ViewGuide

Created Dec 31, 2010 12:40AM PST • Edited Sep 11, 2014 01:01AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Darker and more realistic than the 1969 original featuring John Wayne, this 21st Century retelling of a classic Wild West retribution story succeeds in almost every respect — often funny, richly evocative, shockingly brutal, cleverly revisionist. That last comes from the clear hero – a 14 year old girl, not the flawed men she uses to bring her father’s murderer to justice.

   The Coen Brothers love this sort of unconventional storytelling, especially when they can marry it to rich visuals and vivid characters.

   Jeff Bridges, in yet another late-career masterclass performance,¹ and young newcomer Hailee Steinfeld are the most vivid of those characters, he filling John Wayne’s saddle as Rooster Cogburn and she creating a mentally tough girl for the ages as Mattie Ross.

   The rich visuals come from the Arkansas and Oklahoma settings and period trappings, delivered to a really great quality level.

   Does it stand up to the original? Yes, on balance it’s better. When it comes to movie making, that’s some true grit indeed.

   Were it not for the occasionally shocking violence, True Grit would make the perfect father-daughter date movie. Got a tough daughter who can handle near-R violence? Get the popcorn ready, ‘cause she’s gonna love Mattie Ross. “Go Blacky, Go!”

   ¹ Previously Crazy Heart, Big Lebowski and Iron Man, oh my.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Inevitably, gotta compare the new `uns to the originals.

   • Marshal Rooster Cogburn: Bridges makes a really great Cogburn, though the Duke takes it in the big moments, “Fill your hands” especially. Call it a tie.
   • Texas Ranger LaBoeuf: Damon’s beefcake proves a bit tender. He ain’t as shiny as ole’ Glen Campbell (who was young at the time), nor as authentic. The Rhinestone Cowboy wins.
   • Mattie Ross: Hailee Steinfeld acquits herself well in a role where she plays a 15 year old girl who’s knowledgeable as Daniel Webster and resolute as Abe Lincoln. Precocious doesn’t even begin to cover it. She’s hands down better than the original’s Kim Darby, plus she’s age appropriate for the character. With this breakout, Steinfeld joins the impressive Tough Girl sorority, young actresses who’ve recently made a name for themselves in gritty roles.
   • Tom Chaney: Josh Brolin’s appearance is little more than a cameo, so while he’s a more impressive actor than the original’s Jeff Corey, let’s call it a tie.
   • Lucky Ned Pepper: Notwithstanding Barry Pepper delivering a fine performance while sharing Lucky Ned’s last name, he don’t hold a candle to Robert Duvall from the original. Who would?
   • Moon: Domhnall Gleeson plays the unfortunate kid who finds the wages of sin are death. Unfortunately he doesn’t make the vivid impression Dennis Hopper made in the original.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

   Bridges was really great, Damon good.

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

   To maintain balance.

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Western to the point of Americana, the Coen’s obsess on the look, sounds and trappings of the Wild West, fitting for a story serialized in the Saturday Evening Post before it was a novel.

    About the novel, it’s clear the Coen’s based their film on Charles Portis’ satirical triumph, not on the first screen adaptation.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    The Coen’s idiosyncratic form cuts out some important scenes while cutting others short. Fortunately it’s not as severe as in No Country for Old Men. Yet they don’t show the murder that sets the story in motion, and fail to round out the suspense of several other scenes.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Did Charles Portis write all the irony into his novel or did the Coen’s insert it into their screenplay?

    • Texas Ranger LaBoeuf mispronounces his name – calling himself “La Beef” – and botches adios.
    • Mattie Ross calls her new mount Blacky, an idea immediately endorsed by a black stable boy.

13. Music Great 4.0

    The plaintive 19th Century music creates a properly aching feeling.

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5

    Shot where the story takes place, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the visuals feel more real than the original’s Rocky Mountain setting, which was phony to the story.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.9

    The brief – albeit shocking – violence should keep pre-adolescent eyes away from this movie, a shame, since girls of all ages will properly see Mattie Ross as a hero.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.9

    Let’s see: a 14 year old girl with the brains of Daniel Webster and the savvy of Doc Holiday; a one-eyed fat man who drinks enough to kill a horse; a through and through bullet wound to the shoulder that causes no functional difficulties just a day later; and the ever popular inability of the bad guys to hit the good guys with even one of a hail of bullets. Glib.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Surreal 2.1

24. Physical Glib 2.0