Review of True Grit (2010) by Bulldog — 13 Jan 2011

The Coen Brothers are American and this movie speaks to the culture and value of our country. They are at the peak of their game and have been for quite a while. True Grit is about the attempt to be heroic in the face of the realities of life, that is, filled with violence, randomness, personal failings and our questionable chances to control what happens to us.

There are potential traps with this story: if the girl is precious the movie can veer towards sentimentality and life is anything but sentimental. Each of the characters show the balance that exists in people.

Rooster Cogburn is not heroic in most senses of the word. He admits that he was a terrible father, he kicks the Indian kids off of the porch, he sets up a plan to help the girl while he pursues his money by attempting to catch the leader villain.

The Texas ranger is quite simply a doofus, and yet miraculously makes the shot with the rifle. He doesn't re-enter the story. Finally, the girl devotes her childish mind to revenge, which we should know, offers no reward but ashes.

She finishes as a one armed spinster, she is not cute and she finds solace only in her grit. For me, I am old enough not to expect perfect heroic people or even a chance to act nobly in many situations, but the film shows perhaps what is the best that we can do.

Finally, the cinematography, much like Fargo or No Country for Old Men, shows the open spaces in a way that immerses the audience and reminds us of the beauty, the physical beauty, of America. Most seriously considered art deals with the challenges that life presents us with, what to do with our lives, and as an American, I feel uplifted and excited each time I see the Coen Brothers attempt to illustrate the issue with a new filter, whether it be set in very un-Hollywood locations as Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota or North Dakota.

My son suggested that for the United States, the art form that is ours the most (apart of course from Rock and Roll) is film and that the brothers are our true geniuses of that art form.