Don’t get caught up trying to compare Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit to the 1969 version that won John Wayne his one and only acting Oscar. There is no comparison. The two films aren’t even within a thousand miles of one another.
Instead, look at this as a brand new adaptation of Charles Portis’s novel of the same name. The brothers penned the screenplay themselves, tightening it up when necessary and while they’ll tell you they pulled most of the dialogue directly from the novel (which they did), the subtle changes to key lines only make it that much better.
In an instance of obvious casting, Jeff Bridges was chosen to fill the shoes of the snarled and drunken U.S. Marshall, Rooster Cogburn. He’s a weathered old man that loves to drink and tends to shoot first and ask questions later. Bridges is perfect in the role, but it’s the casting of newcomer Hailee Steinfeld that really keeps the film moving. Only 13-years-old, Steinfeld is years beyond her age as Mattie Ross, the 14-year-old youngster who heads to Fort Smith, Arkansas to tend to the murder of her father and find law-for-hire to help her bring the man responsible to justice.
Voice over in the film’s early moments take care of any necessary plot particulars and it takes very little to establish Mattie’s character as she takes to her mission. After some forceful reasoning with a local stock trader to buy back some horses he’d sold her father, Mattie secures Cogburn’s services and the makings of a most unlikely relationship is instantly born.
Bridges plays Cogburn with all the inebriated flair and comedic timing you could ask for. He’s a lovable embarrassment if there ever was one. Half the time you’ll be straining to understand his words, but when the occasion calls for it his one liners land with perfect clarity. Rooster can’t match wits with Mattie, but his knowledge of the territory and learned life lessons make him exactly what the young girl needs at the moment.
The third wheel to the story is a Texas ranger by the name of LaBoeuf (pronounced LaBeef) played by Matt Damon. LaBoeuf is a hard man to figure at first as I wasn’t sure if Damon’s performance was off or if he had tapped into the essence of the character to the point I was meant to laugh. Happily, it was the latter. LaBoeuf’s confidence in himself reads more like a clumsy bluff than an actual declaration of his abilities, though a lot of this can be credited to Mattie’s wherewithal. Nevertheless, Damon nails the performance from the start, allowing room for the character to build throughout.
Just as important as the lead characters, the Coens again prove they realize the value of a supporting cast. Jarlath Conroy as the Undertaker, Dakin Matthews as Stonehill, Joe Stevens as the lawyer who cross examines Cogburn and Ed Corbin as a more than memorable “Bear Man” make vital contributions to the film. Had these performances been merely average or below, the film wouldn’t have been nearly as good.
A couple of larger names also adding moments of brilliance to the supporting cast include Josh Brolin as the man that killed Mattie’s father and Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper, a role played by Robert Duvall in the original. And while Pepper damn near plays it exactly like Duvall did before him, he puts his own stamp on the role.
Carter Burwell’s soft score makes use of 19th-century hymns and suits the time period perfectly, delicately guiding the narrative from scene to scene and rising to the occasion when called upon. Roger Deakins is also back for his eleventh time working with the Coens as their director of photography and just as before, this is another notch in his belt of beautiful films to his credit.
From top to bottom It’s almost impossible to find a complaint about this film, and those I do have are minimal and don’t need to be brought up here. The Western may be dead in Hollywood, but the Coens prove that good Westerns can still be made. True Grit touches upon every emotion you can muster from its melancholy beginnings to its more outrageous and comedic moments all the way up to its action-based climax.
If anything, True Grit proves Joel and Ethan Coen’s talents know no bounds. At nearly two hours this film feels as if it runs 60 minutes. I attribute this to the fact the Coens quite simply know how to tell a story and know how to find the right people to help them tell it. There is no fat on this film, the performances are some of the best of the year and it plays much more straight-forward than any Coen film before it. I expect their next film will flex their imaginations a bit more than this one did, because this almost seems like it was too easy.
