Tried and ‘True’

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How do you add gravitas to an otherwise ordinary Western revenge tale? Begin the movie with a passage from Proverbs as Joel and Ethan Coen do in their remake of the 1970 John Wayne Oscar-winner. “The wicked flee when none pursueth,” the scripture reads in warning.

The trick wouldn’t seem so film school shallow if the Coen’s most recent body of work had not already revealed them to be so aggressively nihilistic, but nevertheless, True Grit, based on the Charles Portis novel, does give us a righteous pursuer in the form of young Mattie Ross, a precocious and thoroughly outspoken 14-year-old out for stone cold revenge against Tom Chaney, the man who betrayed and murdered her father.

To journey into Native American territory and find her man, Ross enlists the help of a hard-drinking, shoot-first federal marshal by the name of “Rooster” Cogburn. Jeff Bridges makes for a fascinating character here and the perfect stand-in for John Wayne, although his overacted and gravel-pressed Southern accent is tough to listen to for 90 minutes. Joined by Matt Damon’s LeBeouf, a Texas marshal also hunting Chaney who comes off alternately as chivalrous, masochistic and anachronistically quirky, Cogburn and Ross set out into the wilds of Arkansas in search of Chaney.

Along the way, the film excels in a few moments of true beauty and mystery, and the dangers described by Cogburn’s rasp for Ross’s innocent benefit always feel real. But the star of the film is Hailee Steinfeld as Ross, whose quick wit and constant daring run circles around everyone else on screen.

Conversely, Josh Brolin’s Tom Chaney is a buffoon who could have used a significant rewrite. As is, he seems to be doing such a spot-on impression of Raising Arizona biker Randall “Tex” Cobb that the Coens ought to have just hired Cobb himself for the role. When Ross finally shoots him in the chest, it’s an almost comical moment of putting an outlaw out of his own misery instead of a feeling of justice being served. Much better is veteran character actor Barry Pepper, who spits and swaggers like a stinking ole coot of the wild country.

Whether intentional or not, Pepper’s Lucky Ned becomes the real villain of the film and should have been awarded more screen time accordingly. Or perhaps Pepper ought to have played Chaney and their characters merged into one. The Coens also continue to have problems ending their films in a way that resonates. True Grit’s final flash forward may have been a worthwhile section of the original novel, but there is a good reason the 1970 version excised it. It does nothing but show us that 40 years later Ross is the same exact person she was as a teenager and that Cogburn died off screen of old age as part of a carnival-esque Wild West show. Not exactly a revelation.

True Grit is a fun ride over rough terrain, but little more. There’s a fine line between faithful adaptation and a fool’s errand, and unfortunately, the Coens seemed uninterested in making the changes necessary to improve on Portis’ novel for their movie even when they have the talent and the cast capable of doing so.