A 14-year-old girl named Matty Ross is trying to take revenge on her dead father by an outlaw named Tom Chaney. The girl begins planning to reach the murderer and revenge for her father, who is killed in mysterious circumstances. The girl needs her helpers to do the job, so Marshall is hired by the US Army, a man with real rigor and perhaps more subtlety and experience, as well as another man of law who can help them in that task.
Nothing very startling happens, but the Coens have a sure hand, and Bridges, in the old John Wayne role, plays a man, not a myth; you can sense Rooster's stink and his nasty intelligence, too.
Film Comment Magazine
July 01, 2013
With his leisurely growl, somewhere between trail-grizzled and post-nap, Bridges sounds as if he's talking through his collar, in a vocal performance that's entertaining no matter what he's saying.
The sharp humour of the film and flashes of eccentricity, such as a henchman who only communicates using animal noises, show the Coens' unique personality, but as a whole True Grit is beautifully, simply classic.
The Bible argues an eye for an eye. But as Rooster Cogburn doesn't have an eye to spare, the movie needs to ask if their death quest is worth the risk.
TheMovieReport.com
September 15, 2013
A fascinating study in how two films can follow the same source material fairly closely but come up with interpretations so tonally, spiritually different--but equally valid.
The real reason to see the film is the work of the Coens' regular collaborators, cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Carter Burwell, who supply the visual and auditory landscapes that are True Grit's most notable achievement.
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen fill the film with self-conscious good humor-hey, it's the Coen brothers-and the charmingly old-fashioned locutions of the Charles Portis novel.
Duke has been usurped by the Dude, and I couldn't be more thrilled by the experience of watching one of our finest actors take a role as iconic as Rooster Cogburn and indisputably make it his own.
