Saturday, January 01, 2011

TRUE GRIT (2010)

I was kinda curious about how good this movie would be.  I was raised by the biggest John Wayne fan, so a movie like this had potential to be really great or really bad.  I purposely did not re-watch the original True Grit before seeing this one, because I wanted to judge this one on its own merit.  Im happy to say that this movie was AWESOME! 

Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld plays14-year-old Mattie Ross, who has decided she needs to make sure her father's killer is brought to justice.  Unfortunately, the case is not high on the list of priorities for the local law.  So she hires a Marshall that she hears is the meanest around - Rooster Cogburn. They strike up a deal to track and find Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the murderer.

Texas Ranger, "Mr. Lebeof", played by Matt Damon, has been tracking Chaney unsuccessfully for months.  After much bickering about who should and shouldn't go, the three of them head off to get their man.  At first, the men tried to go without Mattie, but she was stubbornly determined that she was going to be a part of this job. 

What follows is bad weather, arguments, shoot-em-up scenes, crazy mountain men, whiskey-drinking,  and everything you would expect to see in a good western!  This movie was GREAT!   Jeff Bridges played a great Rooster Cogburn, & Matt Damon played a great Leboef.  Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross did an outstanding job - a very big role for a new young actress!

You MUST see this movie - it's a great story to begin with, and it's retold beautifully!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I did a double take when I heard about this movie. I thought, HOW can Jeff Bridges play the role that John Wayne made famous? No way, right?

Well, like you I loved this movie. I've got to say you nailed the review about the characters and the quality. Nice work!