Coens Kick Aside Dusty Classic with Grit

The Coen brothers are among the great auteur filmmakers of our time. They might occasionally lean too much on quirk and despicable characters as in Burn After Reading and The Big Lebowski – which formed my love/hate relationship with their work - but they are undeniably talented, which is why we now have such great American films as Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and last year’s A Single Man. Now, the Coens can add True Grit, adapted from the novel by Charles Portis, to their list of great films.

True Grit stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, with appearances by Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper. It is a film, like the brothers’ other work, that’s about faith, selfishness, and solitude. It relishes the American landscape and the English language. It is what one would call a “traditional western” where its only frills are its gorgeous Big Country photography, its 19th century manner of speaking (so foreign in an age of LOL text-speak), and its lack of larger-than-life performances. This is a western for fans of Unforgiven, Tombstone, or High Noon.

Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a tough-talking 14 year-old who can out-haggle and outsmart men three times her age. Ross is looking to hire someone to hunt down her father’s murderer, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She hires the reluctant and drunken Rooster Cogburn (Bridges). A proud Texas Ranger (Damon) also joins up to bring Chaney to justice for a crime committed in Waco.

Comparisons to the 1969 John Wayne original are unavoidable. After all, it was the film that won the acting legend his only Oscar. In a remake-happy film industry, it’s rare for one to actually avoid disgrace and improve on the original. The key here is the original, as an adaptation of a novel, had a lot of room for improvement. But fans of the ’69 Grit can rest easy knowing the Coens have avoided a moment-by-moment modern retread. In fact, they have succeeded at crafting something that is superior to the original in every way.

Jeff Bridges, complete with the trademark Cogburn eye patch that John Wayne originated as homage to his favorite creative partner, John Ford, gives his own version of Rooster. Where Wayne was hammy and larger-than-life, Bridges is mangy and at times incoherent. His Cogburn is not fall-down drunk, but his taste for the flask causes him to stumble on the job. Cogburn may be a drunken cowboy like last year’s Bad Blake of Crazy Heart, but he’s much more grizzled and intimidating enough to give a tough outlaw pause before filling his hands for a shootout.

But the true star of this film is not Cogburn this time around. At the year’s twilight, we are given quite possibly its best character, Mattie Ross. Like Ree Dolly of Winter’s Bone earlier this year, Mattie is stubborn, determined, and tougher than one would expect from a girl her age. Both set out in a dangerous locale on a quest related to their fathers. Both can fend for themselves, but whose headstrong ways back them into a corner, to paraphrase a line from True Grit. Ree and Mattie are kindred spirits separated by a lifetime and two of the most fascinating characters of the year performed by two of its best new talents: Jennifer Lawrence and Hailee Steinfeld. I was unable to resist watching Steinfeld with fixed attention, tickled by her gumption and fascinated by her ability to perform as expertly as the stars riding by her side. Like Damon in his role, Steinfeld blows her predecessor out of the water.

In True Grit, the violence is occasionally gory, the humor is dark and understated, and the imagery is striking. It is an old-fashioned revenge western featuring a character that demands your attention to her story’s end. It’s one with an edge, realism, and subject matter the potential of which had until now had gone unfulfilled. It is one of the best films of the Coen brothers’ unique career.


9/10

Should you see it? Buy tickets.


True Grit is now playing in theaters.