TRUE GRIT
“Justice brought them together. Vengeance will take them into the wilderness.”
Director
Joel Coen / Ethan Coen
Release
11 February 2011
Runtime
110 Minutes
Certificate
15
Synopsis
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross arrives in Fort Smith following the murder of her father. His killer, Tom Chaney, has escaped. But Mattie has no intention of allowing him to remain free. She begins arranging her father's affairs with a confidence that quickly makes it obvious she isn't going to be dismissed simply because of her age. Then she starts looking for someone who can hunt Chaney down. Mattie hears about Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed Deputy U.S. Marshal with a reputation for being both exceptionally tough and exceptionally quick to use his gun. He's also stubborn, difficult and frequently drunk. Mattie hires him anyway. But they aren't the only people searching for Chaney. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf has been tracking him for the murder of a Texas state senator and intends to take Chaney back to Texas to collect a reward. That creates an immediate problem. Mattie doesn't care about the reward. She wants Chaney brought to justice for her father's murder. Cogburn and LaBoeuf initially have little interest in bringing a teenage girl into dangerous territory, but they quickly discover that telling Mattie Ross she cannot do something is unlikely to stop her. Their pursuit takes them deeper into the wilderness and towards Lucky Ned Pepper's outlaw gang. What began as Mattie's demand for justice becomes a dangerous journey involving gunmen, violence and choices whose consequences will follow her long after the hunt is over. Paramount and Amblin's official descriptions confirm the central pursuit of Chaney by Mattie, Cogburn, and LaBoeuf, and the competing reasons behind it.
The Movie Trailer
True Grit is a hard-edged Western about a determined 14-year-old girl who refuses to let her father's murderer disappear into the wilderness without facing justice.
Mattie Ross has travelled to Fort Smith, Arkansas, for one reason.
Her father has been murdered.
The man responsible, Tom Chaney, has fled into Indian Territory — and Mattie intends to find him.
She needs someone capable of following Chaney into dangerous country, and her search leads her to Deputy U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn.
Rooster drinks too much, shoots first and isn't particularly interested in being ordered around by a teenage girl.
Which makes him almost exactly the man Mattie is looking for.
Their hunt is complicated by the arrival of Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who is pursuing Chaney for another murder and wants to take him back to Texas.
Mattie wants something different.
She wants Chaney to answer for killing her father.
And she is prepared to ride into some of the most dangerous territory in the American West to make sure that happens.
The Coen brothers adapted the film from Charles Portis's novel, with Paramount describing its central story as one of vengeance and courage as Mattie, Cogburn and LaBoeuf pursue Chaney.
MATTIE ROSS
Fourteen Years Old and Absolutely Unstoppable
Everything in True Grit begins with Mattie Ross.
The men around her repeatedly mistake her for a child.
Mattie sees herself as the person responsible for finishing the business her father's murder left behind.
She negotiates.
She argues.
She refuses to be intimidated.
And when experienced lawmen tell her that the country ahead is too dangerous, she follows them anyway.
That determination makes Mattie far more than somebody accompanying Rooster Cogburn on his adventure.
This is her hunt.
Rooster might have the gun and LaBoeuf might have the badge, but Mattie possesses the determination that keeps all three moving towards Tom Chaney.
ROOSTER COGBURN
Mattie Doesn't Need a Hero — She Needs the Meanest Marshal She Can Find
Rooster Cogburn isn't the sort of lawman anyone would describe as polished.
He drinks heavily.
His appearance has seen better days.
His methods are questionable.
And his willingness to shoot people has earned him a formidable reputation.
Mattie isn't particularly bothered by any of that.
She isn't searching for the nicest marshal in Fort Smith.
She wants the one most likely to ride into dangerous country, find Tom Chaney and come back alive.
Jeff Bridges' Cogburn initially appears almost impossible to control, but the relationship that develops between Rooster and Mattie gradually becomes the heart of the film.
The stubborn teenager who refuses to stay behind may ultimately bring out something in the ageing lawman that even he had forgotten was there.
JUSTICE
Finding Tom Chaney Is Only the Beginning
Mattie's objective appears simple.
Find Tom Chaney.
Bring him to justice.
But True Grit keeps asking what justice actually means when everyone involved wants something different.
LaBoeuf wants Chaney returned to Texas.
Rooster has his own interpretation of law enforcement.
Mattie wants the man who murdered her father punished for that specific crime.
And Chaney simply wants to survive.
As their pursuit moves farther from civilisation, the boundaries between justice, revenge and survival become increasingly difficult to separate.
Mattie began the journey believing determination could solve almost anything.
The wilderness is about to test that belief.