I never saw the original 1969 adaptation of True Grit. I have had plans to go with some friends to see the 2010 remake by the Coen Brothers for a few weeks, so I had time if I had wanted to investigate. However, not having come by the original naturally, I wanted to see the new movie on its own terms. Whenever I read (or re-read) a book in anticipation of its cinematic adaptation, I start to demand things emotionally from it before it even starts.
With that said, I researched the tale after viewing the movie for this review. Obvious differences were drawn between the 1969 and 2010 movies, but what I found interesting is how people said much of the dialogue was taken from the 1968 book by Charles Portis. To me, and my friends, the dialogue was hilarious in typical Coen Brothers fashion: meant to make the audience, but never the characters, laugh uproariously. Part of it was simply sentence structure and the face of absurdity. But such humour was tempered by so many stark shots of shot and mangled corpses. It is often gallows humour and its finest, and once during True Grit, humour is literally spouted from on a gallows.I’d mislead to say this is a comedy, however. It’s a violent tale of revenge, narrated by a woman who has no time for foolishness. But all the characters are often foolish just the same.
The thing that most irked me about the movie is the credits on the poster: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin. Josh Brolin? He’s can’t be in the film for more than twenty minutes! His name must be on the poster as a favor from the Coens for his role as Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men, because I have never heard Brolin’s name sway anybody to see a movie. The name that should be in his place is Hailee Steinfeld, a 14 year-old actress who I had never heard of before, but I want to hear more about in the future. Her delivery of dialogue projects much more of a maturity than I would have expected. The film is solidly centered on her character, Mattie Ross.
Briefly, this is the plot: Ross, a 14 year-old girl arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to settle the affairs of her father, who was murdered by the dastardly Tom Chaney. She hires the gruff Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to track him through the Indian Territory to capture him and bring him to justice. An officious Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (pronounced “Le Beef” by Bridges), who is also seeking Chaney for a reward on his head because of his murder of a Texas senator. Despite squabbling within their group, and the foibles of each painfully on display, they all prove their “true grit” by the end of the movie.
Another thing Coen Brothers trademark on this movie is a palette of neutral colors, used masterfully. You can kind of tell how dirty and awful everything is—from Rooster’s hygiene to the dusty plains of Oklahoma—without being grossed out or distracted by it. Even when I’m not crazy about their films, I usually admire their cinematography.
Ultimately, if it isn’t obvious, I liked the film a lot and would recommend this to anybody old enough to see it. It’s definitely one of my top five movies of the whole year. It’s not a heady or intellectual film, but you’ll be required to be on your toes if you want to truly appreciate its presentation.
True Grit is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images.
