When we first see Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, he is an unholy mess of a man. He doesn’t speak so much as gargle word-sounding noises through phlegm, his nose is a tessellated bouquet of gin blossoms, and he sways in the breeze like his spine has been pickled. Bridges makes John Wayne’s crotchety old chubby Cogburn in the 1969 True Grit look like Mary Poppins; he’s a broken-down cowboy whose sole talent is being the meanest motherfucker in the room.
Bridges’s Cogburn plays perfectly against Hailee Steinfeld as prim Mattie Ross. Ross is serious, efficient, and curt—a 14-year-old girl so wounded by her father’s murder that she emotionally cauterized herself into a robot programmed only for revenge. It’s a brilliant pairing because Bridges’s Cogburn is nothing but emotion (when he and Ross are on the trail of the killer, Cogburn doesn’t stop talking about his feelings for even a second). Toss in Matt Damon’s clever turn as a self-
important, stuffy Texas ranger named LaBoeuf for comic relief—in another life, it seems, this cowboy would have made a legendarily great accountant—and you’ve got yourself a great western.
The Coen brothers forego many of their directorial tics for the sake of the movie—there are very few dazzling camera tricks, for example, allowing the viewer to admire the truly great cinematography. All you’re left with are stellar performances, the eerie New Mexico landscape, and the gorgeous language of Charles Portis. Portis—one of the greatest American humorists, possibly third only to Vonnegut and Twain—wrote True Grit in Ross’s own voice, and it’s as Shakespearean as American English has ever sounded. The lack of contractions give everything an alien cadence—”I am dying!”—that adds to the film’s spare setting and occasionally brutal worldview. It’s not a perfect adaptation, but it does a better job of capturing Portis’s unsentimental language than the earlier film.
True Grit makes a few mistakes along the way. Bridges’s performance is a bit uneven—his Cogburn is less broken-down in some scenes than in others—and the score is unimaginative. But it’s a story, an old-fashioned yarn, about two of the unlikeliest people thrown together by circumstance, and about the beauty that can grow out of the most barren soil. 
i’ll watch it on blue ray ftw
saw a sneak preview, the casting on the girl is stellar.
The unimaginative score echoed Night of the Hunter! I thought it was a cool twist with the kid hunting the killer this time. They did kind of beat us beat us over the head with it, though.
The Portis book is incredible. It’s going to be hard to replace Kim Darby in my heart, though; oh my oh my, Kim Darby. My dream woman, in 1969. This new one doesn’t have Glen Campbell in it neither.
I need to see it again. It was pretty good, but after one watching I rank it under their previous three films (A Serious Man, Burn After Reading, and No Country for Old Men). The falseness of the sky/horizon towards the end kinda bugged me. Maybe that whole look was intentionally cheezy though.
I love the Coen Brothers, but I couldn’t even begin to put Burn After Reading in their list of wins. I would compare this to No Country for Old Men and Miller’s Crossing–their best chracter studies. And Jeff Bridges is quickly riding up to join Robert Duvall as one of my favorite living actors.
@4 My god I hope you are joking fnarf! Kim Darby has less acting ability then a fence slat, and at that she does a better job then Glen Campbell. The thought occured to me when I first viewed the original, that Henry Hathaway delibertly cast two non-actors to share center stage with John Wayne in an effort to enhance the preception of the Duke’s performance.
@8- You take that back! Kim Darby was AMAZING in True Grit, perfect for the role. Then in Better Off Dead, when she boiled the bacon…I was rolling on the floor.
I thought it started off really well but tailed off towards the end. The Coens seem to be losing their edge and getting sentimental.
The new True Grit is fucking awesome. But of course it would be, it’s a Coen Bros movie. It’s maybe not my very favorite CB movie, but come on, that’s like comparing diamonds with more diamonds. Jeff Bridges, I’ll happily chew through your dungarees any day. Sunlight, here I come.
The Coen Brothers’ True Grit was a fantastic movie with excellent acting and superb craft, not special effects. My family all loved it, so did the entire theater from ages 10 to 90.
My real measure of a film is how often I think about it after I’ve left the theater. True Grit has stuck with me like no other movie has since A Serious Man.
@6, I enjoyed Burn After Reading, but it’s nowhere near as good as Miller’s Crossing or The Man Who Wasn’t There. Better than The Hudsucker Proxy and The Ladykillers, but not their best.
Ah!!! It’s “forgo,” not “forego,” in this instance!
I’ve been craving a damn good Western for a while; this came out just in time.
And John Wayne never did seem tough to me. He’s just a fat asshole in all his movies, hero or villain. I’ve never figured out how he got a reputation as the quintessential “tough cowboy” and got all those roles, and I guess I never will.
@Fnarf: Your Darby dreams can remain intact. It’s like she’s not even playing the same sport as Steinfeld.They’re not in competition.
@WeeblesWobble: Don’t hate on The Hudsucker Proxy! That’s a misunderstood movie if ever there was one.
I saw True Grit. It was a good family comedy. Not really what I expected though. I feel as if the Coen brothers dropped the ball here. That had an opportunity to make one of the most badass Westerns ever. What happened?
Bridges was a cross between the guy from Crazy Heart and The Dude. He was a joke not gritty.
Also the ending was lazy.
It’s a good family comedy but it could have been so much better. Save your money and rent it.
13. “Ah!!! It’s “forgo,” not “forego,” in this instance!”
Nope. It’s actually “Fargo” — in this and in ALL instances.
And No Country For Old Men is unfuckingbeatable.
Cormac McCarthy ROCKS!
As do the Coen Boys.
That first “True Grit” was pretty damn good in it’s day (and still). This one was a little “grittier”, but even though I usually love the Coen Brothers work, and all the actors are first rate, it didn’t make me lose my affection for the original. In fact, much of the dialog was EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL, which suggests that the original was pretty faithful to the book. Kim Darby and Glen Campbell weren’t really bad in those roles, plus you had some juicy character parts: Strother Martin as the horse trader, Robert Duvall as Ned Pepper, etc. And when it comes to Wayne, I think a lot of people dislike him for his politics and don’t appraise his work fairly. He owned the role, and as good as Bridges was, Wayne is STILL Rooster. I don’t always need a happy ending, but I prefer the ending of the original. Overall, a very similar version of a classic western for A:people who don’t watch movies from 1969, B: Don’t like John Wayne, C:Want to see the Dude with an eyepatch. Another unnecessary remake…
I liked both movies but the difference to me is the character Rooster 69 relished the idea of tracking down and killing Ned Pepper. Capturing Chaney was just an excuse to go and a bonus if found. Rooster 2010 quit after the trail went cold QUIT!!