True Grit
TRUE GRIT
PARAMOUNT
RELEASED 11 February 2011
Any new film by the Coen Brothers is a cause for celebration; even if the film doesn’t always hit the mark for you personally, you can always be assured that it’s going to be an original and fresh take on the chosen genre. This then is a Western, and not just any Western. A new version of the classic John Wayne Western, which many regard as the definitive John Wayne film. He won his only Oscar for the role after all, and played the role again in the sequel.
While not based on the John Wayne film, this is a new adaptation of the book (by Charles Portis) and as such differs from the previous film.
In the Wayne role we have Jeff Bridges, happily making it his own, a very different actor from Wayne, and what an amazing performance it is. Joining Bridges is Matt Damon, also on top form. Bridges is Rooster Cogburn, a US Marshal hired by fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), looking to avenge the death of her father. The man they are after is Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), a hired hand on their ranch who murdered her father and took off with his horses and two Californian gold pieces. She is older than her years and very sure of herself and the justice she demands.
Cogburn is one of three Marshals recommended to her and she chooses him as he is the most merciless. He rebuffs her at first but the offer of money is too much for him to turn down and he reluctantly takes up her offer. Staying at the same inn is the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon), already pursuing Chaney, and while Mattie doesn’t like the idea, he joins them on the trail.
In Jeff Bridges hands, Cogburn is a drunk, slurring his words and seemingly living off his legend as a US Marshal more willing to kill then bring a man to justice, mainly for the effort it would take. We get to witness him taking the stand in a trial, all the while proving to Mattie that this is the man to enact justice on Chaney. He believes in simple justice and drinking whisky, but as he spends more time out on the trail with her, we get to see that there is more to him. LaBoeuf is a much younger man and believes in the law of Texas, not willing for the young girl to travel with them. Cogburn begins to defend her against him, siding with her more even though the Ranger offers to split his own reward with him.
As a Western, this is one of the best for many years, tinged with the Coen Brothers own tropes and interests. The dialogue is electric, and Steinfeld easily holds her own against the veteran Bridges and Damon; its also refreshing to see a fourteen-year-old being played by a fourteen-year-old too and if this performance is anything to go by, then this is an actress we’ll see a lot of in the coming years.
But this is Bridges film. The Coen’s ‘The Big Lebowski’ is still considered the best performance of his career, and here he has another chance to bag a few awards.
The Western has never looked better than through the lens of the Coen Bros. and their cinematographer Roger Deakins (also having lensed the other beautiful Western of the past few years, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’). The visual style these three have developed over the past twenty years has become a unique brand, but it’s never looked as beautiful as this.
As ever, a Coen Brothers film is always worth watching, but by tackling a Western, they may have made the best film of their career thus far. It ticks all the right boxes and once again shows that Jeff Bridges is one of the best actors of his generation. Stunning.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE
