Gallows humour and respect
TRUE GRIT Cert. 15 Directors: the Coen brothers
True Grit follows teenager Mattie Ross, a girl determinedly seeking to kill her father’s murderer by hiring gritty lawman Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track him down. Does she want justice, or simply revenge? ‘You must pay for everything in this world’, she figures.
The plot is intense, gripping and very violent, with twists only found in the richest of adventures. Man’s best laid plans never work out; an idea woven into the story and which may have attracted the Coen brothers to adapt it from the novel (which was first filmed in 1969). All of their films are laced with characters’ plans falling apart, and True Grit is no exception.
As she discovers the danger of what she is out to achieve, Mattie’s adventure becomes increasingly violent. At one point a character has to decide whether to have what’s left of his tongue pulled out, having been half bitten off in a fight. The way in which exposure to a harsh world affects the girl is sorely honest, and any film that displays honesty yet doesn’t finish on an entirely cynical note, must have stumbled across some of God’s truth.
There is a very subtle jibe at God as the film concludes, but, aside from that and their usual brand of gallows humour, the filmmakers are knowingly respectful of the Bible-loving sensibilities of the Old West, letting their existential outlook take the backseat.
The score lends the exquisite cinematography something of a dreamlike wonder, including a lovely rendition of ‘What a Friend We Have In Jesus’. The cast are all exceptional, and the film leaves you with that rare feeling of having been brought down to earth. ‘Time gets away from us’, says Mattie. Buy a ticket, and that will be true of the next two hours of your life.
