True Grit

Some forty years ago, the American cowboy John Wayne won his only Academy Award for playing the rowdy, one-eyed sheriff Rooster Cogburn in the western True Grit. And now, the most recent winner of the award, Jeff Bridges, inherits the role in this second version of the novel by Charles Portis.

As this new version by directors, producers and writers Joel and Ethan Coen opens up, a dead man lies outside his house. That man is Frank Ross, who tried to stop his hired hand, a drifter named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), from exacting revenge for a poker game gone awry. But Frank Ross isn’t important; instead, it’s his daughter, Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) that the film focuses on.

After quite some effort, she hires Cogburn to go after Chaney, who’s gone off to Indian Territory. They’re joined by LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), an inept Texas Ranger going after Chaney for a Senator’s murder. And their quest makes up the plot in a nutshell.

The Coen Brothers are known for their black sense of humor, and True Grit definitely has it. It's certainly amusing to see Chaney actually tell Mattie how to fire a gun when she finally gets her chance to shoot him. But it's definitely shocking to see the prejudices of this old society out in the open. But what about the rest of the film?

As Cogburn, Bridges gives another scene-stealing performance. He's joined by Steinfeld and Damon, who go great together as a duo, while Steinfeld is also great on her own. Although Brolin, who appears an hour in the film, doesn't make for a formidable villain, just writing about it makes me think that was the point. After all, he's a loser like Cogburn and LaBoeuf.

With the Coen Brothers' usual crew at hand, including cinematographer Roger Deakins and editor Roderick Jaynes (actually the Coens themselves under a pseudonym), they have created another stylish entry in their filmography. It may not be a masterpiece as No Country for Old Men was, but this adventure is worth going to.