2010 True Grit Movie Poster

Joel and Ethan Coen’s film True Grit was released December 22, 2010. The Coen brothers beautifully remade the 1969 John Wayne classic in hopes to follow more accurately the novel by Charles Portis. The story takes place in post civil war america. A young girl named Mattie Ross, played by Hailee Steinfeld, sets out to find the man who murdered her father. Mattie Ross hires a drunkard US Marshal named Rooster Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges, and a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf, played by Matt Damon, to seek out Chaney and avenge her father’s death.

When this film came out in 2010, audiences focused on their own expectations of the Coen brothers and what the film should be. These expectations are more dominant than the comparisons to the 1969 film-as a result audiences fail to recognize how feminist the 2010 film is in its interpretation to the original.  The Coen brothers version of Mattie Ross proved that their film had all the qualities of  a true feminist western.

Movie Poster of Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges

Movie Poster of Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin

 

 

 

 

 “People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood. But it did happen."

True Grit. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, performances by Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon, Paramount Pictures, 2010.