There are some films considered so sacred they should never be remade. “Gone with the Wind” would be one of them, “Citizen Kane” and “Vertigo” still others. But the new Coen Brothers’ take on “True Grit” presents an interesting challenge to the idea that you can’t possibly top greatness.
The original “True Grit” came out in 1969 and earned the legendary John Wayne his only Oscar, for the colorful, oversized role of a cantankerous U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn. But even as he did a great job playing a feisty, one-eyed lawman traveling with a young girl and a sidekick on the trail of some ruthless killers, the Oscar that Wayne received for the role is largely considered a career honor that paid tribute to his dozens of other classic Westerns in the waning years of his career. It’s still one heck of a tribute, as plenty of other iconic actors never even earned that kind of respect from the Academy.
But the new “True Grit,” while sharing the same basic plot and characters, is defiantly its own film – a darker, funnier, more intense take on the hunt by Cogburn and the 12-year-old girl Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld in a stunning debut performance) as they and a bounty hunter named LaBeouf (Matt Damon) search for the gang led by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). It’s also a more spiritually layered film, with the trio’s mission a quest for divine justice and retribution against the wicked who once traveled across the Wild West.
The reason why writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen are able to make such a different film – one that is rightfully stirring Oscar buzz as a likely Best Picture contender – is that they claim they have never seen the Wayne film, and instead have been solely inspired by the novel that came before even that original cinematic take. Written by Charles Portis, a wickedly funny writer from Little Rock who wrote a few minor classic novels in the 1960s and ’70s before opting for obscurity in the tradition of Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger, “True Grit” was largely brightened up for its original trip to the theaters.
The Coens make the novel’s world their own, bringing back the gritty tone of their prior films “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men” while also crafting villains who are a nightmarishly funny along with being just plain evil. And in every frame of this new film, viewers can feel the dirt kicking up from the unforgiving ground, the wind sweeping past on lonely and cold winter trails, and practically smell the breath of the kind of men for whom dental care meant a combination of hard whisky and pliers. The result is a fully immersive, expertly rendered and unforgettable experience.
Into this mix, Bridges builds on the newfound confidence and star power borne of his last starring role, “Crazy Heart,” for which he earned the Best Actor Oscar last year in one of the all-time great matches between actor and character. From the first second his Cogburn is seen, defiantly answering questions in a courtroom, it is clear that he is the wrong man to mess with: a tall, fearsome man who can barely keep count of the number of men he’s killed, much less shot, speaking in an at times incomprehensible drawl yet undoubtedly the kind of man you want protecting you and your family when the chips are down.
Yet Bridges also shows a wicked sense of humor throughout as well – the endlessly colorful Old West dialogue certainly helps – and eventually a tenderness as he develops a respect and fatherly relationship with Mattie on their dangerous journey across the winter wilderness. While Bridges will almost definitely score his second straight Oscar nomination for the role, it is Steinfeld – a literal discovery, playing her first-ever movie role after being discovered in Kansas City during a nationwide talent search – who is drawing even greater raves in what should earn her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, hands-down. As one veteran Los Angeles critic asked her recently at a press event: “Who ARE you and where did you come from?!” Audiences nationwide will be asking the same question with astonishment.