the actors of his generation - when James Stewart, Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan and Robert Montgomery were devoting years to military service (and, in some cases, losing career momentum) - Wayne avoided World War II, put on a soldier costume and got shot at with blanks in the safety of a movie studio. Some hero.

Dear Mick: You included Barbara Stanwyck in your list of 10 best actresses of the classic era. What were her best film performances?

Eric Essman, San Francisco

Dear Eric Essman: "Baby Face," "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" and "Double Indemnity." She was tough. Tougher than John Wayne.

Dear Mick: I have a friend who walked out of "Black Swan," claiming it was overly sexualized and that most of the sequences were just masturbatory material for male audiences. I disagreed with him, believing that sex was used quite effectively. Do you believe that director Darren Aronofsky used sex effectively in his film, or did he overdo it? By the way, my friend and I are both 17.

James Sculthorp, Petaluma

Dear James: When one is a very young man, even the most innocent sight might very well present itself as a pretext for intense and unwholesome rumination. Thus, a whole array of normal human experience might seem excessively sexual to a young person that would barely register on a person of years, discernment and experience. Indeed, I would venture to say that when "Black Swan" comes to DVD, many middle-aged and older men will watch the bedroom scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman and not for one minute experience any base emotions but rather will back up the scene and replay it again and again, perhaps 10 or 20 times, just to experience a lofty sense of pity and terror at a young dancer's mental disintegration. So you're right. Still, don't lord it over your friend, because he's not 100 percent wrong.

Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. On SFGate To hear Ask Mick LaSalle with commentary, trivia and lots of extras, download his podcast at sfgate.com/podcasts.

This article appeared on page Q - 24 of the San Francisco Chronicle