Mattie is a force that will take the measure of every man who crosses her path.
You can leave your expectations of weirdness at the door. The Coen brothers,
Ethan and Joel, have taken on the iconic American Western with an obvious deep
respect for the form. With marvelous attention to casting, detail, dialogue, and
music, they have made a movie that is gorgeous to see and fun to hear. True
Grit is a salute, not a spoof.
In the 1950s,
families flocked to local movie houses to watch Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Henry
Fonda and their lovable like mete out justice in the lawless Old West. The good
guys always won, though not without a few tears shed by the little woman left
peeking out from behind the curtain of the family home - waiting, always
waiting, for her man to return. The genre began to look silly in the '60s when
Americans preferred sex, drugs, and rock n roll; and later, when television
brought the real world into our living rooms with Vietnam and Watergate,
Westerns began to look quaint compared to real life. They disappeared from our
lives.
The Coens are
now revisiting the Western as history. In a terrific opening, a train slowly
chugs across the screen revealing a town and its inhabitants. We are immediately
thrown into a bargaining session between a horse trader (a memorable Dakin
Matthews) and a young girl named Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld, who does all her
own stunts). Within moments we know Mattie is not a 14-year old to be protected
or pitied. She will not be peeking from behind the curtain. She is a force who
will take the measure of every man who crosses her path.
Among those
who do are Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), U.S. Marshal, Mr. LaBoeuf (Matt
Damon), and Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Chaney is the man who killed Mattie's
father and when she announces her intended revenge, we don't doubt for a minute
Mattie's ability to find the killer with the help of the man she has hired -
Rooster Cogburn. In addition to inspired casting, the Coens create a sensuous
feel of the Old West. Living for weeks on little food with never a change of
clothes, weather pelting them with snow and rain - the characters exude stink
and grime and exhaustion.
In another
great stroke, the Coens have everyone speak in starched cadences ("one against
four, it's ill-advised.) Had they given this just to the serious and formal
Mattie it would have sounded silly. Instead, it erases contemporary accents and
allows the film to find a nicely undefined time slot in history.
Jeff Bridges,
who speaks whole sentences with his eyes, can be an overpowering presence, but
here he holds back in silent appreciation of Mattie's determination. He and Matt
Damon have marvelous roles that they turn into great screen characters. But this
is Hailiee Steinfeld's picture. She asks for it, politely of course, and the men
of the Wild West hand it to her gladly.
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