"True Grit"
2010
PG-13
Produced by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Written (Adapted) by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeild, Matt Damon
Paramount Pictures


4.93/5 stars
Consensus:One of the best films you could see! With beautifully and wildly entertaining... everything True Grit is another great gem in the Coen brother's already impressive crown. I highly recommend seeing it, and will probably own it in the near future. Very worthwhile. And did I mention entertaining?



Plot: 14 year-old "Mattie Ross"(Hailee Steinfeild) just suffered the loss of her father at the hands of good for nothing drunk & out-law, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She wants revenge. So after asking around town a bit our heroine determines to hire the legendary ex-U.S. Marshall "Rooster Cogburn" (Jeff Bridges) to help in her vigilantism. After some persuading Cogburn agrees and our journey begins, but not before Texas Ranger "LaBoeuf" (Matt Damon) appears. He is also on Chaney's tail for the murder of a Texas Senator. The three set out on a perilous journey filled with adventure and danger, and True Grit.

Directing: What more can be said about the Coen Brother's directing? They're brilliant and some of the finest directors the film industry has to offer. Everything about this movie is spot on. They have a wonderful eye for talent and they know how to direct it. You can tell how well the characters knew their actors and the motives. Everything was consistent, and brilliant in the same quirky way all Coen Brother's films are. From subtle homage to old western b-films of the 50's, to John Wayne tributes and plain old western fun, the directing was brilliant! *****

Acting:Jeff Bridges is a veteran  an academy award winner, and is used to working with the Coen Brothers. His role was originally played by John Wayne. Having not seen the original I can't say if he lives up to the role, its abundantly clear Bridges knew his role though. The man is a genius and one of the finest actors in the industry. New comer Hailee Steinfeild (Mattie Ross) also gives a brilliant performance. Every single actor was spot on with their character. Damon, Bridges and Steinfeild particularly had wonderful chemistry and were each perfect for their role. One can tell how much fun they had being their character, but Steinfeild and Bridges really steal the show. One of the best acted movies you could see. *****

Editing: The combination of close-ups and extreme wide shots was awesome. The editing is wonderful and extremely well done. It felt so much like an old western film from the 50's with choice of shots and pacing, such smart assembly and direction of audience attention. Whoever edited the film knows their art well and did a superb job on this film. Several scenes stand out, in particular 2 characters (Cogburn & Ross) happen upon a corpse hanging from a tree. Cogburn instructs Ross to cut the corpse down and the clip ends and next we see Cogburn is ranting about all his adventures while Ross is up in the tree attempting to lose the corpse from the rope attached to the tree she is in. It worked well because instead of a slow build up to what was going to happen in the scene, the audience was immediately shown and provided with lots of humor and insights to Cogburn's character. Overall the editing was brilliant. *****

Art Direction: The Coen brother's eye for art direction will never cease to amaze me. The old west comes out in an authentic and wild way on many many levels in this film. From shooting location to the town to costuming, everything was spot on. To crazy characters dressed in nothing but bear fur to the clothes Mattie Ross picks to go adventuring in, there is something authentic to every bit of this film and the old west comes alive. If not only in homage to 50's westerns. *****


Cinematography: Perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of this gorgeous film is how beautifully framed and set up the shots within it are. From the earliest opening scene to the very final shot the cinematorgraphy is gorgeous. Whether it be a wide shot of the wilderness Ross and Cogburn are traveling through or a close up of one character talking, everything looks so... pretty! Ha! The old west is the perfect backdrop for really gorgeous pictures, heck you could even mute the whole movie and just look at how pretty it is and probably still be happy! *****

Screenplay: The screenplay is adapted from the original True Grit(1969) starring John Wayne and it feels like they've done a good job at staying true to that form (I've never seen the original so I can't say). All dialogue is extremely smart and sounds exactly right. From narratives, to old western rants everything was perfect. If someone went to the old west and wrote down all the phrases they used and then compared it with the screenplay to this film, they would probably find a lot in common. Or it felt that way at least. From hot talking sure shots, to evil bandits, and old western fish stories True Grit's screenplay is wonderful. *****

CGI/Special Effects: The horse at the very end looked fake, but not THAT fake. Just a little video gamish. But it worked out just fine and was hardly something very noticable. That said however the snakes that attack Ross at the end looked very notably fake as well. A fault of CGI I suppose, but it didn't really bother me since CGI is the thing I care least about in film. The blood and gore effects were all super cool so that more than made up for some mild (and barely noticable) sub-par creature effects. Its hardly the point of the film and doesn't detract from it. Again the blood effects were super cool, but the film hardly uses CGI except for obvious ethical reasons (killing a horse on the screen seems extremely unethical and wasteful, CGI is the obvious choice) so don't let 10 minutes of screen time effect your opinion of the film. That would be silly. ****1/2