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Coen Bros. Western Watch: True Grit (2010)
Watched: 08/06/2026Format: BluRayViewing: SecondDirector: Coen Bros.
Shortly after watching Supergirl, which was based on a comic that was clearly an homage to the novel and/or movies of True Grit, in an effort to better remember details and ponder the differences, I listened to the audiobook. And then suggested Jamie read through my paperback as the book is short, and Jamie reads about a book a week, I think.
And, so, it came to pass that Jamie asked to re-watch the 2010 movie of True Grit, which I had not seen since the theater, but picked up the BluRay on the cheap at some point in recent years.
The Coens' work has often been homage. Miller's Crossing is Dashiell Hammett. Big Lebowski is Raymond Chandler stoned to the gills. A Serious Man is the book of Job. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is The Odyssey. But they have done straight adaptations, like The Lady Killers.
True Grit (2010) was well-received upon release, I believe. I recall liking it quite a bit and was impressed with this young girl, Hailee Steinfeld, who played Mattie Ross, and I recall I hoped she'd get more work. (spoilers: she did.)
I've now also seen the John Wayne version. And that is a bona fide classic, which I enjoyed.
The Coen Bros., who love characters and who love mannered dialog, would have found the Portis novel to be a bit like catnip, I think. The voice of the narration is one of the most in-character first person narrations I can recall having ever read.
The story is of how 14-year-old Mattie Ross's (Steinfeld's) father has been killed by his own farmhand, Tom Chaney, while out of town to do some literal horse trading. Mattie goes to Fort Smith where she's to retrieve her father's body and bring it home, and maybe settle some of his affairs. However, upon learning that no one has gone to arrest Chaney (this is 1870's-era Arkansas, and Chaney has disappeared into the Oklahoma Indian Territory) she determines to do it herself by hiring a US Marshall.
Hearing he has "grit"/ is the meanest Marshall, Mattie hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a one-eyed drunk of a man. Meanwhile, she meets a self-impressed Texas Ranger also in pursuit of Chaney, named LeBouef (Matt Damon). The three pursue Chaney, having disagreements and incidents along the way. Chaney (Josh Brolin), for his part, has joined the gang of Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper, of course).
The movie does deviate from the book in how much LeBouef is involved. He's around much more in the book, but the movie is focused on the relationship between Mattie and Rooster.
What it retains is the particular dialog, in the novel a product of Mattie's own speech patterns as she relates the story of what happened. Drunks and criminals speak in complete thoughts and refuse to utilize contractions, dropping a fifty cent word when a penny word would do.
Even in her forties, relaying the tale, Mattie is stubborn and sees the world through her particular lens of propriety. And, to that, while the John Wayne movie places Rooster in a position of leading man, the story is Mattie's. The notion of who has true grit - and the Coen Bros. ensure that there's no question - the answer is Mattie.
This was Steinfeld's breakthrough role, and there's no mystery why. She's a kid, and she carries a movie with names like Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges as co-stars. I've only seen her in so many movies - she's as great as anyone else in Sinners - and like Kirsten Dunst and a handful of others, it's fascinating to see her at this age and seeing what she can already do.
What the film does that the book can't - as it's from Mattie's self-serious perspective - is show she is, in fact, a child and where she very, very occasionally takes childish delight or makes clear her mistakes.
Another unspoken star of the film is Roger Deakins, the great cinematographer who brought so much to the Coen's work over their career. The landscapes of New Mexico double for the Indian Territory, and he creates a fascinating purgatory of the landscapes, a sort of twilight zone that shows the beauty but unknown quality of the space Mattie moves through.
The score is Carter Burwell, who is one of my favorite film composers - and he doesn't disappoint. And, hey, they pull in Iris Dement for the final moments of the movie. Pretty good!
Jamie pointed out that the world of the film is, oddly, smaller than that of the novel. And I think I agree. It's a product of the Coens not pushing Mattie's narration at us non-stop - using voice over very sparingly, which changes the tone and scope of the story as all we can see if what's in the frame.
And hats off to Elizabeth Marvel who appears in the final scenes as Mattie decades on and nails it in a few short lines of dialog.
If I have criticism, Bridges chooses a voice for Cogburn that takes the already tortured dialog put in his mouth and then plays it as a drunk, which can make for some challenging listening. But you basically get the gist, and I think it's a legitimate choice.
As True Grit is the seed from which we eventually got the 2026 Supergirl movie, it's an interesting exercise in seeing maybe why the story they chose to tell, pivoting the focus to Kara instead of Ruthye, doesn't make for a better story, and creates collisions in the themes and point of the story. I won't dwell on that too much, but Tom King and Bilquis Evely pulled off what they did through Evely's stunning storytelling art, and King's management of the themes - leading to finale that put a button on the story that the movie ignores for a standard movie ending meant to satisfy people who don't give a shit who the Super-family are and what they stand for.
I am aware that WB can't release a movie called "Ruthye and Supergirl" and focus on a character we'll never see again. And they can't show that the eventual death of their version of Chaney is also almost incidental and that the real story is what we learned along the way.
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