True Grit (2010 film)

True Grit is a 2010 American Western film directed, written, produced and edited by the Coen brothers and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. It's the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed in 1969 starring John Wayne and Glen Campbell. This version stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper. After an outlaw named Tom Chaney murders her father, feisty 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross hires Cogburn, a boozy, trigger-happy lawman, to help her find Chaney (Brolin) and avenge her father. The bickering duo are accompanied on their quest by a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Damon), who has been tracking Chaney for killing a State Senator. As they embark on a dangerous adventure, each character has their "grit" tested in unprecedented ways.

Filming began in March 2010, and the film was officially released in the U. S. on December 22, 2010, after advance screenings earlier that month.[3] The film opened the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011.[4] The film was well-received by critics, garnering a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing, but didn't win any of its nominations. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7, 2011.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Adaptation and production 4 Soundtrack 5 Release 5.1 Box office 5.2 Critical reception 5.3 Accolades 5.4 Home media 6 References 7 External links

Plot
Mattie Ross, the narrator, explains that her father was murdered by Tom Chaney when she was 14 years old. While collecting her father's body in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Mattie asks the local sheriff about the search for Chaney. Chaney has fled with Ned "Lucky" Pepper and his gang into Indian Territory, where the sheriff has no authority, she inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal. The sheriff gives three recommendations, and Mattie chooses Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn rebuffs her offer, not believing she has the money to hire him. She raises the money by aggressively horse-trading with Colonel Stonehill.

Texas Ranger LaBoeuf arrives in town on the trail of Chaney for the murder of a Texas State Senator. LaBoeuf proposes to team up with Cogburn, but Mattie refuses his offer. She wishes Chaney to be hanged in Arkansas for her father's murder, not in Texas for killing the senator. Mattie also insists on traveling with Cogburn to search for Chaney, but Cogburn leaves without her, having gone with LaBoeuf to apprehend Chaney.

After being refused passage on the river ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie fords the river on horseback. LaBoeuf expresses his displeasure by birching Mattie with a stick, but Cogburn eventually stops him. After a dispute over their respective service with the Confederate States of America, Cogburn ends their arrangement and LaBoeuf leaves. While pursuing the Pepper gang, the two meet a trail doctor who directs them to an empty dugout for shelter. They find two outlaws, Quincey and Moon, and interrogate them. Moon divulges what he knows to Cogburn; Quincey fatally stabs Moon, and Cogburn shoots Quincey dead. Before dying, Moon says Pepper and his gang will be returning that night.

LaBoeuf arrives at the dugout and is confronted. Cogburn, hiding on the hillside with Mattie, shoots two gang members and accidentally hits LaBoeuf, but Pepper escapes. The next day, Cogburn gets in a drunken argument with the wounded LaBoeuf, who departs again. While getting water, Mattie encounters Chaney. She shoots and wounds him, but he survives and drags her back to Ned, who forces Cogburn to leave by threatening to kill her. Ned leaves Mattie with Chaney, ordering him not to harm her or he will not get paid after his remount arrives.

Chaney tries to knife Mattie. LaBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out, explaining that he and Cogburn devised a plan. They watch from a cliff as Cogburn takes on the remaining members of Ned's gang, killing two and wounding Ned, before his horse is shot and falls, trapping Cogburn's leg. LaBoeuf snipes Pepper from roughly four hundred yards away. Chaney regains consciousness and knocks LaBoeuf unconscious with a rock. Mattie seizes LaBoeuf's rifle and shoots Chaney in the chest. The recoil knocks her into a deep pit. Cogburn soon arrives, but Mattie is bitten by a rattlesnake before he can get to her. Cogburn cuts into her hand to suck out as much of the venom as he can, and then rides day and night to get Mattie to a doctor, carrying her on foot after her horse collapses from exhaustion, finally making his way to Bagby's store.

Twenty-five years later, in 1903, Mattie reveals through narration that her left forearm was amputated due to gangrene from the snakebite. Cogburn stayed with her until she was out of danger, but left the store before she regained consciousness. She never saw Cogburn again, despite a letter she wrote to him inviting him to visit and to collect the money she still owed him. She receives a note from Cogburn inviting her to meet him at a travelling Wild West show where he now performs. She arrives, only to learn that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved to her family cemetery. Standing over Cogburn's grave, she reflects on her decision to move his remains, and about never having married. She also reveals that she never saw LaBoeuf again.

Cast
After competing with 15,000 other applicants for the role of Mattie Ross, Hailee Steinfeld was cast. Jeff Bridges as Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney Barry Pepper as Ned "Lucky" Pepper Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (the Kid) Bruce Green as Harold Parmalee Ed Lee Corbin as Bear Man (Dr. Forrester) Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell Poindexter Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy Nicholas Sadler as Sullivan Dakin Matthews as Colonel Stonehill Elizabeth Marvel and Ruth Morris as 40-year-old Mattie[5] Leon Russom as Sheriff Jake Walker as Judge Isaac Parker Don Pirl as Cole Younger James Brolin as Frank James (uncredited cameo) Jarlath Conroy as the Undertaker J. K. Simmons as Lawyer J. Noble Daggett (voice only; uncredited)

Adaptation and production
The project was rumored as far back as February 2008;[6] however it was not confirmed until March 2009.[7]

Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version.

It's partly a question of point-of-view. The book is entirely in the voice of the 14-year-old girl. That sort of tips the feeling of it over a certain way. I think [the book is] much funnier than the movie was so I think, unfortunately, they lost a lot of humor in both the situations and in her voice. It also ends differently than the movie did. You see the main character – the little girl – 25 years later when she's an adult. Another way in which it's a little bit different from the movie – and maybe this is just because of the time the movie was made – is that it's a lot tougher and more violent than the movie reflects. Which is part of what's interesting about it.[8]

Mattie Ross "is a pill", said Ethan Coen in a December 2010 interview, "but there is something deeply admirable about her in the book that we were drawn to", including the Presbyterian-Protestant ethic so strongly imbued in a 14-year-old girl. Joel Coen said that the brothers did not want to "mess around with what we thought was a very compelling story and character". The film's producer, Scott Rudin, said that the Coens had taken a "formal, reverent approach" to the Western genre, with its emphasis on adventure and quest. "The patois of the characters, the love of language that permeates the whole film, makes it very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards".[9]

Nevertheless, there are subtle ways in which the film adaptation differs from the original novel. This is particularly evident in the negotiation scene between Mattie and her father's undertaker. In the film, Mattie bargains over her father's casket and proceeds to spend the night among the corpses to avoid paying for the boardinghouse. This scene is, in fact, nonexistent in the novel, where Mattie is depicted as refusing to bargain over her father's body, and never entertains the thought of sleeping among the corpses.[10]

Open casting sessions were held in Texas in November 2009 for the role of Mattie Ross. The following month, Paramount Pictures announced a casting search for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, describing the character as a "simple, tough as nails young woman" whose "unusually steely nerves and straightforward manner are often surprising".[11] Steinfeld, then age 13, was selected for the role from a pool of 15,000 applicants. "It was, as you can probably imagine, the source of a lot of anxiety", Ethan Coen told The New York Times. "We were aware if the kid doesn't work, there's no movie".[9]

The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March and April 2010, as well as in Granger and Austin, Texas.[12] The first trailer was released in September; a second trailer premiered with The Social Network.

True Grit received a PG-13 rating for "some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images". It was the first Coen brothers film to receive such a rating since 2003's Intolerable Cruelty.

For the final segment of the film, a one-armed body double was needed for Elizabeth Marvel (who played the adult Mattie). After a nationwide call, the Coen brothers cast Ruth Morris – a 29-year-old social worker and student who was born without a left forearm.[5] Morris has more screen time in the film than Marvel.[13]

Soundtrack
Main article: True Grit: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Release
Box office

Film

Release date

Box office revenue

Box office ranking

Budget

Reference

North America

North America

Other territories

Worldwide

All time United States

All time worldwide

True Grit December 22, 2010 $171,050,328 $79,880,786 $250,931,114 No. 168 No. 327 $38,000,000 [14]

In the holiday weekend following its December 22 North American debut, True Grit took in $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections.[1] By its second weekend ending January 2, the film had earned $87.1 million domestically, becoming the Coen brothers' highest grossing film, surpassing No Country for Old Men, which earned $74.3 million. True Grit was the only mainstream movie of the 2010 holiday season to exceed the revenue expectations of its producers. Based on that performance, The Los Angeles Times predicted that the film would likely become the second-highest grossing western of all time when inflation is discounted, exceeded only by Dances with Wolves.[15] On Thursday, December 23, 2010, it opened to #3 behind Little Fockers and Tron: Legacy. On Friday, December 24, 2010, it went up to #2 behind Little Fockers. On Friday, December 31, 2010 it went up to #1 and then on January 1, 2011, it went back to #2 until January 3, 2011. It stayed #1 until January 14 and then went down to #3 behind The Green Hornet and The Dilemma. On February 11, 2011, it went down to #9 behind Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Just Go With It, Gnomeo and Juliet, The Eagle, The Roommate, The King's Speech, No Strings Attached, and Sanctum. It closed in theaters on April 28, 2011. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million.[16] According to Box Office Mojo, True Grit has grossed over $170 million domestically and $250 million worldwide as of July 2011.

Both the brothers and Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore attributed the film's success partly to its "soft" PG-13 rating, atypical for a Coen brothers film, which helped broaden audience appeal. Paramount anticipated that the film would be popular with the adults who often constitute the Coen brothers' core audience, as well as fans of the Western genre. But True Grit also drew extended families: parents, grandparents, and teenagers. Geographically, the film played strongest in Los Angeles and New York, but its top 20 markets also included Oklahoma City; Plano, Texas; and Olathe, Kansas.[15][17]

Critical reception

Film

Rotten Tomatoes

Metacritic

True Grit 96% (262 reviews)[18] 80/100 (41 reviews)[19]

True Grit received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 262 reviews, with an average score of 8.4/10 and with its consensus stating: "Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens' most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book. "[20] Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80/100 based on 41 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21] Total Film gave the film a five-star review (denoting 'outstanding'): "This isn't so much a remake as a masterly re-creation. Not only does it have the drop on the 1969 version, it's the first great movie of 2011".[22]

Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder", and also remarking, "The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western."[23]

The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "The Coens, not known for softening anything, have restored the original's bleak, elegiac conclusion and as writer-directors have come up with a version that shares events with the first film but is much closer in tone to the book... Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, they worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio."[24]

In his review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert wrote: "the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful. "[25] Richard Corliss of Time Magazine named Hailee Steinfeld's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010, saying "She delivers the orotund dialogue as if it were the easiest vernacular, stares down bad guys, wins hearts. That's a true gift".[26]

Rex Reed of The New York Observer criticized the film's pacing, referring to plot points as "mere distractions ... to divert attention from the fact that nothing is going on elsewhere". Reed considers Damon "hopelessly miscast" and finds Bridges' performance mumbly, lumbering, and self-indulgent.[27]

Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a B+: "Truer than the John Wayne showpiece and less gritty than the book, this True Grit is just tasty enough to leave movie lovers hungry for a missing spice."[28]

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops review called the film "exceptionally fine" and said "[a]mid its archetypical characters, mythic atmosphere and amusingly idiosyncratic dialogue, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen's captivating drama uses its heroine's sensitive perspective – as well as a fair number of biblical and religious references – to reflect seriously on the violent undertow of frontier life."[29]

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by True Grit

The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (Hailee Steinfeld) and received ten additional nominations in the following categories: Best Film, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The ceremony took place on January 14, 2011.[30]

It was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld). The ceremony took place on January 30, 2011.[31]

It was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography.

It was nominated for ten Academy Awards,[32][33] but won none: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.[34] When told of all the nominations, the Coen brothers stated, "Ten seems like an awful lot. We don't want to take anyone else's."[35]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7, 2011.[36]