True Grit

The Coen brothers revisit the themes of harsh justice and lawlessness from No Country for Old Men and refract the old west through the same rustic eye that made O Brother Where Art Thou? such an entertaining period piece. Going beyond the John Wayne version of True Grit, the brothers have used the original source material (a novel) as a template for their unique style and have also enlisted an A-grade cast to help bring their take on the western genre to life. As far as westerns go, it's surprisingly traditionalist in some aspects, seeking to strike a good balance between a realistic depiction of the era and the touchstones of the genre.

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a 14 year old girl who travels into town to hire someone to avenge her father's murder at the hands of bad seed named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She finds Marshall 'Rooster' Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a bloated and cantankerous drunkard with a reputation for killing his prisoners. Cogburn agrees to take on the job and throws in with a Texas ranger named LeBoeuf (Matt Damon), who is also hunting Tom Chaney for seperate crimes. Mattie adamantly refuses to be left behind, she is keen for Tom Chaney to know that she is responsible for his capture and death, and so they head out into forbidding Indian territory to track down this mean character.

All the casting is absolutely perfect. Steinfeld is precocious, practical and headstrong without becoming annoying (a fault easily found with the actress in the original True Grit). Damon is delightfully gruff and braggardly in sidewhiskers and moustache, and the prickly banter between LaBoeuf and Mattie is hilarious and brilliantly inflected. Bridges is likeably shabby and rough-edged, he makes the character completely his own without straying too far from the characterisation that John Wayne also tapped into to such good effect back in 1969. Josh Brolin, one of the most undersung actors of his generation, is suitably glowering and cotton-mouthed as the dimwitted killer... he steals all his (too few) scenes as well.

I think that this is actually a far better film than the rather disposable 1968 True Grit. The Coens take a great, peverse delight in bringing to the screen this grimy, coldbitten Oklahoma story, as told through the eyes of a 14-year old girl. It's a tale where villains get blown to kingdom come and heroes bond via their displays of 'true grit'. I loved the way the film accurately presents the routine and casual mistreatment of Native Americans, even from supposedly sympathetic characters like Cogburn. Too often in westerns, particularly ones that seek to show the injustices done to the Native Americans, the lead characters will be depicted as sympathetic or empathic to the plight of the Indians. In True Grit there are no such pretensions, it mines that dark Coen brothers humour to reflect the racist reality of the old west. It's perhaps at it's most pertinent and blackly funny in the early hanging scene where each man to-be-hung is allowed to speak their last words, only for the last man (an Indian) to be cut off by the crack of the noose just as he starts speaking.

Ultimately, True Grit is a winner for making the western a revitalised new canvas for harsh adventure. By treatng the west primarily as a historical era rather than a genre, the Coen brothers make it all feel fresh again (much like the way the west is approached in the TV show Deadwood). The central theme of toughness and resilience (the 'true grit' of the title) also ensues a certain relevance that gives the film a valuable edge, and it's our attachment to the characters of Mattie, Rooster and LaBoeuf (helped in great spades by the actors who portray them) that makes it such an engaging journey.

DIRECTOR: Joel and Ethan Coen
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the 1968 book by Charles Portis.
KEY ACTORS: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, J. K. Simmons

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel True Grit, on which this film is directly based.
- The 1969 film True Grit, also based on the novel.
- As mentioned, I think this film's approach to the west is similar to the television show Deadwood. The recent western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has a similar (though humourless) tone.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Adapted Screenplay.
BAFTAs - won Best Cinematography. Nominated for Best Actor (Bridges), Best Actress (Steinfeld), Best Costume Design, Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.