True Grit Information

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 filmed in 1969 starring John Wayne. This version 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 True Grit was officially released in the U. S. on December 22, 2010 (after advance screenings earlier that month). The film opened the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jeff Bridges), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7, 2011.

Plot

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14 years old. While collecting her father's body, Mattie queries the local sheriff about the search for Chaney. After being told that Chaney has fled with "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and his gang into Indian Territory, where the sheriff has no authority, she inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal. The sheriff gives three recommendations, and Mattie chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), whom the sheriff had described as being the "meanest. " The taciturn, one-eyed Cogburn rebuffs her offer, not believing she has the reward money to hire him. She raises the money by aggressively horse-trading with Colonel Stonehill (Dakin Matthews), who did business with her father.

Meanwhile, Texas Ranger LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney for the murder of a Texas state senator. LeBoeuf proposes to team up with Cogburn, who knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, but Mattie refuses his offer. Mattie wishes Chaney to be hanged in Arkansas for her father's murder, not in Texas for killing the senator. Mattie also insists on traveling with Cogburn to search for Chaney, but Cogburn later leaves without her, having gone with LeBoeuf to apprehend Chaney.

After being refused passage on the ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LeBoeuf, Mattie crosses the river on horseback. LeBoeuf expresses his displeasure by birching Mattie with a switch rod, but Cogburn eventually stops him. After a dispute over their respective service with the Confederate States of AmericaCogburn served with Quantrill's Raiders and LeBoeuf with Edmund Kirby SmithCogburn ends their arrangement and LeBoeuf leaves. Later, while pursuing the Pepper gang that Chaney is reportedly traveling with, the two meet a trail doctor who directs them to an empty dugout for shelter. There they find two outlaws, Quincey (Paul Rae) and Moon (Domhnall Gleeson), and interrogate them. As Moon acquiesces by divulging what he knows to Cogburn, Quincey fatally stabs Moon, before Cogburn shoots Quincey dead. Before dying, Moon says Pepper and his gang will be returning later that night.

Just before the Pepper gang arrives, LeBoeuf arrives at the dugout and is taken hostage. Cogburn, hiding on the hillside with Mattie, shoots and kills two gang members, but Pepper escapes. The next day, Cogburn gets in a drunken argument with LeBoeuf, who departs once again. While getting water from a nearby stream, Mattie encounters Chaney. She shoots him, but he survives and drags her back to Ned, who forces Cogburn to leave by threatening to kill her. Being short a horse, Ned leaves Mattie with Chaney, ordering him not to harm her or he will not get paid after his remount arrives.

Once alone, Chaney disobeys Ned and tries to kill Mattie. LeBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out, explaining that he rode back when he heard the shots, and he and Cogburn devised a plan. They watch from a cliff as Cogburn takes on the remaining members of Ned's gang, killing two and wounding Ned, before his horse is struck and falls, trapping Cogburn's leg. Before Pepper can kill Cogburn, LeBoeuf shoots and kills Pepper from roughly four hundred yards away. Chaney regains consciousness and knocks LeBoeuf unconscious with a rock. Mattie seizes LeBoeuf's rifle and shoots Chaney dead in the chest. The recoil, however, knocks her into a deep pit containing rattlesnakes. Cogburn arrives, but Mattie is bitten on her hand before he can get to her. Cogburn cuts into her wound to suck out as much of the poison as he can, and then rides day and night to get Mattie to a doctor, carrying her on foot after her horse collapses from exhaustion, finally making his way to Bagby's store.

Twenty-five years later, Mattie (Elizabeth Marvel)now 40, reveals through narration that she had her left forearm amputated due to the gangrene from the snakebite. Cogburn stayed with her at Bagby's until she was out of danger, though he left the store before she regained consciousness. Mattie never saw Cogburn again, despite a letter she wrote to him inviting him to visit and to collect the $50 she still owed him the next time he was near Yell County. She receives a note from Cogburn inviting her to meet him at a traveling Wild West show in which he now performs. She arrives, only to learn that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved to her family cemetery. Standing over Cogburn's grave, she reflects on her decision to move his remains, and about never having married. She also reveals that she never saw LaBoeuf again, though she would like to, and imagines that some of the starch has probably gone out of his cowlick by now, observing that "time just gets away from us".

Cast

• Jeff Bridges as U. S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn
• Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross
• Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LeBoeuf
• Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney
• Barry Pepper as "Lucky" Ned Pepper
• Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (the Kid)
• Ed Lee Corbin as Bear Man (Dr. Forrester)
• Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell Poindexter
• Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy
• Nicholas Sadler as Sullivan
• Bruce Green as Harold Parmalee
• Joe Stevens as Lawyer Goudy
• Dakin Matthews as Colonel Stonehill
• Elizabeth Marvel as 40-year-old Mattie
• Leon Russom as Sheriff
• Jake Walker as Judge Isaac Parker
• Peter Leung as Mr. Lee
• Don Pirl as Cole Younger
• James Brolin as Frank James (Uncredited cameo)
• Jarlath Conroy as The Undertaker
• J. K. Simmons as Lawyer J. Noble Daggett (Voice only; uncredited)

Adaptation and production

The project was rumored as far back as February 2008; however it was not confirmed until March 2009.

Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version.

</ref>}}

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".

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". 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".

The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March and April 2010, as well as in Granger and Austin, Texas. 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. "

For the final segment of the film, a one-armed body double was needed for Elizabeth Marvel (who played the adult Mattie). After a nationwide call, the Coen brothers cast Ruth Morris " a 29-year-old social worker and student who was born without a left forearm. Morris has more screen time in the film than Marvel.

Soundtrack

Reception

Critical reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	Entertainment Weekly
True Grit	96% (247 reviews)	80/100 (41 reviews)	B+

The film received almost universal critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 235 reviews, with an average score of 8.3/10 and 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. " Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80/100 based on 40 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". 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".

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. " The 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. " 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. " Richard Corliss of Time Magazine named Hailee Steinfeld's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010, saying "She delivers the orotund dialogue as if it were the easiest vernacular, stares down bad guys, wins hearts. That's a true gift".

Rex Reed of The New York Observer criticized the film's pacing, referring to plot points as "mere distractions ... to divert attention from the fact that nothing is going on elsewhere". Reed considers Damon "hopelessly miscast" and finds Bridges' performance mumbly, lumbering, and self-indulgent.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops review called the film "exceptionally fine" and said "[a]mid its archetypical characters, mythic atmosphere and amusingly idiosyncratic dialogue, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen's captivating drama uses its heroine's sensitive perspective " as well as a fair number of biblical and religious references " to reflect seriously on the violent undertow of frontier life. "

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office revenue			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference
	United States	United States	International	Worldwide	All time United States	All time worldwide
True Grit	December 2010	$171,050,328	$79,880,786	$250,931,114	#168	#327	$38,000,000

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. 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. On Thursday, December 23, 2010, it opened to #3 behind Little Fockers and Tron: Legacy. On Friday, December 24, 2010, it went up to #2 behind Little Fockers. On Friday, December 31, 2010 it went up to #1 and then on January 1, 2011, it went back to #2 until January 3, 2011. It stayed #1 until January 14 and then went down to #3 behind The Green Hornet and The Dilemma. On February 11, 2011, it went down to #9 behind Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Just Go With It, Gnomeo and Juliet, The Eagle, The Roommate, The King's Speech, No Strings Attached, and Sanctum. It closed in theaters on April 28, 2011. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million. According to Box Office Mojo, True Grit has grossed over $170 million domestically and $250 million worldwide as of July 2011.

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.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7, 2011.

Awards

The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (Hailee Steinfeld) and received ten additional nominations in the following categories: Best Film, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The ceremony took place on January 14, 2011.

It was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld). The ceremony took place on January 30, 2011.

It was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography.

It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, but won none: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. When told of all the nominations, the Coen brothers stated, "Ten seems like an awful lot. We don't want to take anyone else's. "