Review of True Grit (2010) by Guus V — 05 Oct 2016

Despite my natural distaste for western films, I watched True Grit with an open mind. Surprisingly, I did end up enjoying certain elements of the film, but was overall left dissatisfied.

The cinematography of the wide open landscapes in the film were pure mastery, and the close detail paid to historical accuracy was much appreciated, but some aspects of the film just missed the mark. Plot holes such as when Mattie Ross rushed into the river with her horse but emerged mysteriously dry left me slightly irritated. I felt that the plot dragged on and on and left me impatiently waiting for the movie to end. I did appreciate the character arch of Laboeuf and Cogburn and how Mattie facilitated/catalyzed their archs.

I'm unsure if this is a valid criticism or not but I also found extremely hard to hear and/or understand the actors words and found myself rewinding the film a lot.

One aspect of the film I did really enjoy was the musical score. A good musical score for a movie will enthrall you and help the ebb and flow of the plot and this movie's score did exactly that. Without it, it is very probable that I would have fallen asleep watching it.

For me, watching this film felt a lot like watching a historical documentary of sorts and it did not leave me very fulfilled. In terms of the quest archetype, I felt that it may not be the best movie to represent it well. Because of its ties to western cowboy culture, many may think that it is symbolic of the American quest, but I think a film like The Pursuit of Happyness would have been a much better film to represent this because the quest is much more nuanced.