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Sunday, January 23, 2011

True Grit (2010 film)

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True Grit is a 2010 American Western film written and directed by the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously adapted for film in 1969 starring John Wayne. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, and Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper.
Filming began in March 2010, and the film was officially released on December 22, 2010, in the US, after advance screenings earlier that month.[2] The film will open the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011

Plot

The film is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14 (Hailee Steinfeld); Chaney made off with her father's horses and two of his California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, Mattie inquires about a Deputy U.S. Marshal to hire to track down Chaney. She is given three recommendations, but chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he is described as the most merciless. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to hire him.
Meanwhile, at the boarding house where she is staying, Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. La Boeuf has been pursuing him for several months over a murder in Texas. He proposes to Mattie that they should team up with Cogburn, since the Marshall knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while La Boeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave. Mattie rejects La Boeuf's offer, partially because he would take Chaney back to Texas to be hanged for the prior murder, instead of her father's. After finally securing Cogburn's services, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney. Instead of meeting her though Cogburn leaves her a note telling her to go home while he goes to apprehend Chaney.
Mattie catches up with Cogburn after fording a river on her horse. He has teamed up with La Boeuf and agreed to split the Texas reward for Chaney. Accusing him of fraud, Mattie threatens to have Cogburn arrested for breaking their agreement, which specified that she must accompany him on the manhunt. Reluctantly, he allows Mattie to come along. After a disagreement, La Boeuf sets off on his own in search of Chaney. Eventually, Mattie and Cogburn come across an isolated shack, where two outlaws are staying. After they turn on each other, Cogburn kills the older outlaw, and as the younger one is dying, he explains that "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and his gang were planning on returning to the shack later that night. Believing Chaney to be riding with Pepper's gang, Cogburn and Mattie lie in wait for the gang.
However, La Boeuf rides up to the shack ahead of the gang. When the gang arrives, they lasso La Boeuf and drag him behind a horse. Cogburn opens fire from his hiding spot, and kills two members of the gang, wounding La Boeuf. During the night, Cogburn drinks a great deal of whiskey and is severely drunk the next morning. The following night, he and La Boeuf argue again, and La Boeuf departs once more. The next morning, as Mattie draws water at the river, she encounters Chaney who is watering the gang's horses. She draws her father's pistol and shoots him. The pistol misfires as she tries to finish him off, and he drags her back to the gang. Ned uses Mattie as a hostage, to get Cogburn to ride off. Ned leaves Mattie with Chaney, ordering him not to kill her. He plans to send a horse back for Chaney later in the day, once the gang have reached a new hideout.
Once alone, Chaney attacks Mattie; La Boeuf knocks Chaney out with his rifle butt, and explains that when he heard the shots in the morning, he rode back and encountered Cogburn, who hatched a plan. La Boeuf and Mattie watch from their perch as Cogburn takes on the four surviving members of Ned's gang. He kills three of them and mortally wounds Ned before his horse is shot out from under him. As the dying Ned is about to kill Cogburn, La Boeuf fires his rifle and kills Ned. Chaney comes to and attacks La Boeuf. Mattie grabs La Boeuf's rifle and kills Chaney, but the recoil knocks her back into a snake-filled chasm. She is bitten before Cogburn can rescue her. Cogburn and Mattie leave the wounded La Boeuf at the chasm, and Cogburn rides through the night to get Mattie to a doctor, arriving just in time.
Twenty-five years later, Mattie — now 40 and with only one arm, due to amputation necessitated by gangrene from the snakebite — receives an invitation from Cogburn to meet him at a traveling Wild West show with which he is performing. When she arrives at the site, she learns that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved into her family plot, and the film ends with her standing over his grave and pondering how time catches up with everyone.

[edit]Cast

[edit]Adaptation and production

The project was rumored as far back as February 2008;[4] however it wasn't confirmed until March 2009.[5]
Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version.
“It's partly a question of point-of-view. The book is entirely in the voice of the 14-year-old girl. That sort of tips the feeling of it over a certain way. I think [the book is] much funnier than the movie was so I think, unfortunately, they lost a lot of humour in both the situations and in her voice. It also ends differently than the movie did. You see the main character—the little girl—25 years later when she's an adult. Another way in which it's a little bit different from the movie—and maybe this is just because of the time the movie was made—is that it's a lot tougher and more violent than the movie reflects. Which is part of what's interesting about it.[6]”
Mattie Ross "is a pill," said Ethan Coen in a December 2010 interview, "but there is something deeply admirable about her in the book that we were drawn to," including the Presbyterian-Protestant ethic so strongly imbued in a 14-year-old girl. Joel Coen said that the brothers did not want to "mess around with what we thought was a very compelling story and character". The film's producer, Scott Rudin said that the Coens had taken a "formal, reverent approach" to the Western genre, with its emphasis on adventure and quest. "The patois of the characters, the love of language that permeates the whole film, makes it very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards".[7]
Open casting sessions were held in Texas in November 2009 for the role of Mattie Ross. The following month, Paramount Pictures announced a casting search for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, describing the character as a "simple, tough as nails young woman" whose "unusually steely nerves and straightforward manner are often surprising".[8] Steinfeld, then age 13, was selected for the role from a pool of 15,000 applicants. “It was, as you can probably imagine, the source of a lot of anxiety,” Ethan Coen told The New York Times. "We were aware if the kid doesn't work, there's no movie".[7]
The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March and April 2010, as well as in Granger and Austin, Texas.[9] The first trailer was released in September. A second trailer premiered with The Social Network.
True Grit is the first Coen brothers film to receive a PG-13 rating since 2003's Intolerable Cruelty for "some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images."

[edit]Soundtrack

True Grit is the 15th Coen brothers film scored by long-time collaborator Carter Burwell. The Coens discussed the idea of using 19th-century church music, "something that was severe (sounding). It couldn't be soothing or uplifting, and at the same time it couldn't be outwardly depressing. I spent the summer going through hymn books," Burwell said.[10]
Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" was used in the theatrical trailer. The 1887 hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" is used as Mattie Ross's theme, and about a quarter of the score is based on it. Iris DeMent's version, from her 2004 album Lifeline, is used during the end credits. Other hymns are also referenced in the score, including "The Glory-Land Way" and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".[10]Because of the use of hymns, the score was deemed ineligible to be nominated for Best Original Score in the 2010 Academy Awards.[11]

[edit]Box office

In the holiday weekend following its December 22 North American debut, True Grit took in $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections.[1] By its second weekend ending January 2, the film had earned $87.1 million domestically, becoming the Coen brothers' highest grossing film, surpassing No Country for Old Men, which earned $74.3 million. True Grit was the only mainstream movie of the 2010 holiday season to exceed the revenue expectations of its producers. Based on that performance, the Los Angeles Times predicted that the film would likely become the second-highest grossing western of all time when inflation is discounted, exceeded only by Dances With Wolves.[12]During its third weekend of release, True Grit reached the No. 1 spot at the box office, displacing Little Fockers, which had held the No. 1 spot for the two previous weeks. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million.[13]
Both the brothers and Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore attributed the film's success partly to its "soft" PG-13 rating, atypical for a Coen brothers film, which helped broaden audience appeal. Paramount anticipated that the film would be popular with the adults who often constitute the Coen brothers' core audience, as well as fans of the Western genre. But True Grit also drew extended families: parents, grandparents, and teenagers. Geographically, the film played strongest in Los Angeles and New York, but its top 20 markets also included Oklahoma City; Plano, Texas, and Olathe, Kansas.[12][14]

[edit]Reception

The film received critical acclaim; Rotten Tomatoes reported that 95% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 187 reviews, with only 10 negative reviews and an average score of 8.3/10, with its consensus stating: "Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens' most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book."[15] Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80/100 based on 40 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating " generally positive reviews".[16] Total Film gave the film a five-star review (denoting 'outstanding'): "This isn’t so much a remake as a masterly re-creation. Not only does it have the drop on the 1969 version, it’s the first great movie of 2011".[17]



Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder", and also remarking, "The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western."[18] Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "The Coens, not known for softening anything, have restored the original's bleak, elegiac conclusion and as writer-directors have come up with a version that shares events with the first film but is much closer in tone to the book... Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, they worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio."[19] In his review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert wrote: "the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful.

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