December 18, 2010 -- I was thinking that this was going to be another totally screwed up non-western mockery like Dead Man, which is what you usually get when Hollywood outsiders take on the venerable Western genre. Also, you have the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) doing a remake (they don't call it a remake, but that's what it amounts to) of “True Grit” 1969, in which John Wayne won his only best actor Oscar (oh, the horror). What better time for the Coen brothers to hold up their middle fingers to the world and do their crazy thing?

I was pleasantly surprised when the Coen brothers actually produced a real western that holds up pretty well against the original. Oh, it's got the usual Coen brothers weirdness: A man with the head of a bear who mumbles incomprehensibly about his human tooth collection, a girl with lips the size of a weather balloon with intelligence, education and negotiation powers far beyond those of mortal men in the Old West, a guy who makes animal noises, a guy who falls off his horse and manages to smash his brains out on the only rock for miles around to heighten the visual splendor of the scene, fingers being chopped off, etc. These are the sorts of things you expect from these guys, but what is unexpected is the elegance and power with which this story is presented.

It helps that the man behind the lens is none other than Roger Deakins, a frequent collaborator with the Coen brothers, who is one of the finest cinematographers in the business. The visuals are stunning. There are some very effective fade-out, fade-in sequences where the before and after images overlap each other in a very interesting way. The acting is also top-notch with Jeff Bridges playing Rooster Cogburn with such style he might be in the running for his second Best Actor Academy Award in a row. By the way Rooster Cogburn enters the movie in a very humble way, sitting in an outhouse for an extended period of time in a very crabby, constipated mood. Also giving a strong performance is Hailee Steinfeld, who plays the 14-year-old main character Mattie Ross, out for vengeance of her father. She is actually the one with the most true grit in the film. He was murdered by the low-down scoundrel Tom Chaney (played by Josh Brolin, who earlier starred in the year's worst Western, “Jonah Hex”). Matt Damon plays Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who is also hunting Chaney, who has a big bounty on his head.

The search for Chaney goes across plains and rivers into forests and mountains. There is often snow in the air, which lends a haunted, ethereal quality to the scenes. LaBoeuf and Cogburn argue about the Civil War, which ended only eight years before the time this movie was set. The movie is politically incorrect, with LaBoeuf abusing Mattie Ross, Cogburn abusing Native American children and Cogburn aggressively riding a horse to death to save Mattie's life. Cogburn also drinks a lot. The final fight between Cogburn and the bad guys is similar to the original, but apparently only The Duke can cock and shoot a lever-action rifle with one hand while riding at a full gallop. Bridges takes the easy way out, with two handguns. The movie should have stopped after the big battle, but it continues on for a time, including some scenes years later concerning the post-mortem journeys of Mr. Cogburn. It sort of drags along to a close. A bit of trivia: “picket wire” is referred to as a place or area in the film (there is a Pickewire Canyon area in the Comanche National Grasslands of Colorado, far from where this story is set). The only other time I've heard this term is in the classic 1962 John Ford western film “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.” I wonder if the two references are connected? This movie rates a B.

(addendum made 1/2/2011) I watched the original “True Grit” made in 1969 again the other night, and as I recalled (this is the first time I had seen it since 1969) this new film indeed is a virtual remake of the original. It is practically word for word and scene for scene the same, with some moderate tweaking, including some additional scenes at the end of the movie which take place years after the initial encounter between Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross. Technically, it is not strictly a remake, in that it is, at least in part, based on the book as well as the previous movie. But this technical definition is seldom employed for movies that are so similar to a previous movie based on the same source material. If anyone else besides the Coen Brothers, those critical darlings with a maverick streak, were directing this, the term remake wouldn't even be an issue. I call it a remake, as do many others, but a darned good one, and better than I thought it would be. After watching the two films, I guess I like the old one a bit better because of the quality of the acting, particularly the supporting cast, which includes such noted acting talent as Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Strother Martin, Wilford Brimley, Jeff Corey and John Fiedler. I also liked the additional humor, the cat known as General Sterling Price, “the original Dirty Bob” (played by Carlos Rivas) and the fantastic scenery of the mountains around Ouray, Colorado. It is an impressive film.

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