True Grit

True Grit
2010
Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges

Wow. It's a word that is seldom used by me. But the mere velocity of this western brings forth the word from my lips like a stain on a coffee table left by a cold drink. What does that mean? It's a good movie, that's what. The film facilitates true grit as the title suggests by bringing forth a collection of fast-talking, gun slinging, and more balls carried by a 14 year old girl than anyone I know.

The story focuses on 14 year old Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) searching revenge for her father's death. Her father's murderer is man named Tom Chaney (not to be confused with Dick Cheney, who shoots people, too). She is on the hunt for Chaney (Josh Brolin) and hires a gun slinging, quick talking, almost in-understandable Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Cogburn ditches the girl and hires LaBoeuf (pronounced La-Beef? We'll get to that later). The girl catches up with the two horsemen and the 3 of them ride together towards their ultimate goal of finding Chaney. Each with their own reason for finding Chaney, the three bump heads more times that I could count. The journey ensued brings forth a sense of a willingness to reach a goal, bring about friendship through strangers, and learning that no matter what age or gender, any one can do something as long as they work hard.

The Coen brothers don't always have a phenomenal movie in my eyes (Burn After Reading, The Ladykillers to name a couple). Anyway, this movie brought back to me the feeling of watching Fargo for the first, second, and even third time. The collection of characters and actors work together well in this gritty old western first brought about by the legendary John Wayne back in 1969. The irony, however, is that the Coen brothers never even saw the Duke's version of the movie. The made a re-adaptation of the book written by Charles Portis. This made sure to be interesting as the Coens made it impossible to create a direct copy of the original film.

Going on that fact, though, how did the Coen brothers know Damon's character's name was pronounced La-Beef? Did they simply guess, ask the author (if still alive), or just want to avoid any confusion with Shia. Yeah, I said it. It's spelled practically the same way, I'm just saying. Also, I know that it is a business, but I hate when movies and studios fail to recognize the main character in a movie. Hailee Steinfeld is the main character in True Grit. End of story. The camera follows her every move, and the other characters are secondary. So, on the poster of the movie, or the trailer, why isn't she first billed? There is a system, I know that. Don't comment to me of "oh they need to show that there's big actors in it, too". Well how come Jeff Bridges wasn't first billed in Stick It? How come Matt Damon wasn't first billed in Team America: World Police? There's a false nature to this business bringing about the hard work and exploitation of young actors that boggles my mind. Hailee Steinfeld deserves a lot of credit, including a Best Actress nomination, if she is to be nominated. Not Best Supporting Actress. The only thing she supported was the rest of the cast.

Oh, and Jeff Bridges, you talk like you have a gigantic tongue and no one can understand you. Please fix it or I'll piss on your rug.

Stars (out of 10): 8