True Grit

My devotion to the Western continues to be rewarded. I took in True Grit this evening, a movie that I have been anticipating for some months now. And this remake of a John Wayne classic did not disappoint.

Set in the 1870s in Arkansas, the film centers around 14 year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) and her attempts to bring her father's murderer, one Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), to justice. She enlists the help of Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) and a ruthlessly efficient US Marshall Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges).

The actors are all excellent, as is usually the case with a Cohen Brothers picture. Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges play off of one another very well, as their characters often clash. Bridges is very believable in the roll. At first I worried that he may have fallen into the trap of either being too much or too little like the John Wayne portrayal, but Bridges really made the performance his own, really owned the character. But I was very impressed with young Hailee Steinfeld, who traded insults like a champ with Matt Damon, bartered an almost free horse out of a salesman, and even shot some folks along the way.

If there is one driving force behind this film besides revenge, it's Banter. The characters are constantly verbally jabbing at one another and often even the heroes are parting ways over matters of pride and words spoken in anger. I found myself laughing quite frequently at the constant flow of sideways compliments and flat out insults the characters leveled at one another.

One point that I feel I should mention, I was very happy to see that this film stayed what it was meant to be. A Western, in the traditional sense of the word. Don't get me wrong, I love the modern Action Westerns (as my review of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird will confirm), but this movie felt like a return to the days when a western only needed gunplay, witty dialogue, and heroes facing villains. It didn't try to be a heavy handed morality play, or an overbearing action fest. It was just True Grit, a film who's title describes what you are in for perfectly. Heroic characters displaying copious amounts of intestinal fortitude.

9 Gun-Shot Spareribs out of 10