Original: February 8, 2011 Issue 10
By: Liz Whiting
Staff Writer
“True Grit” brings viewers back to the west
In the past few months, movie theaters have been filled with one great movie after the next. “True Grit” is one of these great movies.
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen the film is based on a 1969 John Wayne movie. The cast includes big names such as Jeff Bridges, who played Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn, Matt Damon as Texas Ranger Laboeuf, and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross.
The western movie starts out with Mattie Ross’s father, lying dead in front of their ranch. She is sent into town by her mother to settle her father’s affairs, but she also has her own agenda; to find help to avenge her father’s death.
After coming up with money and recruiting an unruly team, fourteen-year old Ross finds herself riding off into Indian Territory with Cogburn, a U.S. Marshall and Texas Ranger Laboeuf, after her father’s killer, Tom Chaney, played by Josh Brolin.
Throughout their hunt for the killer, they run into many different people and difficult circumstances.
This is a classic Western film and is not tangled with complicated plots and confusing dialogue. However, the fact that it is so straightforward makes it a great film.
True Grit is a must see for everyone, even those who do not usually take to Western films.
There is humor in it as well as a good amount of action. It was a well written, well made, five star movie that will be talked about for years to come.