Movie Tour: True Grit

My wife and I decided to see a movie a while back.  Let me explain something.  In order for us to get to a decent movie theater, we have to drive at least for an hour.  There’s one that is half an hour away, but we don’t really like it all that much.  On one particular raining day, we decided that we wanted to see a movie.  We initially set out to see Tangled (which we did end up seeing a couple weeks later), but ended up not wanting to drive the hour to go see it.  Our fall back plan was to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, but it was only showing in 3D and the nearest theater – a fact we didn’t know until we got there.  Now, maybe this is a post for another time, but I despise the way that 3D is being used, and didn’t feel like getting a headache, so we ended up seeing True Grit instead.  It was a movie that I was excited about, but didn’t think my wife wanted to see.  I was thrilled when we ended up seeing that instead.

 

Plot Summary

True Grit is the story of young Mattie Ross (played by Hailee Steinfeld) who is out for revenge on a man by the name of Tom Chaney (Brolin), who killed her father.  She hires US Marshall Rooster Cogburn to help her track down the man.  Cogburn (Bridges) is a drunk, and a mean cuss, who would rather shoot a man than bring him in to justice, and that is exactly what Mattie is looking for.  They are joined on the hunt by LaBoeuf (Damon) who is trying to track down Chaney (who he knows by another name) for crimes that he committed in Texas.

Review

I’m sure that I have seen the original True Grit starring John Wayne, but I can’t honestly remember watching it before.  I have heard that it is a bit more light-hearted than the book that the movie is based on, but there is no light-heartedness in this movie.  It is more true to the book than the original, which gives it a raw feeling.  It certainly has moments of comic relief (much-needed comic relief) from time to time, but this is not a light-hearted comedy by any stretch of the imagination.  It’s a story about revenge, plain and simple.  Bridges has very deservingly earned an Academy Award nomination for his role.

Recommendation

Go see it.  Stop whatever you are doing, and go see this movie.  Remember that there is going to be some violence.  Don’t expect to see John Wayne in this one, and don’t expect to walk away feeling warm and fuzzy.  It is a bleak look at what happens when we are consumed by revenge, and it is fantastic.

Best Part

Cogburn has a number of one-liners that bring some much needed comic relief to the movie.  One of the best: “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”  He says this following a botched plan to catch a gang that may be hiding Chaney.