True Grit (2010)

In the Coen Brothers’ 2010 remake of “True Grit,” Jeff Bridges is not playing the John Wayne role. He’s playing the Jeff Bridges role – or, more appropriately, the role made in the lasting novel by Charles Portis, many of the original dialogue can be heard in this film. Bridges doesn’t have the typical physique of the Duke. Few have had it though. Roger Ebert said in his review, “But he has here, I believe, an equal screen presence.” We always knew we were looking at John Wayne in the original “True Grit.” When we see Rooster Cogburn in this remake, we’re not thinking about Jeff Bridges.

Ebert noted this in his review, “Wayne wanted his tombstone to read, Feo, Fuerte y Formal (Ugly, Strong and Dignified). He was a handsome, weathered man when I met him in the 1960s and '70s, but not above a certain understandable vanity. Roo­ster might be an ornery gunslinger with an eye patch, but Wayne played him wearing a hairpiece and a corset. Jeff Bridges occupies the character like a homeless squatter. I found myself wondering how young Mattie Ross could endure his body odor.”

Bridges’ interpretation is hands down closer to the actuality of a lawman in the years of the West. How pleasant can a man be when he lives in saloons and on horseback? Not all riders on the range carried a change of clothes. Obviously he’s a lawman with an office and room someplace in town, but for a lot of the movie, he is traveling through discouraging land to find the man who murdered Mattie’s father.

As said in the book, Mattie, played by Hailee Stienfeld, is a brave young teen with a look as level as her hat brim. She sires Marshal Cogburn to hung the villain Tom Chancey, played by Josh Brolin. She wants to kill him for “what he done.” If Bridges comfortably wears the Duke’s shoes, Hailee Steinfeld is more powerful than Kim Darby in the original, and she was really darn good. Steinfeld was 13 when she played in the film, close to the right age. Darby was a little over 20. Ebert said, “The story hinges on the steely resolve of a girl who has been raised in the eye-for-an eye Old West, seen some bad sights and picked up her values from the kind of old man who can go and get hisself shot.”

Ebert continues, “What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder.”Their casting is always inspired and correct. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the mastery that was, and can still be, the Western.

However, this isn’t a Coen Brothers film in the way that we usually put it this way. It’s not weird, odd, cynical or blistering. It’s like these two men, who have made some of the original films of our time, made it to a point where they decided to sail on the absolute freedom of good old straightforward mastery. Ebert noted, “This is like Iggy Pop singing “My Funny Valentine,” which he does very well. So let me praise it for what it is, a splendid Western. The Coens having demonstrated their mastery of many notes, including many not heard before, now show they can play in tune.”

Besides, isn’t Rooster Cogburn where Jeff Bridges started out 40 years prior? Ebert said, “The first time I was aware of him was in “The Last Picture Show” (1971), where he and his friends went the local movie theater to see “Red River,” starring John Wayne. Since then, that clean-faced young man has lived and rowdied and worked his way into being able to play Rooster with a savory nastiness that Wayne could not have equaled.”

All the same, the hero of this film is Hailee Steinfeld, and that’s right. This is her story, set in the pacing by her, narrated by her. This is Steinfeld’s first huge role, and she nails it. She walks around the chance to make Mattie beautiful. Mattie doesn’t live in a beautiful world. Ebert admitted, “Seeing the first “True Grit,” I got a little crush on Kim Darby.” Seeing this one, few people would fall in love with Hailee Steinfeld. Maybe in another movie, but the way she plays it with the Coens, she’s more the type of person you’d want defending you.

Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper have weight and quality in supporting roles. Damon is LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger who joins the team to hunt Tom Chaney. Glen Campbell had the role before, and was right for the tone of the original. Damon plays it on a more worrying way. His LaBoeuf isn’t a sidekick. He and Cogburn have problems that go back years. We also find out that LaBoeuf is not a man of simple loyalty.

As Tom Chaney, Brolin is a complete and untouched villain, a rattlesnake who would quickly shoot Mattie as Rooster. In the Western genre, evil can be less shaded than in your modern film with every psychological insight. Ebert said, “Barry Pepper plays Lucky Ned Pepper, leader of a gang Chaney ends up with, and part of the four-man charge across the meadow into Rooster's gunfire, a charge as lucky for them as the Charge of the Light Brigade.”

The 1969 film, directed by Hollywood great Henry Hathaway, had beautiful landscapes. The meadow and several other scenes took place in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, near Telluride. Ebert noted, “This film's landscapes are all in Texas, and although some are beautiful, many are as harsh and threatening as the badlands described by Cormac McCarthy or Larry McMurtry.”

Ebert continued, “I expect Bridges and Steinfeld have good chances of winning Oscar nominations for this film.” Steinfeld is good the entire runtime, but the scene audiences love is the one where she negotiates with a horse trader, played by Dakin Matthews, for the money she feels is owed her. Here the main part is the dialogue by the Coens, which never tires, actually stays flat and commen sense, as Mattie reasons the thief out of his money by looking to say his own logic.

Ebert ended his review by saying, “I'm surprised the Coens made this film, so unlike their other work, except in quality. Instead of saying that now I hope they get back to making “Coen Brothers films,” I'm inclined to speculate on what other genres they might approach in this spirit. What about the musical? “Oklahoma!” is ready to be remade.”

Like how the Nostalgia Critic stated when he did his Old vs. New on the “True Grit” movies, I actually prefer the remake because of how realistic the ending turned out. I won’t say what happened, but I felt that ended off on a more powerful note rather than the typical happy ending in the Westerns in the past. I would say this is another one of my favorite Westerns. Do check it out if you haven’t, I highly think everyone will have a great time watching it.

Alright everyone, that ends “Coen Brothers Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it, and I hope everyone was given some good recommendations for movies to check out. Stay tuned next month to see what I have in store for everyone.