Image © 2010 Paramount USA  Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in True Grit

See this movie. OK, I’ll be specific. True Grit is a really great film, not just a great Western. If you’re expecting a typically quirky, ironic Coen Brothers piece of work, this ain’t it.

The only caveat worth mentioning is the violence, which is unflinching and explicit. The PG-13 rating is questionable. I’ll bet many 13 year-old viewers will have nightmares after seeing it, as will some adults. For the most part, True Grit is a big morality play that could have been set in any time period. The old West, circa 1870-something happens to be a good fit for the plot, setting and characters.

On the surface this movie is simple. A precocious 14 year-old girl, Mattie, played by Hailee Steinfeld sets out to avenge the murder of her father and enlists a U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger to do the job. Jeff Bridges as the drunken, cynical Marshal and Matt Damon as the uptight, straight-laced Ranger maintain a verbal sparring match throughout the story. Their interaction alone is funny enough to be worth the ticket price.

The western landscape is filmed in classic John Ford style with huge vistas, inhospitable weather, mud and rocks. The stark reality of the images is breathtaking. Nothing is prettified; clothes get dirty and stay dirty. Only one scene betrayed filmmaking overreach, when a starlit night had to be augmented by some off-screen pin spots. Otherwise, the unobtrusive and well crafted cinematography of True Grit supported the story perfectly.

Underlying the simplicity of the plot are crosscurrents of good, evil and the not always clear cut roles of people in creating a civilized society. We learn that the Marshal had a criminal background and that the Ranger is more of a bounty hunter than a peace officer. The fragile social order of the frontier is evident everywhere in this tale.

The dialogue sounds more authentic than anything I’ve ever heard in any Western. The formality of the wording, the absence of slang and obscenities are at first startling. Then, after a few minutes I realized that people probably sounded like what I was hearing in this movie as opposed to the phony-baloney cursin’ and spittin’ we’ve become accustomed to in Hollywood productions.

Even though we understand from the first frame that the bad guys will get what’s coming to them and that good will triumph, the step by step process is suspenseful and fascinating. In the end we come to realize that Mattie, not the Marshal or the Ranger is the one with true grit. That grit being her determination and willingness to pay the price for her version of justice.

 

PS.  If you see the movie, you'll get the "kicks ass" reference.

- DMS