Speech and Syntax at the Movies

Over the holiday, I saw four 2010 Movies.  All had a focus on speech or syntax, some not as obvious as others--

True Grit: It is a little-known fact that the apostrophe had not been invented until the early 20th Century during Prohibition, when people behind closed doors drank so much that their words slurred together.  True Grit presents an authentic speech pattern.  Cowboys spoke without contractions at a Shakespearean clip with Yoda sentence structure.  Note the copious use of the word "not." Accurate it was.

The King's Speech: An ode to speech therapy, my mother's former profession.  As portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, King George's speech therapist employed a technique I am fascinated with because it will cure the atonality of my singing. The first step to improvement is to believe in yourself.  As you might know from the previews England's King George VI--called Berty by his family--stuttered.  Rush's character shows the future king that he is capable of clear speech by placing headphones on Berty's head and blasting music so loudly that he could not hear himself speak.  Since he could not hear his own stuttering, an uninhibited Berty flawlessly reads Shakespeare aloud.  I am resolved to  blast Black Sabbath on my ipod while singing WILCO.  Then I will finally be able to fulfill one of my life's dreams and become a backup singer in a band.

 The Fighter and The Town: Will Geoffrey Rush please hold up a giant mirror over the city of Boston and show those people how to pronounce their R's? Alternatively, do movies really have to be so authentic? 

Nb. Kudos to The King's Speech and its unspoken homage to Lord Derek Jacobi's brilliant portrayal of Claudius, the Roman Emperor who had a stutter, in PBS' "I Claudius."  Both Claudius and George VI were stutterers until they became the leaders of their empires. (I assume that Derek Jacobi is a Lord.  Pursuant to the 1998 Amendment to the Magna Carta, the Queen must knight all great actors who are aging.)