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 For a Coen Brothers movie, the violence in True Grit was pretty much non-violent, but in a good Unforgiven style of manner. True Grit features an impressive cast: Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, a U.S. Marshall Gun-For-Hire, was iconic. He was perhaps as iconic as a true icon that once holstered a six-shooter in this role. Who was that? Man, it was The Duke. With a spot-on, Oscar-worthy performance, Bridges not only served up justice to the coward Tom Chaney, a murderer of a little girl's dad, but to The Duke as well.
True Grit (2010) is a remake of an earlier well-known John Wayne effort of the same title This version was as good as a western as I can remember in recent years. Dare I say this western is probably the best of this decade, but the decade is only a year old or so... Who knows what might come down the trail and shoot up the town between this year and another nine.
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross was beyond charming and endearing. She struck a highly believable chord as a 14-year old kid who was smart and merely wanted to seek revenge on a dastardly man who murdered her father to bring balance to way things should be. However, you got the sense, that deep within her, there was buried emotion, but the emotion never surfaced except for subtle yet exceptionally poignant moments when you could see surprise and wonder sprout up in her eyes. She had "true grit" to the end, and in my opinion, this is the true grit in which the title truly refers.
There was hardly a flaw in the film. The scenery was beautiful. I liked that it took place in a western winter with craggy trees and long trench coats flapping in the breezes. Bridges was grizzled and grunted, yet belied a certain likability underneath it all. Bridges as an actor has been on fire as of late (minus the Tron thing - think more Crazy Heart). In fact, Bridges as Cogburn was deadeye.
Matt Damon was fairly effective as a Texas sidekick, but surely not a role for which he will long be remembered. He sort of exuded that same personality that characterises, well, many of his characters, in particular, the Ocean 11 roles.
All go out into dangerous Choctaw Injun country to pursue a band of outlaws of which Tom Chaney was a part. Barry Pepper as a dirty horse riding villain and you have a great movie. The little touches made this film really good, like the four dudes they hung towards the beginning of the film. One guy cried, antoher wept and when the Inidan went to explain why he was meeting the rope, they simply hooded him in midsentence. The wild wild west was a rough place, especially for a 14-year-old-girl seeking revenge for the death of her father. You had to have true grit to survive.
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