True Grit (The Remake)

True Grit (2010)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: The Brothers Coen

Starring: A quality cast, including Hailee Steinfeld… the reason why I saw the film

From: Paramount/Skydance Media

Another review done via request. Way back in late April, I was blessed w/ the good fortune of viewing a 70mm presentation of Sinners. In that review (which I’m glad is one of my most popular on Letterboxd) which received more than a few comments, one person noted how I should check out the True Grit remake after reading that I had only seen Hailee Steinfeld in Sinners. As I have viewed the original True Grit back four summers ago, no excuse for me to not finally give the movie a shot.

Turns out, it was better than the original. It can be argued whether John Wayne or Jeff Bridges was better as Rooster Cogburn, not to mention Glen Campbell or Matt Damon as Le Boeuf the Texas Ranger. However, Steinfeld certainly was better than Kim Darby as little Mattie Ross, hiring U.S. Marshal Cogburn to track down Tom Chaney, the rapscallion that murdered her father.

The cast as a whole does a swell job, whether it be Bridges, Damon, Barry Pepper, Josh Brolin, etc. However, it was neophyte actor Steinfeld who most impressed, especially for a feature film debut. She made the bold, confident Mattie a believable character. 15 years after the fact, I probably don’t need to extol the virtues of the direction, the score from Carter Burwell, the Roger Deakins cinematography, the New Mexico/Texas scenery that represented the Arkansas/Indian Territory of 1878.

Remakes-especially ones made in the 21st century-typically are rejected wholesale; thankfully, this version of True Grit was not only worthwhile and an improvement on the original film, it is a rare 21st century Western that isn’t a lousy B-movie & can be enjoyed by fans of classic genre efforts of decades past.