This is for the 2010 remake of True Grit, by the way. I have to specify the year because I imagine some of you would erroneously believe that the original 1969 film would be the one getting reviewed. If you can handle Glen Campbell and Kim Darby’s acting, more power to you, but for me, the 2010 Coen Brothers version is infinitely superior. Even if you believe that John Wayne is Rooster Cogburn (everyone’s entitled to their opinion, even dumb ones), you can’t deny that Jeff Bridges is the better actor. The Coen Brothers version leans into the quirkiness of the original novel by Charles Portis, and toes the line between humor and action, while keeping the intensity and theme of fruitless revenge intact. It’s full of unusual characters that make small appearances and give the movie plenty of color and character. Portis and Coen is a perfect fit, if ever there was one.

If you don’t know the story, Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a strong-willed girl who doesn’t have the time or patience to leave justice against the man who killed her father to anyone else. She handles the business of returning her father’s body home, and then pursues Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) herself, and seeks the assistance of Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to help bring him down. Cogburn is a drunken shell of the man he once was and so doesn’t appear to be much help, but he makes the attempt anyway, finding Mattie to be persuasive and perhaps intriguing in her headstrong ways, and they add Texas Ranger LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) to the mix since he’s wanting to take Chaney back to Texas to stand trial there. At every turn, every person including Cogburn and LeBoeuf tell Mattie that this is no venture for a young girl, but she’s determined. They meet outlaws and trappers out in the wild, as they conduct their search. Once they find Tom Chaney with the Ned Pepper gang, Mattie and Cogburn both get the chance to prove their mettle. Cogburn deals with the Ned Pepper gang and Mattie deals with a rattlesnake.

The last twenty-to-thirty minutes of True Grit are some of the most powerful scenes to ever grace the screen. The shootout with Pepper’s gang, Mattie’s snakebite, and Rooster’s relentless drive to get Mattie to a doctor conveys a rollercoaster of emotion throughout. And even when the smoke clears, you wonder if you’re about to go for round two at any given moment. I love practically everything the Coen brothers do, but I particularly love their work with the Western and its adjacent genres. The eye for the look of the West and their ear for dialogue make them some of the best fit for the revival of the genre. Beyond those things, what sets True Grit apart is the score which is mostly comprised of hymns reworked with simple piano and strings, specifically the ironically used “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” and “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand”. It’s understated, but powerful, particularly during that desperate ride to find a doctor. There’s no other way to describe it: what a movie.

Bonus Review: Unforgiven

Here’s another Western that I wish I had room for in my Top 25 Westerns list, but it just barely missed the cut. Unforgiven is a lot of things. It’s a last hurrah into the genre that made Clint Eastwood famous. It’s one of only three Westerns to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s an anti-violence movie that portrays gun violence and death in the most inglorious way possible. It’s the blending of classic Westerns and the revisionist Western and spends significant time deconstructing the tropes of the Western genre as a whole without completely voiding them. It’s quite a tightrope act, but Eastwood, on and behind the camera, makes it look effortless. He also throws in several references to some of his other Westerns, particularly Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter. Eastwood bought the rights for the film in the 70s and sat on it for nearly twenty years just so he could make it at the perfect time.

In a town in Wyoming, a cowboy cuts up a prostitute’s face. The local sheriff, “Little Bill” Daggett, forces the cowboy and his partner to give some of their horses to the brothel owner for his loss of revenue on the woman as punishment. Enraged at the events, the prostitutes pull their money together and offer a $1000 bounty on the cowboys. Will Munny struggles to keep his farm afloat in Kansas. A widower with two children, Will is a former outlaw and ruthless killer, now ashamed of his past and hoping to stay quiet on his farm. A bounty hunter called the Schofield Kid approaches him about helping him with the $1000 bounty. To save his farm, Will reluctantly agrees and recruits his old friend, Ned Logan, to help. The three of them arrive in town during a rainstorm and Kid and Ned go speak with the prostitutes while Will drinks in the saloon, nursing a fever. Little Bill doesn’t realize who Will is but guesses he’s in town for the bounty, and so he enforces a strict no-gun policy in town to deprive Will of his gun and beat him. Ned and Kid take Will out to a barn and nurse him back to health. Once he’s better, the three of them ambush one of the cowboys and Will shoots him when Ned fails to do so, prompting Ned to return home. Will and Kid find the other cowboy and kill him, but Kid shows great remorse and reveals he had never killed anyone before. When the prostitutes deliver the money, they reveal that Ned was captured on his way home and flogged to death by Little Bill in an attempt to get their location. Hearing this, Will takes the Kid’s gun, tells him to go back to Kansas with the money, and marches back into town. Ned’s body is displayed in a coffin just outside the saloon. Will walks into the saloon and kills several of the men inside, including Little Bill. Afterwards, he leaves town and supposedly takes his kids somewhere far away. They are never seen again.