My favorite line in the film "I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is is vexing enough." It's from the Portis novel, but so supremely Coen-ish!
When Cogburn and LaBeouf are talking about where they served, they're talking about the Civil War. They were both Confederate soldiers but had vastly different experiences. LaBeouf was in Robert E. Lee's much celebrated and glorified Army of Northern Virginia, fighting conventional battles in the Eastern theater (Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania). Cogburn was a guerilla fighting under William Quantril in Missouri and Kansas. The fighting in that part of the country was highly unconventional,and though smaller in scale, was in many ways much more brutal, with raiders on both sides committing numerous atrocities. These widely different experiences provide the context that explain the different methods and philosophies between the two. By the way, a fantastic movie that captures the reality of the guerilla aspects of the Civil is The Outlaw Josey Wales, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
Thanks for filling in some details that many viewers would probably not know about the references to the Civil War by those two characters who served in different ways during the war and try to make their own experience justified and more noble. Quantril is well-known for his brutality in prosecuting warfare in the cruelest way. But both characters have maintained some dignity and humanity in their emotional lives, though they're now solitary figures who don't quite fit in the times.
The "rope repells snakes" is an old wive's tale purporting that the stiff fibers of a hemp rope would go in between a snake's belly scales and tickle them, therefore causing them to turn back.
Hailee Steinfeld was so powerful in this. I read the book in anticipation of this coming to theaters and I even thought that role was impossible to do justice to onscreen. But I was wrong. She commanded excellence and more than kept up with her elders. Such a strong movie all around.
She does better job than in 1969 original Kim Darby , who played Mattie Ross role , John Wayne was John Wayne , so Jeff Bridges did better job as Rooster Cogburn . Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper in this and. Robert Duvall in original , rest was pretty much strait copy of the original .
This one is good, but John Wayne's will always be my favorite, with one of my favorite movie lines: "FILL YOUR HANDS YOU SON OF A B!TCH!".AND you can understand what he's saying.
I really like Wayne in the role, but Kim Darby is kinda painful for me to watch. Woman in he 20s trying to play a 14 year old girl, and, as usual, over doing it. Mattie is the main character, and I have to lean towards the better performance.
Cogburn was in the Missouri/Arkansas area during the war. It was a particularly vicious style of warfare an involved raiding homesteads and murdering civilians as often as not. The movie Outlaw Josie Wales is an awesome Clint Eastwood movie who’s character has a similar back story.
Yep. The back drop to the argument in the movie is that Rooster Cogburn was with the same group of irregular Confederates (Quantrill) that gave rise to the Jesse James and the Younger brothers - also covered in "the Outlaw Jose Wales' and in the criminally underrated (and unreacted) Ang Lee movie "Ride with the Devil [starring a very young Tobey Macquire in his first big role]. Le Beef fought with the regular Confederate army. Quantrill's Raiders had a reputation for lawlessness and torture and murder degenerating in to piracy by the end of the war. It was an ugly, ugly time in American history.
I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. Quantrill & his gang burned the city to the ground, as well as killing many of the men there. Even in the 1970’s & 80’s, Quantrill was a despised figure in Lawrence. Can’t say I think much of the man myself..
@@susanmaggiora4800 Well Lawrence was the safe haven of a rival terrorist organization and was burned in response to the death of kidnapped prisoners, mostly women, in Kansas City.
@@susanmaggiora4800 It was in retaliation for the sacking of Osceola(and other towns) Missouri. They destroyed towns, killed women and children,etc...People in kansas like to ignore that little tidbit of information.
The original "True Grit" with John Wayne was my grandpa's favorite movie and he would watch it once a month if not more. I grew up watching it, so when this movie came out i was very familiar with the plot but was blown away by the acting.
My wife was in almost the reverse position. She had seen the remake twice before ever watching the original. She loves both but perfers the original now
My dad grew up watching John Wayne movies, and "True Grit" is his favorite, but that's also because he had loved the original novel. He liked this version, but for him nothing can compare to the original. I don't care for John Wayne (which must be hard for my dad to hear, lol), so I prefer this one.
The original True Grit is hard to beat, it was a great movie! The remake was well done also though. There was a sort of sequel to the first True Grit, called "Rooster Cogburn" which is also worth seeing.
The venom sucking thing was a widely held belief until not very long ago. In reality once the venom is injected it is in your cardiovascular system in a few heartbeats. The only treatment is antivenom or antibiotics to prevent infection. Even today some snake bites result in amputation.
Southwestern snakes often have a necrotoxin, which in simple terms, kills rots and dissolves flesh. Unless medical treatment is rended within minutes, or hours depending on the severity of the bite, the limb will likely be lost. A bite to the face neck or torso can be fatal, even with prompt treatment. Other venom types can be instantly dehabitilating like a paralytic or neurotoxin, but are substantially less lethal. Fun fact, smaller and baby snakes are considerably more deadly as theie venom has not been diluted for more volume. They carry extremely concentrated "pure" venom, and can deliver all of it in a single quick bite.
Some years ago a friend of a friend was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking in Arizona. They got her to a hospital where she stayed for a week and had numerous injections. Her medical bills came to over 100k and she had permanent nerve damage to her arm. Could have been worse I guess.
Hell, back in the 80s/90s they still had that as a first aid remedy when I was in Boy Scouts. I remember they had little suction devices to do the job.
Another great Coen Bros. movie. The cast was darn fantastic, the extras all looked like they belonged in that setting, and from The Dude to Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges still manages to be darn hysterical all throughout the movie at times.
It holds it's own with the original which I have seen a dozen times over 50 years. In my opinion all these actors portrayed their rolls equally well as the original but I've got to give Kim Darby the nod as Mattie by a nose. Still... excellent movie.
Damn, Domhnall Gleeson’s scream at 15:48 was so loud you could barely hear Simone’s screaming. I remember that moment watching this in the theater and a lot of people just leaped out of their seats in disbelief.
I saw this comment before watching the reaction, for some reason I got mixed up and was waiting see Brendan Gleeson thinking that I didn't even remember that he would have been in this.
I always assumed that one of the points of that scene was to show not just how brutal things could be at that time and place, but how quickly it could happen. It's shocking as hell. And it's meant to be.
Re the early argument between Rooster and LeBeouf: most US Civil War histories focus on set-piece battles between uniformed armies commanded by famous generals. But in the western frontier (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska), the fighting was guerilla combat that frequently took the form of outright terrorism -- groups of renegades burning towns and executing "disloyal" townspeople, including men, women, and children. Future outlaws like Jesse James learned their craft as guerilla fighters. One of the most brutal guerilla leaders was William Quantrill, the "Captain Quantrill" that LeBeoeuf and Rooster argued about, who infamously burned the town of Lawrence, Kansas, to the ground and killed most of the townspeople. The guerilla war fueled decades of bitter feelings, and Cogburn and LeBeouef had different feelings about it.
Well said. I believe, but not certain, Quantrill's raiders were famous for duel wielding pistols while charging foes from horseback, which is the inspiration for Cogburn's charge at the end of the film. Again, I'm not certain of this. It could just be a creation of Hollywood.
@@therealdan2551 The Union forces referred to these irregular Confederate forces as "Southern Bushwhackers". The "Bushwhackers" were authorized by an 1862 act of the Confederate Congress, and included such famous (or infamous!) units as Quantrill's Guerrillas, Mosby's Raiders, McNeill's Rangers, Morgan's Cavalry and Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry. These "irregular" Confederate Cavalry units were legendary and feared for their expertise and deadly effectiveness in the use of a pair of revolvers from horseback. Even the late Civil War Union Cavalry, armed with lever action metallic cartridge carbines, dreaded a run-in with "Bushwhackers" because a pair of six-shooters in expert hands is much faster into action than a slung carbine, and many of the Union Cavalry would be blasted out of the saddle before their new "superior" lever action carbines could be brought into action. In early war years the 1851 Colt Navy .36 was preferred, but the Colt 1860 Army .44 rapidly gained in preference due to the larger.44 caliber's better ability at knocking men out of the saddle and dropping horses.
The part where she shoots her father's murderer, and she immediately gets knocked back into a pit of snakes is very biblical. She takes revenge and gets punished for it. The whole point of the film is that revenge is in god's hands and seeking it will harm us further than what we are avenging. She single-mindedly goes after revenge and has a bitter life because of it.
@@stanjeffrey6918 Yep, I agree. John Wayne got his only oscar for that role, and he played the character again in the sequel Rooster Cogburn, which in my opinion, was an even better movie.
At about 21:15 whem Mattie fires her father's revolver at Tom, she had six shots, but its a black powder gun from about thirty years prior. Each chamber in the cylinder is loaded with a bullet, black powder and a percussion cap. When she fires it and falls into the water, the powder gets wet and will not fire.
@@Cheepchipsable Are you saying that because he wore a toupee? He was a college football player and later a stuntman for movies, before becoming an actor.
You seen any of the following? Hell or High Water No Country for Old Men Nocturnal Animals Unforgiven Wind River Those are my personal favorite westerns. True Grit would be right after. I still have to see 3:10 to Yuma. Same with The Hateful Eight.
I love Hailee Steinfield in this movie, she absolutely someone the show while acting against some powerhouse actors in this movie. I was really disappointed when she chose to pursue a career in pop music after this, but thankfully she is back to doing acting recently, including voice-acting as Gwen in the Spider-verse films.
5:40 if anyone is wondering what a king bolt is it was the big metal piece on the front of wagons or railroad cars that connected it to its front axle or in a train situation would connect it to the next train car.
This has to be up there as not only one of the best remakes in cinema history but also the finest Coen brothers movie. Hailee Steinfeld was well deserving of the Oscar nomination for this, her big screen debut at the age of 13. I wish we had seen her in more roles since, although she shone in Dickinson and Hawkeye.
At 4:40 liability was a sketchy thing with "frontier justice." Usually it came down to "that makes sense to me." That's not to say that there weren't laws, there weren't lawyers, and there weren't hard readings of complex propositions to get out of liability (or a noose), but the burden of proof for guilt was not what it is now here or in Canada.
I am British and can confirm that 'Muffin walloper' is indeed a euphemism for something gross, and we all know that Simone knew exactly what she was doing. Tut tut Simone, tut tut.
Great Reaction guys!!!!! This remake was nominated for 10 Academy Awards (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. Loved the movie, was not surprised by Bridges great acting but was blown away by 13yr old Hailee Steinfeld starring in her first feature film! She referred to Cogburn as having "True Grit", when in fact its she who really has True Grit. One fun fact, Hailee recalls how everyone on the set treated her so kindly, but she did have a swear jar which was filled mostly by Bridges.. LOL!! Take care guys!! XOXO
To be fair, this was her very first movie. It’s like with Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave, or Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips. Despite being EXTREMELY talented, they were unknown. This was the movie that made Hailee Steinfeld known. ❤
William Quantrill was a Confederate officer who refused to stop fighting even after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. In the context of the movie, Rooster was a follower of Quantrill, and continued fighting along with him and his raiders. Edit: William Quantrill was shot and captured before Lee surrendered, therefore I am wrong in my statement that he kept fighting. Thanks @robertcampbell8070 for the correction. Sorry about that!!
Even before the surrender, Quantrill and his raiders notorious for using tactics that would very certainly be considered terrorism by modern standards. The war was very different on the old frontier, with Jayhawker outfits fighting for the union, and Bushwhackers fighting for the confederacy, both using guerilla tactics against eachother, and more frequently the civilian populations of their respective states.
As much as I love this remake, the original if very dear to my heart. It’s a great film and one of my dad’s favorites that we would watch together. Highly recommend everyone give it a go.
The novel was written in 1968 and the original film was released in 1969. John Wayne received his only Oscar for his portrayal of Roosrer Cogburn. A role he would reprise in a 1975 film of the same name. The original also starred singer/songwriter/ musician Glen Cambell as the Texas Ranger, Dennis Hopper in the Josh Brolin role, and Kim Darby, (John Cusack's weird mom in "Better Off Dead") as Mattie.
My great grandmother was married at fourteen. That was in 1935 on the Texas/Mexico border. That was 57 years after this movie takes place, soooo… make of that what you will. My great-grandfather was 22.
My grandmother was married at age 14 (1930s) Many people, especially in rural farm communities, rarely exceeded 8th grade (junior high) in school. Many were off to breeding their brood of 8-15 kids, seeing is how many died at a young age.
Just to be clear, the average age for marriage for women in 1930 was around 21 years old, at least in the U.S, and that didn't change much from the 1870s which I believe is when this movie is set. Just because some girls got married younger doesn't make it common. Heck, in 2001 three 11 year old girls in TN were married off to adult men but we certainly wouldn't consider that the normal states of affairs.
Young "adult" at that time period. People were married in the ages of 14,15,16 especially in rural areas. Being the family genealogist, I can say that I have relatives, from the hillbilly side of West Virginia, who were married around those ages back in the 1800s
@vadalia3860 I think it is wrong to assume that the 1930s average was correct due to the method of data collection at the time. But, to equate 1930 to 1870 is absolutely wrong. People married early and had many children based on need, people lived off the land and children became workers. The sheer need to expand the population in that area of the country at that time resulted in young people marrying.
@@jonhenry8268 If you've got evidence to back up your claim about the average age women married being lower in 1870, I'd love to take a look at it. Couples can't "expand the population" without having the necessary accessories to furnish their own homes and that costs money. They needed time save up to buy those things, in addition to the time it took to meet one another & be vetted for marriage worthiness in the first place. The numbers I'm seeing for fertility rate- the average # of children a woman would have in her lifetime- were 5 children in the U.S. in 1870. Even for those who had more children- a woman marrying at 20 years old can expect at least 20+ years of fertility. Also don't forget, children don't become valuable workers until around 5-6 at the youngest so that's several years (after weaning) of just feeding non-productive mouths before they even begin to contribute to working the land, and they're not particularly useful right away.
This movie always touches home for me. The town Fort Smith is where I am from. My grandpa reminded me of Rooster as a kid (John Wayne’s portrayal) thank you for doing this movie.
Greetings from Fort Smith, Arkansas. This town was historically the "last stop" for law and order during the 1800s. US Marshals would travel over the Arkansas river in to Indian territory and bring back wanted criminals to stand trial in Fort Smith. "The Hanging Judge Parker" was locally famous for sentencing 160 people to death (79 being executed) over his 21 year career.
This movie is one-of-a-kind. The book is, too, and I think the movie definitely did it justice. :) I've always loved the Coen Brother's unique style of film-making.
As a brazilian I love this movie, so cool to see a very accurate representation on what the old west probably was, but I can understand about 10% of whatever Jeff Bridges is saying 😂
The dialogue is shot through with archaic idioms and vocabulary that isn't used in modern English anymore, and the Coens actually wrote the screenplay without using contractions, because for some reason they believed no one used them back then. I actually doubt that Americans in 1873 Arkansas and Oklahoma would've been _quite_ so hard to understand.
At 14, she was probably considered an old maid back then. Lol. My mom got married to my dad when she was only 16. She turned 16 in November and then got married to my dad in December (1959). Dad was 17. They were married 53 yrs when my mom passed away in January 2013. Dad passed away in 2020. Never saw dad cry before until mom died.
I've always loved this movie. Hailee Steinfeld should have won Best Actress (she was nominated for Supporting Actress, even though she has the most screen time). Also, I definitely recommend watching with the English Captions turned on, just to appreciate all the vernacular in the dialog.
@@krayzy932 which is really a crime; I never understood what was so special about that movie or Portman's performance. I think Hailee got ignored if not outright robbed for simply being a nobody at the time. Not to knock the others in the film but she damn near carried it herself, she was so riveting. Without her character and that performance, this remake is pointless and just another generic western, even with the Coens do no wrong magic touch at the time.
@@gregmcdonald8962 The studios are who submit their actors/actresses for each specific category. They knew she had no shot at winning Best Actress, not with all of the major actresses who were up for it that year. I don't believe they thought she would win best supporting actress either, but it was her best shot at getting nominated. They were right.
The argument between Laboef and Cogburn centered on their actions during the War Between the States or Civil War (depending on if you are from the South or the North.) Laboef served in the regular Confederate army, while Cogburn 'served' with irregulars (a group that included the James brothers) that were seen as no more than terrorists even by many Southerners.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is another great movie a lot like this one. It's a western, but mostly an adventure story. From 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston.
@@shawnmiller4781 True, but I think there's enough of the western DNA in it to put it in with the genre at least in part. But it's also an adventure and drama as well.
Unfortunately they don't seem to react to older films. 1930's and 1940's are two of the greatest decades for cinema. Off the top of my head I can't remember them reacting to anything pre-1970....
@@lliamrose We have to broaden their range! Maybe start a petition to get them to see some of the great films. Casablanca The African Queen Grapes of Wrath Santa Claus vs. The Martians The Quiet Man Inherit the wind What Paths Glory Wizard of Oz Treasure of the Sierra Madre Bridge on the River Kwai Arsenic and Old Lace
Captain quantrell was the leader of a group of guerilla fighters, partisans, and terrorists on the Missouri side of the Missouri Kansas conflict just prior to the American Civil War ("Bleeding Kansas.") The Jayhawkers were the Kansas equivalent and both groups would regularly run across the state line taking cattle, burning down farmsteads, and so on because of their different beliefs about slavery. Sometimes it was about slavery... Sometimes it was just old family grudges being given a chance to get played out again. One of Quantrill's most famous actions was the raid and massacre in Lawrence, KS, now well known as a college town famous for its basketball team (named the Jayhawks: naturally.) Cogburn speaking out in favor of Quantrill and the raid on Lawrence marks him as a former Confederate soldier or partisan. Just one more thing that adds to the complexity of our characters. Even our "hero" is a scumbag. In case that wasn't already obvious lol
This is one of those movies that has a look and a feel that stands out among other films. Some movies you forget about in a couple of days. With this one, there are whole scenes and sequences that I would never forget... even if I had only seen it once.
This demonstrates the difference between a 'movie' and a 'film'- the Coen Brothers brought the book to life in a way that the earlier version fell short of, IMHO!
Rooster was with William Clarke Quantrill, who headed a band of Confederate guerillas ('irregulars') in Missouri. Some members of this group went on to careers as outlaws after the War, including the James Gang. (One of them, Cole Younger, is portrayed briefly at the end of this movie.) LaBoeuf served in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, a regular army that was tightly controlled and obeyed the conventions of warfare. For people in the regular Army and the Confederate Government, raiders like the ones in Missouri were often an embarrassment.
I wish George could have seen Simone’s face when the movie ended. He was excited about the movie but the look on Simone’s face seemed so sad. While they both enjoyed the movie they seemed to come away thinking quite differently about it.
Moon, one who lost fingers before losing his life, was played by Domhnall Gleason, who played Caleb in "Ex Machina," Bill Weasley in "HP and the Deathly Hollows", and General Hux in Star Wars episodes 7 to 9.
The novel is one of the best I've read. This film is very faithful to it, and that charming, stilted manner of "American western" speech comes directly from the text. I'm glad you watched this!
Here's an excellent analysis of the final gunfight/ending I've always enjoyed reading: To me, the beauty of this scene lies in how it maintains the story's general theme of hopelessness and hardship, while calling back to claims multiple characters have made that were dismissed as tall tales. This scene suggests that, even in the hopeless despair of the film's setting, people occasionally live up to their hype. Rooster Cogburn, earlier in the film, is laughed at when he claims to have defeated groups as large as four in gunfights. He insists that if you ride against four or more aggressively enough, some of them will run, and you only need to out-shoot the one or two who don't flinch. Later, LaBoeuf questions his ability to aim with one eye, and he's too drunk to demonstrate his skills properly. For most of the film, Rooster is portrayed as too old and fat, and too ravaged by alcoholism, to live up to his own fearsome reputation. In this scene, however, he shows himself capable of steering the reins with his teeth while riding at high speeds, and still wielding two guns accurately - a feat only a small number of people in the world could match today. Furthermore, he lands five direct hits with four shots. He misses once, kills two on the spot, fatally wounds his main target and the fourth retreats wounded. It's a display of gunfighting on a par with the wildest rumors about him, showing that, however much of a failure he is as a husband, father, soldier and lawman, he is indeed a fighter of true grit. Rooster similarly lacks respect for LaBeouf, laughing at him when he claims to have once nearly caught their original quarry while pursuing him on horseback. LaBeouf describes having attempted to shoot him from a great distance, electing to shoot while moving rather than while properly grounded. Roster mocks him, saying that he "couldn't hit at man (at the distance described) if he were (grounded) on the Rock of Gibralter." In this scene, LaBeouf doesn't interfere with the gunfight because he has little chance of hitting moving targets from such a distance. When Rooster is in danger, however, he's forced to attempt a shot from a greater distance than in his earlier claims - the camera even highlights that with the weaponry of the time, he has to make the shot without a scope of any kind, using only the barrel of the gun as a visual aid. By landing such a miraculous shoot, LaBoeuf saves Rooster's life while also validating his identity as a marksman. In this scene, just once, the two characters live up to their bravado and things work out. - from the comment of @brettzforeman on another video
If the actor playing the part of Ned Pepper looked familiar, it is because he was played by actor Barry Pepper (Sniper Jackson in "Saving Private Ryan," and Boss Dean Stanton in "The Green Mile").
A good remake. Tough frontier women. When my grandmother had scarlet fever when a young woman operating the local phone plug board, her parents put her in a shed, and fed her with plates of food left at the door so they could avoid contagion, 100 years ago. Her eyes were weakened, and she had to wear rose tinted glasses the rest of her life. Miss you, grandma!
First time I saw this i couldn't stop thinking about what a wonderful adaptation thisvis and what an amazing actress Hailee is! And now that i am watching the two of you react to it, those are still the thoughts at the front of my mind.
Rope was thought to keep out snakes with the theory that the texture was too irritating for them to crawl over. But it doesn't actually work. A king bolt, also called a king pin, is a metal rod that secures a wagon tongue to a wagon so that it can pivot and turn.
Both this version and the original are excellent films. I love them both. John Wayne won his only oscar as Rooster Cogburn. Also the term True Grit is actually referring to Maddie Ross and her unstoppable determination to avenge her fathers murder.
You have watched one other Coen movie you didn't mention on the channel, The Big Lebowski. Obviously, this reunites the Coen Brothers with Jeff Bridges, for the first time since that film. As you noted, and I have mentioned in the Patreon comments, this is an adaptation of a book. I am on the paid tier on another channel where I requested this movie (it has yet to be made public, although it could always turn into a Patreon exclusive someday), and in anticipation of that, I read the book, and it is amazing how closely the Coens capture the tone and humor of the novel, which is surprisingly sharp-witted -- a perfect fit for the Coen Brothers. The John Wayne version of the movie is fine, but it doesn't capture the book at all. The film was the debut of Hailee Steinfeld, who has gone onto be in many things. Someone else mentioned the Spider-Verse movies, where she voices Spider-Gwen, and she's also in the MCU properly elsewhere, although I won't say who she plays in case you haven't gotten there. She was also on an Apple TV show called "Dickinson," and in the Pitch Perfect sequels. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, and deservingly so. Bridges was also nominated, along with the Coens for both directing and the adaptation, and the film for Best Picture, among others, for a total of 10 nominations. Sadly, it didn't win any of them. Your guess is correct: the rope tricks snakes into thinking there is another snake, or at least that's my understanding. As for the body, the guy with the bear suit specifically says he 1) does dentistry and 2) wants the body's teeth, for practice or study. There are probably other people who could make use of the body in a similar fashion. Beyond that, who knows...maybe it's better we don't get the details. As I say whenever you cover one of their films, the Coens are, in my opinion, among the greatest working filmmakers. They have many other gems, both big and small. A couple other ones that are very popular on TH-cam include Raising Arizona and O Brother Where Art Thou?, and some ones that are just great and I'd love to see you cover because they're great are Blood Simple (which was covered by TBR Schmitt), The Hudsucker Proxy (which they wrote with Sam Raimi), Miller's Crossing, The Man Who Wasn't There, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man. Really, I could name their whole catalog, but I'm going to try and limit myself to just naming half of it.
He held a child down on the ground with a boot on her head and threatened to kill her. Then he told Rooster he would kill her and confirmed his willingness to do it when he said "You know I will do it!"
I find the choice of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” to be kinda poignant, it is of course appropriate to the character and also old enough to not be anachronistic, but Rooster ends up carrying her at the end, for who knows how long, with seemingly, literally, everlasting arms.
One of the things I like about this movie, besides the great acting and cinematography is that none of the characters speak with Contractions, for example, I'm, We're, You're, they say I am, We are, and you are, it still throws me for a loop when I first hear it, but it totally makes sense, being this s based off a book, where written and spoken language differ, more often than not dialogue in books are never adapted word for word in movie versions simply because the flow of reading and the flow of movie dialogue are so different, and written stories are always more "proper"
I live about 50 minuets from Fort Smith, the town where the movie starts. It's not all dry and south-western dusty like in the movie. In real life it is green in the summer time with lots of trees, and the city sits on a sizable river. It's really rather pretty.
The book by Charles Portis is one of my favorite books ever; I've reread it many times, but then, I'm partial to great writing. You probably know that this was the second filming of the book, the first being the terrific one from 1969 with John Wayne. They are both classics and I would be hard pressed to say which is my favorite, though for sentimental reasons, I would give the edge to Wayne. The Duke or the Dude? Both incredible; both abide. You would not do wrong to view the earlier version too. Or read the book.
I remember in an interview when this movie came out that Matt Damon said to play his character with a bit tongue he put one of his daughter's hair-ties around his tongue and tried to talk as clearly as he could to simulate a man with an injured tongue trying to enunciate as well as he can.
Quantrill was a renegade Confederate who raided and massacred Union settlements in East Kansas. After the Civil War ended, most Confederate troops were given a general amnesty, but Quantrill’s Raiders were considered terrorists and were pursued by authorities. Frank and Jesse James were among them; hence, their train robbing spree.
As good as this movie is, the original with John Wayne is far superior. I'll give Bridges credit for having the guts to remake a John Wayne classic. Nobody else dare do that for good reason. Wayne isn't just the Duke - - he is THE Duke.
You should watch the interviews where the Coen Brothers & cast talk about how with such an all-star cast, the only big question was how to find a little girl who could pull off that part. And in her first movie appearance, Hailee Steinfeld, age 13, was nominated for the Academy Award for best actress.
11:15 A lot of old timers used to think that snakes would not cross a braided rope, so they would lay it out around their bedroll. (edit to add that this does not work. Snakes slither right over the rope and cuddle next to your warm body while you are sleeping.)
People always assume the being Canadian means we ALL get subjected to feet of snow and ice roads, every winter. If only we could explain the mildness of winters on the Southern BC coast.
As an Australian with Canadian cousins: yes you are a different species. I remember crying when I was 10 wading in the ocean off Vancouver Island, because I'd never been so cold before. My Montreal and Boston cousins were confounded by my thin skin.
I'm from Central New York and can verify - there is cold, and there is cold. The middle of the woods, with barren trees, snow falling, and the mercury somewhere around 10 is COLD - even for Canadians.
Both versions are excellent, although Josh Brolin's Tom Chaney felt slightly weaker against Jeff Corey's sniveling coward in the 1969 original. I got no dog in this contest. 😁
I don't know about girls in 18whatever but in the 1920s my great grampa left school age of 12 to become the main breadwinner. On that wage half his dozen siblings survived infancy. Non-sheltered kids grew up fast in them days, and suffered mentally and physically for it. Good movie.
As soon as you were old enough you helped out in some way. Infant mortality was high. People had a lot of children and big families were a "blessing", as they were a form of insurance for when one or two people got sick. Suffering is a relative term. There lives would have been typical for the era.
Turns out you liked the exposition at the beginning and at the end. Iris Dement is the singer of the hymn at the end. She has a unique voice and an Arkansas accent.
My dad and I stopped for lunch in the town of Blanco, Tx. right on the town square. They were shooting the opening courtroom scene in the old courthouse right there on the square. Never saw any of the stars while we were there, though.
13:30 Wasnt that "I'm too old and too fat" used in Transformers. The one with the Dino primes. The fat, grizzled autobot said the same thing in the exact same manner
I love how they treated this remake they kept the comedy and heart of the original but made it a little darker and shot it so beautifully on modern cameras. I grew up watching all the old Westerns with my grandparents and John Wayne's portrayal of Rooster was everyone's favourite.
One of the Cohen’s best. When she yells “Stand up, Tom Chaney!” I remember my eyes welling with tears, then she just shoots him! True grit. She followed through on everything. So did Rooster. Sloppily, sure, but he did it.
I’ve seen this a million times, and this is easily my favorite cohen bros film, but I just noticed something has changed. Suddenly I got choked up watching rooster carry Maddie until he collapsed. I’m pretty sure I’ve tears in my eyes mainly because now I’ve got two kids of my own. Both are about Maddie’s age, and yeah. I think this might be the first time that I truly felt the impact of what he did. As soon as that snake bit her, she became his daughter. I can’t believe I never picked up on it. And being as old as I am now, I can totally guarantee he couldn’t walk for at least a week afterwards.
No, 14 was not thought of how we think of it today. That’s about when women would start getting married. I myself still have to keep that in mind when I watch this movie, and while I appreciate the realism, it still feels weird as a modern audience member. Cogburn was part of a vicious outfit (based on a real outfit of the same name) in the Civil War as part of the confederacy. LaBeouf was also a part of the confederacy, but he served with “honor”. “Quantrill’s Raiders” were notorious even within the confederacy as being huge pieces of shit. Jesse James and his brother served in that detachment. Lucky Ned admires and is amused by Mattie’s gusto, and also isn’t SO psycho that he’s just gonna execute a little girl, which is clearer in the book. He is truly adamant in his order to Chaney that she not be touched. I think his likability can also be attributed to how charming Barry Pepper (the actor’s name, funny enough) is. Also, Hailee Steinfeld (Mattie) is the voice of Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Verse movies.
For a lot of people this Remake of True Grit is better then the original. Matty is considered one of the best modern female characters of the 2010's and her Actress got her first nomination for an oscar as best supporting actress. While the original has John Wayne the film is MUCH lighter in tone compared to this one. The Remake comes with a real grittiness and cold reality that a film like this i believe deserved. In the original Matty is saved and the Marshall's fate is known. However in this film it's almost a serious lesson of True Drive towards revenge cost Matty more then she bargained for. It didn't just cost her an arm but the fact that she grew bitter towards the world. I imagine that bitterness saved her and her family for the time period she was in. But that ending! Never has an ending left such an impression on me, despite it's bitterness I enjoyed this film and all it offered to me.
I agree with you. Wayne played Coburn as more a comic role. Bridges plays him as more tragic character (he even mentions he has a kid he hadn’t seen in years since his wife left him). And the ending of the remake is much more poignant. The Wayne version ends with Coburn and the girl laughing together as she recovers from snakebite (I’m pretty sure she doesn’t lose an arm in the original). In this version the girl loses an arm, never marries, and never sees Coburn again alive.
So weird that Hailee Steinfeld didn't get her name in large print on the poster when she has the biggest part. She was great in Hawkeye and Dickinson too. Maybe also watch the John Wayne (1969) version of True Grit, see how you think it compares.
who was she before this movie? you give a young unknown billing equal to or above Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon? you don't get that kinda recognition in your first real movie.
@@jyesucevitz -- Don't put her on the poster then, you could argue she is the lead in the movie. She certainly has the most dialogue. Besides, Kim Darby got top billing with John Wayne and Glen Campbell on the poster of the 1969 version. Two mega-stars at the time. Darby only had bit roles before that, she played a 14 year old at the age of 21. Steinfeld was 13 years old and had already been in 'She's a Fox' which had been nominated and won many regional film festival awards.
This was a remake. The original starred John Wayne (Rooster Cogburn), Glen Campbell (La Boeuf) and Kim Derby (Mattie Ross). John Wayne for his part won an Oscar and a few years later made a sequel called Rooster Cogburn co-starring Katherine Hepburn.
The dialogue in both this movie and the original with John Wayne (also a must-watch) was taken practically verbatim from Charles Portis’s novel of the same name. The novel is definitely worth reading if you ever get the chance.
Charles Portis wrote about the place he grew up. About its people and its stories. "True Grit" happened to take place during this period of American history. It doesn't quite fit with the Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour brand of Western writing which a lot of Hollywood films took from back when "True Grit" was first published. Times change, however. The John Wayne version appeared to overshadow the novel as it fell out of print at one point before recently being rediscovered as a great piece of 20th century literature. The original adaptation of "True Grit" is a fine example of old Hollywood Western films, and people are dedicated to them, but time has brought us newer ways of looking at this point in American history, films like Coen Brothers' "True Grit" and Iñárittu's adaptation of "The Revenant". The Western is a genre with a long history, one that bleeds into the earliest incarnations of cinema itself.
Possibly unpopular opinion, but I like THIS version better than the John Wayne version. (Not much of a John Wayne fan anyway.) For this being her first film, Hailee Steinfeld practically stole the show. It's a shame she didn't WIN the Oscar, though she did deserve her nomination. And this may be just me, but Metallica's "The Unforgiven III" would've been a perfect song for the closing credits of this film.
One of the many things I like about this movie is their manner of speaking which is accurate for that time period and really lends more authenticity and feel to the film. This and Fargo are my favorite Cohen movies.
My favorite line in the film "I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is is vexing enough." It's from the Portis novel, but so supremely Coen-ish!
"I'm a foolish old man that's been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop!"
My favorite line is when jett bridges said its, True Gritting time." Then proceeded to true gritting everywhere
@tefdaddy8236 I can't wait to hear this joke again, for the 100,000th time. Its sooooo funny. I applaud you for your comedic talent.
@@Eidlones why thank you. i take pride in cringe
@@Eidlones And to make it even funnier, he misspelled Jeff Bridges' name.
When Cogburn and LaBeouf are talking about where they served, they're talking about the Civil War. They were both Confederate soldiers but had vastly different experiences. LaBeouf was in Robert E. Lee's much celebrated and glorified Army of Northern Virginia, fighting conventional battles in the Eastern theater (Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania). Cogburn was a guerilla fighting under William Quantril in Missouri and Kansas. The fighting in that part of the country was highly unconventional,and though smaller in scale, was in many ways much more brutal, with raiders on both sides committing numerous atrocities. These widely different experiences provide the context that explain the different methods and philosophies between the two.
By the way, a fantastic movie that captures the reality of the guerilla aspects of the Civil is The Outlaw Josey Wales, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
Another great movie that accurately captures that bloody era of the Civil War in Kansas and Missouri is "Ride With the Devil".
Thanks for filling in some details that many viewers would probably not know about the references to the Civil War by those two characters who served in different ways during the war and try to make their own experience justified and more noble. Quantril is well-known for his brutality in prosecuting warfare in the cruelest way. But both characters have maintained some dignity and humanity in their emotional lives, though they're now solitary figures who don't quite fit in the times.
The "rope repells snakes" is an old wive's tale purporting that the stiff fibers of a hemp rope would go in between a snake's belly scales and tickle them, therefore causing them to turn back.
Hailee Steinfeld was so powerful in this. I read the book in anticipation of this coming to theaters and I even thought that role was impossible to do justice to onscreen. But I was wrong. She commanded excellence and more than kept up with her elders.
Such a strong movie all around.
you could've watched the original movie. this is a remake. an excellent one, but still a remake.
@@jyesucevitzbooks are always better
Yeah I wouldn’t call it a remake and I wouldn’t say one movie is better than the other. This version is definitely closer to the book though.
@@Kragar01 I agree. Going straight from the book to watching this in theater I definitely noticed the film was super faithful.
She does better job than in 1969 original Kim Darby , who played Mattie Ross role , John Wayne was John Wayne , so Jeff Bridges did better job as Rooster Cogburn .
Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper in this and. Robert Duvall in original , rest was pretty much strait copy of the original .
The original was John Wayne’s only Oscar win. So good it spawned a sequel costarring Katheryn Hepburn. Also worth watching. Another great one guys!
Yup, I love the chemistry between Wayne and Hepburn
This one is good, but John Wayne's will always be my favorite, with one of my favorite movie lines: "FILL YOUR HANDS YOU SON OF A B!TCH!".AND you can understand what he's saying.
John Wayne was a man with True Grit.
@@williewilliams6571 My favorite is: "Well, come see a fat old man sometime!"
I really like Wayne in the role, but Kim Darby is kinda painful for me to watch. Woman in he 20s trying to play a 14 year old girl, and, as usual, over doing it.
Mattie is the main character, and I have to lean towards the better performance.
Cogburn was in the Missouri/Arkansas area during the war. It was a particularly vicious style of warfare an involved raiding homesteads and murdering civilians as often as not.
The movie Outlaw Josie Wales is an awesome Clint Eastwood movie who’s character has a similar back story.
Yep. The back drop to the argument in the movie is that Rooster Cogburn was with the same group of irregular Confederates (Quantrill) that gave rise to the Jesse James and the Younger brothers - also covered in "the Outlaw Jose Wales' and in the criminally underrated (and unreacted) Ang Lee movie "Ride with the Devil [starring a very young Tobey Macquire in his first big role]. Le Beef fought with the regular Confederate army. Quantrill's Raiders had a reputation for lawlessness and torture and murder degenerating in to piracy by the end of the war. It was an ugly, ugly time in American history.
I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. Quantrill & his gang burned the city to the ground, as well as killing many of the men there. Even in the 1970’s & 80’s, Quantrill was a despised figure in Lawrence. Can’t say I think much of the man myself..
@@susanmaggiora4800 Well Lawrence was the safe haven of a rival terrorist organization and was burned in response to the death of kidnapped prisoners, mostly women, in Kansas City.
Thank you for pointing this out.
@@susanmaggiora4800 It was in retaliation for the sacking of Osceola(and other towns) Missouri. They destroyed towns, killed women and children,etc...People in kansas like to ignore that little tidbit of information.
The original "True Grit" with John Wayne was my grandpa's favorite movie and he would watch it once a month if not more. I grew up watching it, so when this movie came out i was very familiar with the plot but was blown away by the acting.
My wife was in almost the reverse position. She had seen the remake twice before ever watching the original. She loves both but perfers the original now
My dad grew up watching John Wayne movies, and "True Grit" is his favorite, but that's also because he had loved the original novel. He liked this version, but for him nothing can compare to the original. I don't care for John Wayne (which must be hard for my dad to hear, lol), so I prefer this one.
The original True Grit is hard to beat, it was a great movie! The remake was well done also though. There was a sort of sequel to the first True Grit, called "Rooster Cogburn" which is also worth seeing.
In no way does this replace the John Wayne film, I feel they compliment each other.
@@jerryfick613 I completely agree
The venom sucking thing was a widely held belief until not very long ago. In reality once the venom is injected it is in your cardiovascular system in a few heartbeats. The only treatment is antivenom or antibiotics to prevent infection. Even today some snake bites result in amputation.
Southwestern snakes often have a necrotoxin, which in simple terms, kills rots and dissolves flesh. Unless medical treatment is rended within minutes, or hours depending on the severity of the bite, the limb will likely be lost. A bite to the face neck or torso can be fatal, even with prompt treatment. Other venom types can be instantly dehabitilating like a paralytic or neurotoxin, but are substantially less lethal.
Fun fact, smaller and baby snakes are considerably more deadly as theie venom has not been diluted for more volume. They carry extremely concentrated "pure" venom, and can deliver all of it in a single quick bite.
The venom sucking thing is still a very popular urban myth up there with "you only use 10% of your brain" etc
Sucking the venom makes an interesting punchline in “Father Goose” with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron
Some years ago a friend of a friend was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking in Arizona. They got her to a hospital where she stayed for a week and had numerous injections. Her medical bills came to over 100k and she had permanent nerve damage to her arm. Could have been worse I guess.
Hell, back in the 80s/90s they still had that as a first aid remedy when I was in Boy Scouts. I remember they had little suction devices to do the job.
Another great Coen Bros. movie. The cast was darn fantastic, the extras all looked like they belonged in that setting, and from The Dude to Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges still manages to be darn hysterical all throughout the movie at times.
It holds it's own with the original which I have seen a dozen times over 50 years. In my opinion all these actors portrayed their rolls equally well as the original but I've got to give Kim Darby the nod as Mattie by a nose. Still... excellent movie.
Damn, Domhnall Gleeson’s scream at 15:48 was so loud you could barely hear Simone’s screaming.
I remember that moment watching this in the theater and a lot of people just leaped out of their seats in disbelief.
I saw this comment before watching the reaction, for some reason I got mixed up and was waiting see Brendan Gleeson thinking that I didn't even remember that he would have been in this.
That whole scene is one of the craziest I have ever seen in a PG-13 movie.
I always assumed that one of the points of that scene was to show not just how brutal things could be at that time and place, but how quickly it could happen.
It's shocking as hell. And it's meant to be.
"The tag line: Punishment comes one way or another; so, someone's gonna get it. Ooooh-weeee." Another gem of advice from Simone. Love you Simone!
Re the early argument between Rooster and LeBeouf: most US Civil War histories focus on set-piece battles between uniformed armies commanded by famous generals. But in the western frontier (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska), the fighting was guerilla combat that frequently took the form of outright terrorism -- groups of renegades burning towns and executing "disloyal" townspeople, including men, women, and children. Future outlaws like Jesse James learned their craft as guerilla fighters. One of the most brutal guerilla leaders was William Quantrill, the "Captain Quantrill" that LeBeoeuf and Rooster argued about, who infamously burned the town of Lawrence, Kansas, to the ground and killed most of the townspeople. The guerilla war fueled decades of bitter feelings, and Cogburn and LeBeouef had different feelings about it.
Well said. I believe, but not certain, Quantrill's raiders were famous for duel wielding pistols while charging foes from horseback, which is the inspiration for Cogburn's charge at the end of the film. Again, I'm not certain of this. It could just be a creation of Hollywood.
And again, Rooster still held a grudge because Texas refused to send its army to the aid of the rest of the Confederacy.
@@therealdan2551 The Union forces referred to these irregular Confederate forces as "Southern Bushwhackers". The "Bushwhackers" were authorized by an 1862 act of the Confederate Congress, and included such famous (or infamous!) units as Quantrill's Guerrillas, Mosby's Raiders, McNeill's Rangers, Morgan's Cavalry and Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry. These "irregular" Confederate Cavalry units were legendary and feared for their expertise and deadly effectiveness in the use of a pair of revolvers from horseback. Even the late Civil War Union Cavalry, armed with lever action metallic cartridge carbines, dreaded a run-in with "Bushwhackers" because a pair of six-shooters in expert hands is much faster into action than a slung carbine, and many of the Union Cavalry would be blasted out of the saddle before their new "superior" lever action carbines could be brought into action. In early war years the 1851 Colt Navy .36 was preferred, but the Colt 1860 Army .44 rapidly gained in preference due to the larger.44 caliber's better ability at knocking men out of the saddle and dropping horses.
The part where she shoots her father's murderer, and she immediately gets knocked back into a pit of snakes is very biblical. She takes revenge and gets punished for it. The whole point of the film is that revenge is in god's hands and seeking it will harm us further than what we are avenging. She single-mindedly goes after revenge and has a bitter life because of it.
this is the most degenerate biblethumper shit ive read in a long time
Well-stated. That ending really got me.
Never thought about it like that before
Nothing like the original with John Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby
@@stanjeffrey6918 Yep, I agree. John Wayne got his only oscar for that role, and he played the character again in the sequel Rooster Cogburn, which in my opinion, was an even better movie.
At about 21:15 whem Mattie fires her father's revolver at Tom, she had six shots, but its a black powder gun from about thirty years prior. Each chamber in the cylinder is loaded with a bullet, black powder and a percussion cap. When she fires it and falls into the water, the powder gets wet and will not fire.
Maddie Ross in the end displayed true grit as well as Rooster. Hailee Steinfeld was tremendous in this and deserves her success.
"Fill your hands you Sonofabi**h!". A great line from the original, the only time John Wayne ever really swore on film!
That's big talk for a one-eyed fat man!
I call that bold talk, for a one eyed fat man.
Ahh, Marion the former hairdresser.
@@Cheepchipsable Are you saying that because he wore a toupee?
He was a college football player and later a stuntman for movies, before becoming an actor.
My favorite western alongside the remake to 3:10 to Yuma.
You seen any of the following?
Hell or High Water
No Country for Old Men
Nocturnal Animals
Unforgiven
Wind River
Those are my personal favorite westerns. True Grit would be right after. I still have to see 3:10 to Yuma. Same with The Hateful Eight.
@@Dalvory Haven't seen Nocturnal Animals or Wind Rider.
How is nocturnal animals a western? 😮
@@ronin83-de It's a Neo-western.
@@Dalvory The others would more rightly be called Neo-westerns.... Nocturnal Animals more like not-at-all western.
"Oh shit, there's Matt Damon!" Needs to be the default response when he appears on screen.
I love Hailee Steinfield in this movie, she absolutely someone the show while acting against some powerhouse actors in this movie. I was really disappointed when she chose to pursue a career in pop music after this, but thankfully she is back to doing acting recently, including voice-acting as Gwen in the Spider-verse films.
She’s also incredible voicing as Violet/Vi in Arcane!
Hawkeye and Dickinson. She’s amazing.
5:40 if anyone is wondering what a king bolt is it was the big metal piece on the front of wagons or railroad cars that connected it to its front axle or in a train situation would connect it to the next train car.
The moment when they realized they had fallen prey to checkov's snake was the best
That song at the end - 'Leaning On the Everlasting Arms' sung by Iris Dement just fits the ending so perfectly. The words are a hymn from 1887.
This has to be up there as not only one of the best remakes in cinema history but also the finest Coen brothers movie.
Hailee Steinfeld was well deserving of the Oscar nomination for this, her big screen debut at the age of 13. I wish we had seen her in more roles since, although she shone in Dickinson and Hawkeye.
Let’s not forget she was great in Bumblebee
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms by Iris Dement is the song that plays at the end.
At 4:40 liability was a sketchy thing with "frontier justice." Usually it came down to "that makes sense to me." That's not to say that there weren't laws, there weren't lawyers, and there weren't hard readings of complex propositions to get out of liability (or a noose), but the burden of proof for guilt was not what it is now here or in Canada.
I am British and can confirm that 'Muffin walloper' is indeed a euphemism for something gross, and we all know that Simone knew exactly what she was doing.
Tut tut Simone, tut tut.
Google is your friend. In Victorian times a Muffin walloper was a single woman who gathered with her friends to gossip.
bull
King bolts are the big pin that hold rail cars or wagons together. For purposes here it'd be like a billy club made of metal.
15:18 That`s Domhnall Gleeson (who played Bill Weasley), the son of Brendan Gleeson,
(who played Mad-Eye Looney in Harry Potter) :)))
Great Reaction guys!!!!! This remake was nominated for 10 Academy Awards (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. Loved the movie, was not surprised by Bridges great acting but was blown away by 13yr old Hailee Steinfeld starring in her first feature film! She referred to Cogburn as having "True Grit", when in fact its she who really has True Grit. One fun fact, Hailee recalls how everyone on the set treated her so kindly, but she did have a swear jar which was filled mostly by Bridges.. LOL!! Take care guys!! XOXO
It's an injustice that Hailee Steinfeld doesn't share top billing on that poster. She is _at_ least as big a part of this movie.
who was she before the movie? that's how poster placement works.
@@jyesucevitz Yeah, ''injustice'' is a bit over the top.
@@jyesucevitzexactly, look at Terminator 2, at least she's on it
To be fair, this was her very first movie. It’s like with Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave, or Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips. Despite being EXTREMELY talented, they were unknown. This was the movie that made Hailee Steinfeld known. ❤
Well, I think it is still her best work.
William Quantrill was a Confederate officer who refused to stop fighting even after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. In the context of the movie, Rooster was a follower of Quantrill, and continued fighting along with him and his raiders.
Edit: William Quantrill was shot and captured before Lee surrendered, therefore I am wrong in my statement that he kept fighting. Thanks @robertcampbell8070 for the correction. Sorry about that!!
Even before the surrender, Quantrill and his raiders notorious for using tactics that would very certainly be considered terrorism by modern standards.
The war was very different on the old frontier, with Jayhawker outfits fighting for the union, and Bushwhackers fighting for the confederacy, both using guerilla tactics against eachother, and more frequently the civilian populations of their respective states.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines Keep in mind that reports from the time are fairly unreliable on all sides.
@@RexFuturiYet not hard to imagine.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines absolutely....Quantrill was certainly no 'hero'....he was a bad dude, and I mean evil!
@@RexFuturiEven the Confederate government hated Quantrill. The Lawrence Massacre at least is well documented.
The original is definitely worth watching! Such a classic, I also recommend watching the original 310 To Yuma and the new one.
As much as I love this remake, the original if very dear to my heart. It’s a great film and one of my dad’s favorites that we would watch together. Highly recommend everyone give it a go.
The novel was written in 1968 and the original film was released in 1969. John Wayne received his only Oscar for his portrayal of Roosrer Cogburn. A role he would reprise in a 1975 film of the same name. The original also starred singer/songwriter/ musician Glen Cambell as the Texas Ranger, Dennis Hopper in the Josh Brolin role, and Kim Darby, (John Cusack's weird mom in "Better Off Dead") as Mattie.
Talk about an amazing cast!
And Robert Duvall as lucky Ned Pepper
Mostly correct only Jeff Corey played Chaney and Denis Hopper played Moon in the 1969 version.
And Strother Martin as Col. Stonehill.
@@Terra-Rare Barry Pepper in this movie seemed to basically be playing Robert Duvall playing Lucky Ned.
My great grandmother was married at fourteen. That was in 1935 on the Texas/Mexico border. That was 57 years after this movie takes place, soooo… make of that what you will. My great-grandfather was 22.
My grandmother was married at age 14 (1930s) Many people, especially in rural farm communities, rarely exceeded 8th grade (junior high) in school. Many were off to breeding their brood of 8-15 kids, seeing is how many died at a young age.
Just to be clear, the average age for marriage for women in 1930 was around 21 years old, at least in the U.S, and that didn't change much from the 1870s which I believe is when this movie is set. Just because some girls got married younger doesn't make it common. Heck, in 2001 three 11 year old girls in TN were married off to adult men but we certainly wouldn't consider that the normal states of affairs.
Young "adult" at that time period. People were married in the ages of 14,15,16 especially in rural areas. Being the family genealogist, I can say that I have relatives, from the hillbilly side of West Virginia, who were married around those ages back in the 1800s
@vadalia3860 I think it is wrong to assume that the 1930s average was correct due to the method of data collection at the time. But, to equate 1930 to 1870 is absolutely wrong. People married early and had many children based on need, people lived off the land and children became workers. The sheer need to expand the population in that area of the country at that time resulted in young people marrying.
@@jonhenry8268 If you've got evidence to back up your claim about the average age women married being lower in 1870, I'd love to take a look at it. Couples can't "expand the population" without having the necessary accessories to furnish their own homes and that costs money. They needed time save up to buy those things, in addition to the time it took to meet one another & be vetted for marriage worthiness in the first place.
The numbers I'm seeing for fertility rate- the average # of children a woman would have in her lifetime- were 5 children in the U.S. in 1870. Even for those who had more children- a woman marrying at 20 years old can expect at least 20+ years of fertility. Also don't forget, children don't become valuable workers until around 5-6 at the youngest so that's several years (after weaning) of just feeding non-productive mouths before they even begin to contribute to working the land, and they're not particularly useful right away.
This movie always touches home for me. The town Fort Smith is where I am from. My grandpa reminded me of Rooster as a kid (John Wayne’s portrayal) thank you for doing this movie.
Greetings from Fort Smith, Arkansas. This town was historically the "last stop" for law and order during the 1800s. US Marshals would travel over the Arkansas river in to Indian territory and bring back wanted criminals to stand trial in Fort Smith. "The Hanging Judge Parker" was locally famous for sentencing 160 people to death (79 being executed) over his 21 year career.
Ft. Smith is a really interesting place and the little National Historic Site where the courthouse and gallows are is worth a visit.
This movie is one-of-a-kind. The book is, too, and I think the movie definitely did it justice. :) I've always loved the Coen Brother's unique style of film-making.
As a brazilian I love this movie, so cool to see a very accurate representation on what the old west probably was, but I can understand about 10% of whatever Jeff Bridges is saying 😂
I'm an American and I can maybe understand 11% of what Jeff Bridges is saying.
The dialogue is shot through with archaic idioms and vocabulary that isn't used in modern English anymore, and the Coens actually wrote the screenplay without using contractions, because for some reason they believed no one used them back then.
I actually doubt that Americans in 1873 Arkansas and Oklahoma would've been _quite_ so hard to understand.
John Wayne didn't mumble his lines like Bridges.
At 14, she was probably considered an old maid back then. Lol. My mom got married to my dad when she was only 16. She turned 16 in November and then got married to my dad in December (1959). Dad was 17. They were married 53 yrs when my mom passed away in January 2013. Dad passed away in 2020. Never saw dad cry before until mom died.
I've always loved this movie. Hailee Steinfeld should have won Best Actress (she was nominated for Supporting Actress, even though she has the most screen time). Also, I definitely recommend watching with the English Captions turned on, just to appreciate all the vernacular in the dialog.
She was never going to beat Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan. Portman won best actress at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.
@@krayzy932 which is really a crime; I never understood what was so special about that movie or Portman's performance. I think Hailee got ignored if not outright robbed for simply being a nobody at the time. Not to knock the others in the film but she damn near carried it herself, she was so riveting. Without her character and that performance, this remake is pointless and just another generic western, even with the Coens do no wrong magic touch at the time.
@@gregmcdonald8962 The studios are who submit their actors/actresses for each specific category. They knew she had no shot at winning Best Actress, not with all of the major actresses who were up for it that year.
I don't believe they thought she would win best supporting actress either, but it was her best shot at getting nominated. They were right.
The argument between Laboef and Cogburn centered on their actions during the War Between the States or Civil War (depending on if you are from the South or the North.) Laboef served in the regular Confederate army, while Cogburn 'served' with irregulars (a group that included the James brothers) that were seen as no more than terrorists even by many Southerners.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is another great movie a lot like this one. It's a western, but mostly an adventure story. From 1948 starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston.
I would afire it isn’t a western but a depression era film that takes place in Mexico
@@shawnmiller4781 True, but I think there's enough of the western DNA in it to put it in with the genre at least in part. But it's also an adventure and drama as well.
Unfortunately they don't seem to react to older films. 1930's and 1940's are two of the greatest decades for cinema. Off the top of my head I can't remember them reacting to anything pre-1970....
@@lliamrose We have to broaden their range!
Maybe start a petition to get them to see some of the great films.
Casablanca
The African Queen
Grapes of Wrath
Santa Claus vs. The Martians
The Quiet Man
Inherit the wind
What Paths Glory
Wizard of Oz
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Bridge on the River Kwai
Arsenic and Old Lace
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (which is awesome) strikes me as sort of a “noir western” maybe the only one of its kind.
Captain quantrell was the leader of a group of guerilla fighters, partisans, and terrorists on the Missouri side of the Missouri Kansas conflict just prior to the American Civil War ("Bleeding Kansas.") The Jayhawkers were the Kansas equivalent and both groups would regularly run across the state line taking cattle, burning down farmsteads, and so on because of their different beliefs about slavery. Sometimes it was about slavery... Sometimes it was just old family grudges being given a chance to get played out again.
One of Quantrill's most famous actions was the raid and massacre in Lawrence, KS, now well known as a college town famous for its basketball team (named the Jayhawks: naturally.)
Cogburn speaking out in favor of Quantrill and the raid on Lawrence marks him as a former Confederate soldier or partisan. Just one more thing that adds to the complexity of our characters. Even our "hero" is a scumbag. In case that wasn't already obvious lol
This is one of those movies that has a look and a feel that stands out among other films.
Some movies you forget about in a couple of days.
With this one, there are whole scenes and sequences that I would never forget... even if I had only seen it once.
This demonstrates the difference between a 'movie' and a 'film'- the Coen Brothers brought the book to life in a way that the earlier version fell short of, IMHO!
Rooster was with William Clarke Quantrill, who headed a band of Confederate guerillas ('irregulars') in Missouri. Some members of this group went on to careers as outlaws after the War, including the James Gang. (One of them, Cole Younger, is portrayed briefly at the end of this movie.)
LaBoeuf served in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, a regular army that was tightly controlled and obeyed the conventions of warfare. For people in the regular Army and the Confederate Government, raiders like the ones in Missouri were often an embarrassment.
I wish George could have seen Simone’s face when the movie ended. He was excited about the movie but the look on Simone’s face seemed so sad. While they both enjoyed the movie they seemed to come away thinking quite differently about it.
I feel like George does that a lot
@@BringmethehorizondudeWould be worse if they were both in sync all the time.
Moon, one who lost fingers before losing his life, was played by Domhnall Gleason, who played Caleb in "Ex Machina," Bill Weasley in "HP and the Deathly Hollows", and General Hux in Star Wars episodes 7 to 9.
Also the captain in The Revenant
You should look into "The ballad of Buster Scruggs" at some point. Also by the Coen brothers and have some slightly different takes on westerns.
Such an underrated movie
Yes, yes, yes! I love the hell out of that movie! It feels tragically underappreciated.
The novel is one of the best I've read. This film is very faithful to it, and that charming, stilted manner of "American western" speech comes directly from the text. I'm glad you watched this!
Here's an excellent analysis of the final gunfight/ending I've always enjoyed reading:
To me, the beauty of this scene lies in how it maintains the story's general theme of hopelessness and hardship, while calling back to claims multiple characters have made that were dismissed as tall tales. This scene suggests that, even in the hopeless despair of the film's setting, people occasionally live up to their hype.
Rooster Cogburn, earlier in the film, is laughed at when he claims to have defeated groups as large as four in gunfights. He insists that if you ride against four or more aggressively enough, some of them will run, and you only need to out-shoot the one or two who don't flinch. Later, LaBoeuf questions his ability to aim with one eye, and he's too drunk to demonstrate his skills properly. For most of the film, Rooster is portrayed as too old and fat, and too ravaged by alcoholism, to live up to his own fearsome reputation. In this scene, however, he shows himself capable of steering the reins with his teeth while riding at high speeds, and still wielding two guns accurately - a feat only a small number of people in the world could match today. Furthermore, he lands five direct hits with four shots. He misses once, kills two on the spot, fatally wounds his main target and the fourth retreats wounded. It's a display of gunfighting on a par with the wildest rumors about him, showing that, however much of a failure he is as a husband, father, soldier and lawman, he is indeed a fighter of true grit.
Rooster similarly lacks respect for LaBeouf, laughing at him when he claims to have once nearly caught their original quarry while pursuing him on horseback. LaBeouf describes having attempted to shoot him from a great distance, electing to shoot while moving rather than while properly grounded. Roster mocks him, saying that he "couldn't hit at man (at the distance described) if he were (grounded) on the Rock of Gibralter." In this scene, LaBeouf doesn't interfere with the gunfight because he has little chance of hitting moving targets from such a distance. When Rooster is in danger, however, he's forced to attempt a shot from a greater distance than in his earlier claims - the camera even highlights that with the weaponry of the time, he has to make the shot without a scope of any kind, using only the barrel of the gun as a visual aid. By landing such a miraculous shoot, LaBoeuf saves Rooster's life while also validating his identity as a marksman.
In this scene, just once, the two characters live up to their bravado and things work out.
- from the comment of @brettzforeman on another video
If the actor playing the part of Ned Pepper looked familiar, it is because he was played by actor Barry Pepper (Sniper Jackson in "Saving Private Ryan," and Boss Dean Stanton in "The Green Mile").
A good remake. Tough frontier women. When my grandmother had scarlet fever when a young woman operating the local phone plug board, her parents put her in a shed, and fed her with plates of food left at the door so they could avoid contagion, 100 years ago. Her eyes were weakened, and she had to wear rose tinted glasses the rest of her life. Miss you, grandma!
First time I saw this i couldn't stop thinking about what a wonderful adaptation thisvis and what an amazing actress Hailee is! And now that i am watching the two of you react to it, those are still the thoughts at the front of my mind.
Lol Simone reminds me of the gopher from Caddyshack when George is reading their list of patrons. 😂
Rope was thought to keep out snakes with the theory that the texture was too irritating for them to crawl over. But it doesn't actually work.
A king bolt, also called a king pin, is a metal rod that secures a wagon tongue to a wagon so that it can pivot and turn.
Both this version and the original are excellent films. I love them both. John Wayne won his only oscar as Rooster Cogburn. Also the term True Grit is actually referring to Maddie Ross and her unstoppable determination to avenge her fathers murder.
That actress nailed the part all I see was the original actress with her legal talk
You have watched one other Coen movie you didn't mention on the channel, The Big Lebowski. Obviously, this reunites the Coen Brothers with Jeff Bridges, for the first time since that film.
As you noted, and I have mentioned in the Patreon comments, this is an adaptation of a book. I am on the paid tier on another channel where I requested this movie (it has yet to be made public, although it could always turn into a Patreon exclusive someday), and in anticipation of that, I read the book, and it is amazing how closely the Coens capture the tone and humor of the novel, which is surprisingly sharp-witted -- a perfect fit for the Coen Brothers. The John Wayne version of the movie is fine, but it doesn't capture the book at all.
The film was the debut of Hailee Steinfeld, who has gone onto be in many things. Someone else mentioned the Spider-Verse movies, where she voices Spider-Gwen, and she's also in the MCU properly elsewhere, although I won't say who she plays in case you haven't gotten there. She was also on an Apple TV show called "Dickinson," and in the Pitch Perfect sequels. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, and deservingly so. Bridges was also nominated, along with the Coens for both directing and the adaptation, and the film for Best Picture, among others, for a total of 10 nominations. Sadly, it didn't win any of them.
Your guess is correct: the rope tricks snakes into thinking there is another snake, or at least that's my understanding. As for the body, the guy with the bear suit specifically says he 1) does dentistry and 2) wants the body's teeth, for practice or study. There are probably other people who could make use of the body in a similar fashion. Beyond that, who knows...maybe it's better we don't get the details.
As I say whenever you cover one of their films, the Coens are, in my opinion, among the greatest working filmmakers. They have many other gems, both big and small. A couple other ones that are very popular on TH-cam include Raising Arizona and O Brother Where Art Thou?, and some ones that are just great and I'd love to see you cover because they're great are Blood Simple (which was covered by TBR Schmitt), The Hudsucker Proxy (which they wrote with Sam Raimi), Miller's Crossing, The Man Who Wasn't There, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man. Really, I could name their whole catalog, but I'm going to try and limit myself to just naming half of it.
The Coen bros excel as writers as well as directors. Their script for Suburbicon (which George Clooney directs) is darkly funny.
I love this movie
Just remember that being a robber or rustler doesnt necessarily mean that Ned would be OK with abusing women and children.
He held a child down on the ground with a boot on her head and threatened to kill her.
Then he told Rooster he would kill her and confirmed his willingness to do it when he said "You know I will do it!"
I find the choice of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” to be kinda poignant, it is of course appropriate to the character and also old enough to not be anachronistic, but Rooster ends up carrying her at the end, for who knows how long, with seemingly, literally, everlasting arms.
One of the things I like about this movie, besides the great acting and cinematography is that none of the characters speak with Contractions, for example, I'm, We're, You're, they say I am, We are, and you are, it still throws me for a loop when I first hear it, but it totally makes sense, being this s based off a book, where written and spoken language differ, more often than not dialogue in books are never adapted word for word in movie versions simply because the flow of reading and the flow of movie dialogue are so different, and written stories are always more "proper"
Hailee has been one of the best actors in the business since she was a child. She's been a comedic talent from day one. It's so impressive
I live about 50 minuets from Fort Smith, the town where the movie starts. It's not all dry and south-western dusty like in the movie. In real life it is green in the summer time with lots of trees, and the city sits on a sizable river. It's really rather pretty.
The book by Charles Portis is one of my favorite books ever; I've reread it many times, but then, I'm partial to great writing. You probably know that this was the second filming of the book, the first being the terrific one from 1969 with John Wayne. They are both classics and I would be hard pressed to say which is my favorite, though for sentimental reasons, I would give the edge to Wayne. The Duke or the Dude? Both incredible; both abide. You would not do wrong to view the earlier version too. Or read the book.
I remember in an interview when this movie came out that Matt Damon said to play his character with a bit tongue he put one of his daughter's hair-ties around his tongue and tried to talk as clearly as he could to simulate a man with an injured tongue trying to enunciate as well as he can.
In the book, it's abundantly clear that LaBoeuf pronounces his name "Labeef", so it's correct in this context. 🙂
Quantrill was a renegade Confederate who raided and massacred Union settlements in East Kansas. After the Civil War ended, most Confederate troops were given a general amnesty, but Quantrill’s Raiders were considered terrorists and were pursued by authorities. Frank and Jesse James were among them; hence, their train robbing spree.
As good as this movie is, the original with John Wayne is far superior.
I'll give Bridges credit for having the guts to remake a John Wayne classic. Nobody else dare do that for good reason. Wayne isn't just the Duke - - he is THE Duke.
Hailee Steinfeld who portrays Mattie also portrays Kate Bishop in Hawkeye and is the VA for Gwen Stacey
You should watch the interviews where the Coen Brothers & cast talk about how with such an all-star cast, the only big question was how to find a little girl who could pull off that part. And in her first movie appearance, Hailee Steinfeld, age 13, was nominated for the Academy Award for best actress.
11:15 A lot of old timers used to think that snakes would not cross a braided rope, so they would lay it out around their bedroll. (edit to add that this does not work. Snakes slither right over the rope and cuddle next to your warm body while you are sleeping.)
People always assume the being Canadian means we ALL get subjected to feet of snow and ice roads, every winter. If only we could explain the mildness of winters on the Southern BC coast.
I live in Southwestern BC, too.
I think Vancouver gets some of the mildest weather in Canada.
One could argue that, of the three of them, she had true grit.
Thats the intent of the novel. Mattie is the main character, and the one with true grit, not Cogburn or LaBeouf.
One of my all time favorites! Honestly this is the movie that made me a Western fan
As an Australian with Canadian cousins: yes you are a different species. I remember crying when I was 10 wading in the ocean off Vancouver Island, because I'd never been so cold before. My Montreal and Boston cousins were confounded by my thin skin.
I'm from Central New York and can verify - there is cold, and there is cold. The middle of the woods, with barren trees, snow falling, and the mercury somewhere around 10 is COLD - even for Canadians.
Loved this movie enough to see it twice at the theater. The 1969 version starring John Wayne is also fantastic and worth checking out.
Both versions are excellent, although Josh Brolin's Tom Chaney felt slightly weaker against Jeff Corey's sniveling coward in the 1969 original. I got no dog in this contest. 😁
I don't know about girls in 18whatever but in the 1920s my great grampa left school age of 12 to become the main breadwinner. On that wage half his dozen siblings survived infancy. Non-sheltered kids grew up fast in them days, and suffered mentally and physically for it.
Good movie.
As soon as you were old enough you helped out in some way.
Infant mortality was high. People had a lot of children and big families were a "blessing", as they were a form of insurance for when one or two people got sick.
Suffering is a relative term. There lives would have been typical for the era.
Turns out you liked the exposition at the beginning and at the end. Iris Dement is the singer of the hymn at the end. She has a unique voice and an Arkansas accent.
Hell yes, I love this movie! I want a whole spin off about Forrester, the Bear Dentist!
My dad and I stopped for lunch in the town of Blanco, Tx. right on the town square. They were shooting the opening courtroom scene in the old courthouse right there on the square. Never saw any of the stars while we were there, though.
Coincidentally, I watched the original just the other day. It might be worth watching to compare the two😊
13:30 Wasnt that "I'm too old and too fat" used in Transformers. The one with the Dino primes. The fat, grizzled autobot said the same thing in the exact same manner
I love how they treated this remake they kept the comedy and heart of the original but made it a little darker and shot it so beautifully on modern cameras. I grew up watching all the old Westerns with my grandparents and John Wayne's portrayal of Rooster was everyone's favourite.
Hailee Steinfeld was deservedly Oscar-nominated for this role.
One of the Cohen’s best. When she yells “Stand up, Tom Chaney!” I remember my eyes welling with tears, then she just shoots him! True grit. She followed through on everything. So did Rooster. Sloppily, sure, but he did it.
I’ve seen this a million times, and this is easily my favorite cohen bros film, but I just noticed something has changed. Suddenly I got choked up watching rooster carry Maddie until he collapsed. I’m pretty sure I’ve tears in my eyes mainly because now I’ve got two kids of my own. Both are about Maddie’s age, and yeah. I think this might be the first time that I truly felt the impact of what he did. As soon as that snake bit her, she became his daughter. I can’t believe I never picked up on it. And being as old as I am now, I can totally guarantee he couldn’t walk for at least a week afterwards.
No, 14 was not thought of how we think of it today. That’s about when women would start getting married. I myself still have to keep that in mind when I watch this movie, and while I appreciate the realism, it still feels weird as a modern audience member.
Cogburn was part of a vicious outfit (based on a real outfit of the same name) in the Civil War as part of the confederacy. LaBeouf was also a part of the confederacy, but he served with “honor”. “Quantrill’s Raiders” were notorious even within the confederacy as being huge pieces of shit. Jesse James and his brother served in that detachment.
Lucky Ned admires and is amused by Mattie’s gusto, and also isn’t SO psycho that he’s just gonna execute a little girl, which is clearer in the book. He is truly adamant in his order to Chaney that she not be touched. I think his likability can also be attributed to how charming Barry Pepper (the actor’s name, funny enough) is.
Also, Hailee Steinfeld (Mattie) is the voice of Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Verse movies.
Hailee also in Bumblebee movie. The original movie John Wayne was Rooster.
"If it bleeds, it breeds"
@@spurgurius there’s no onomatopoeia for the sound your comment made me make. Woof.
For a lot of people this Remake of True Grit is better then the original. Matty is considered one of the best modern female characters of the 2010's and her Actress got her first nomination for an oscar as best supporting actress. While the original has John Wayne the film is MUCH lighter in tone compared to this one. The Remake comes with a real grittiness and cold reality that a film like this i believe deserved. In the original Matty is saved and the Marshall's fate is known. However in this film it's almost a serious lesson of True Drive towards revenge cost Matty more then she bargained for. It didn't just cost her an arm but the fact that she grew bitter towards the world. I imagine that bitterness saved her and her family for the time period she was in. But that ending! Never has an ending left such an impression on me, despite it's bitterness I enjoyed this film and all it offered to me.
I agree with you. Wayne played Coburn as more a comic role. Bridges plays him as more tragic character (he even mentions he has a kid he hadn’t seen in years since his wife left him). And the ending of the remake is much more poignant. The Wayne version ends with Coburn and the girl laughing together as she recovers from snakebite (I’m pretty sure she doesn’t lose an arm in the original). In this version the girl loses an arm, never marries, and never sees Coburn again alive.
So weird that Hailee Steinfeld didn't get her name in large print on the poster when she has the biggest part. She was great in Hawkeye and Dickinson too. Maybe also watch the John Wayne (1969) version of True Grit, see how you think it compares.
who was she before this movie? you give a young unknown billing equal to or above Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon?
you don't get that kinda recognition in your first real movie.
@@jyesucevitz -- Don't put her on the poster then, you could argue she is the lead in the movie. She certainly has the most dialogue.
Besides, Kim Darby got top billing with John Wayne and Glen Campbell on the poster of the 1969 version. Two mega-stars at the time. Darby only had bit roles before that, she played a 14 year old at the age of 21.
Steinfeld was 13 years old and had already been in 'She's a Fox' which had been nominated and won many regional film festival awards.
This was a remake. The original starred John Wayne (Rooster Cogburn), Glen Campbell (La Boeuf) and Kim Derby (Mattie Ross). John Wayne for his part won an Oscar and a few years later made a sequel called Rooster Cogburn co-starring Katherine Hepburn.
The dialogue in both this movie and the original with John Wayne (also a must-watch) was taken practically verbatim from Charles Portis’s novel of the same name. The novel is definitely worth reading if you ever get the chance.
At 18:32 - Rooster's horse is a saint. RIP.
Would love to see you react to the original "True Grit" starring the great John Wayne, which is equally as good as this remake.
You mistake being driven for being mature. She’s not mature. Otherwise, she’d have a more tempered view of her limitations. She’s driven to vengeance.
Another Coen Brothers film to check out is The Hudsucker Proxy. It is a sadly overlooked film but absolutely worth a reaction.
Charles Portis wrote about the place he grew up. About its people and its stories. "True Grit" happened to take place during this period of American history. It doesn't quite fit with the Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour brand of Western writing which a lot of Hollywood films took from back when "True Grit" was first published. Times change, however. The John Wayne version appeared to overshadow the novel as it fell out of print at one point before recently being rediscovered as a great piece of 20th century literature. The original adaptation of "True Grit" is a fine example of old Hollywood Western films, and people are dedicated to them, but time has brought us newer ways of looking at this point in American history, films like Coen Brothers' "True Grit" and Iñárittu's adaptation of "The Revenant". The Western is a genre with a long history, one that bleeds into the earliest incarnations of cinema itself.
Possibly unpopular opinion, but I like THIS version better than the John Wayne version. (Not much of a John Wayne fan anyway.)
For this being her first film, Hailee Steinfeld practically stole the show. It's a shame she didn't WIN the Oscar, though she did deserve her nomination.
And this may be just me, but Metallica's "The Unforgiven III" would've been a perfect song for the closing credits of this film.
One of the many things I like about this movie is their manner of speaking which is accurate for that time period and really lends more authenticity and feel to the film. This and Fargo are my favorite Cohen movies.