True Grit

The Dude replaces The Duke in the Coens' first pure western, with the brothers ignoring the antiquated 1969 Wayne vehicle and choosing instead to mine the Americana source novel by Charles Portis. Set in the 1870s, indomitable 14-year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfield) hires a man with ‘true grit’ in Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to bring to justice the man who killed her father, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin).

Accompanied by Matt Damon’s Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, the unlikely posse head out into Indian territory to retrieve their bounty. It’s the literary source that provides the linguistic richness here as Cogburn’s whiskey raw southern drawl ebbs like the tide against Mattie’s whip smart rebuttals and La Boeuf’s false whimsy. The Coens are respectful of the material and they show great restraint in keeping their trademark sardonic humour at bay. Instead they deliver an artfully re-envisioned western of brutish characters shot in sun-bleached cinematography to tell a tale not easily forgotten.