True Grit

After years of establishing themselves as the kings of quirk, the Coens seem to have found a strong mid-period vein of powerful Westerns. If this and No Country For Old Men were put side-by-side it would make a cracking, serious double-bill, but of course the Coens being the Coens they sandwiched in two comedies in between – the wonderfully wacky A Serious Man and the truly disastrous Burn After Reading.

Their decision to remake an old classic makes this something of a departure for them – they usually insist on being original, for good or bad. The Coens claim they went back to the source book for this rather than the John Wayne western, claiming they have only vague memories of the film. There are a couple of giveaways though – in the book there is no mention of Rooster Cogburn having one eye or a patch, while Bridges’ patch is clearly a nod to Wayne. Also one of the shoot-outs is almost shot-for-shot.

This is about as straight a Western as the Coens are ever likely to make, with only a couple of truly quirky moments to remind you who’s at the helm – a bear man emerging from the woods, and a minor character who does animal impressions before being shot 10 minutes later. Apart from that it’s a classic revenge tale, with Steinfeld’s Oscar-nominated Mattie Ross, all 13 years of her, riding into town and hiring washed out Cogburn to bring the killer of her father to justice. He is, of course, a complete soak, shambling, mumbling and bedraggled, but early on we see his sense of justice and duty – he stops Matt Damon’s creepy Laboef from spanking her, sensing something is amiss there.

The three unlikely characters head into ‘Indian country’ to find her father’s killer, Chaney (Brolin), and much of the film is the trio, sometimes just a duo, horse riding through beautiful but bleak scenery, merely trying to survive but driven on by their purpose. It’s more of a road movie than a western at times, punctuated with lots of precisely dated dialogue which is witty, charming and chilling, sometimes at the same time.

At one point Mattie sees a man hanging from a tree, and asks Cogburn why they he was hanged so high – “to make damn sure he was dead” comes the laconic reply. It’s a stately, slow, almost dream-like film at times, with Bridges’ superb, grumbling Cogburn holding the attention and Steinfeld’s Mattie tugging at the heart-strings. She thoroughly deserves her Oscar nomination. It’s a fantastic performance, a slip of a girl whose only weapons are her precise words and knowledge of the law and money. She reduces a local tradesman to a gibbering wreck with her insistence, and similarly rouses Cogburn from his drunken stupor. She also doesn’t hesitate to remind us that she is a mere girl, staring with terrified, wide eyes when Cogburn aims his rifle during a crucial sho0t-out, and is never afraid to be vulnerable. Quite how she is nominated for Supporting Actress is a mystery – she is the narrator of the story at the start and is in virtually every frame. She was nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTAs, which seems more proper.

What is more inevitable is that the great cinematographer Roger Deakins was nominated for his wonderful work, which is bleak but always precise and perfectly framed, much like his work on No Country and The Assassination of Jesse James. Surely he will win – but we’ve said that before. 

Overall verdict:  A powerful, beautifully paced, thoroughly  enjoyable addition to the Coens’ work.

Reviewer: Mike Martin