Director Deep Dive is a chronological look into a director’s filmography to see how they and their works grow and change.
The Coens love westerns. This has been clear since the opening shot of Blood Simple and you can find elements of the genre throughout their career. Despite their love, the western element does not move to the forefront often, with one notable exception. It is a spice that the Coens sprinkle in to their work. So, what happens when the Coens forgo all the genre mash-ups and twisty plotting in favor of a good old-fashioned genre film? Well, you get their most straight-forward movie and also one of the best westerns of the 21st century.
True Grit is less a remake of the 1969 John Wayne film and a more faithful adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. The movie follows Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) a 14-year-old who is looking for help to find the man who killed her father. She eventually hires the trigger-happy Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) before cocksure Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) inserts himself into their hunt. From there, the movie follows their slow pursuit of the villainous Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) and the group of outlaws he has fallen in with.
Similar to the duo’s Cormac McCarthy adaptation No Country for Old Men, True Grit is a mostly accurate retelling of the book. This means that the Coens are operating at a slower pace than usual. This is a film that takes time setting up our trio of heroes and their various squabbles, hoping that it will pay off when they get into dire circumstances later in the movie. The film succeeds at this task thanks to the outstanding performances and a witty screenplay. The speed has changed, but the Coens gift for dialogue hasn’t left them.
There is a level of nostalgia that runs through the film that hasn’t been apparent in the duo’s earlier works. Not for the time period True Grit depicts but nostalgia for the era in which it was first created. The Coens have paid tribute to their youth before, but never in a way that feels so lovingly made.
What ultimately sets this True Grit apart is the level of craftsmanship on display. Roger Deakins returns to tap into the spirit of the Western, invoking the look and feel of the classics while giving the film a modern touch. Carter Burwell delivers another incredible score that calls on classical hymns to provide a time and place. Everyone involved in the film shows their clear affection, further elevating the music, which has always been an essential element in the Coens’ game.
Hailee Stanfield impresses in her first feature role, going toe-to-toe with every man who wishes to talk down to her and proving to be one of the most resourceful fourteen-year-olds in film history. The chemistry with Rooster is what the entire film hinges on, and she absolutely sells it. Jeff Bridges is no slouch himself, although he does a fair bit of it throughout the film. Bridges channels some of his inherent “The Dude” energy for Rooster. His version is more drunk and messy than the famous portrayal by John Wayne and the movie is better for it. This is not a man one aspires to be and his “shoot first” moral code puts him more in line with other Coens protagonists than your typical western hero.
Matt Damon rounds out our trio and he does a fantastic job complimenting his on-screen partners. Damon plays a more traditional cowboy role, arrogant and flashy, that masks a more tender side we see only fleetingly. Meanwhile, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper play the dastardly villains Tom Chaney and Ned Pepper, respectively. While they only appear in the last act of the film, the duo make the most of their time. Brolin’s Chaney is the more outwardly villainous, a foul man lashing out at the world. Pepper plays Ned as the more sensible one, a calculating type of evil that comes from years of being an outlaw.
True Grit opened to a warm reception from critics and proved to be a hit with audiences during a busy holiday season. With a gross of over $171 million, the film became the Coens highest grossing film to date and garnered 10 Oscars nominations, although they won none of them. The movie also marks the end of a 4-year period of productivity for the directing duo where they released a new work each year. 4 movies in 4 years, each unique in their own ways, all of them a testament to the Coens gift of craftsmanship and storytelling.
In some ways, True Grit is the perfect capstone to this chapter in the Coens’ career. On the surface, it is a standard genre picture with little to no frills, but underneath all that lies a profound melancholy. The film ends with an older Mattie reflecting on her life to that point, the moments that are lost and the ones that never happened. It is one of the brother’s most emotional moments and that it lands at the end of a film that is a love letter to the western, one of their favorite genres, makes it resonate even more.
The ending also gives us a clue to where the Coens go from here. The nostalgia that runs through this film will be present in all of their remaining works and so will that sense of melancholy. As they slide into the role of elder statesmen, the brothers seem more interested than ever in looking back and seeing what we missed along the way.
Next: The Coens take a trip to the 60s folk scene and revel in the highs and lows of being creative with Inside Llewyn Davis.
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