True Grit (2010)

From Joel and Ethan Coen, the Academy Award winning directors of 2007’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, comes their take of the western-adventure-drama TRUE GRIT. Based on the 1968 novel by author Charles Portis and previously adapted into a 1969 motion picture starring John Wayne in his only Academy Award winning performance, The film tells the story of Mattie Ross (newcomer Hailee Steinfeld), a stubborn 14 year old girl who enlists the merciless, whiskey drinking U.S. Marshall Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and with the help of Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) to go after her father’s killer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). With the Coen Brothers as the film’s screenplay writers, it was produced by Scott Rudin and Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg, The film also stars Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) as gang leader ‘Lucky’ Ned Pepper, which was previously played by Robert Duvall. I saw the original film when I was a little kid, and I remember certain parts of it. When I first saw the theatrical trailer for this version, I really wanted to see it. Let’s not mention that I enjoy watching the trailer over and over because of Johnny Cash’s God’s Gonna Cut You Down in it. I thought the film was very entertaining, with a lot of comedic humor to it. Being that this film is Rated PG-13, there was one violent sequence that almost looked like a Rated R moment. My favorite moment of the film would have to be the shootout with Cogburn against Pepper and his gang on horseback. Filmed on location in Austin, Texas and in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March-April 2010 with a budget of $38 million, the film was released on December 22nd, 2010, earning $25.6 million its opening weekend. I make Joel and Ethan Coen’s TRUE GRIT one of the best films I’ve seen in 2010.