Cinema 2011 #17: True Grit

True Grit started out as a 1968 Old West serial by the writer Charles Portis, and provides the bones from which Joel and Ethan Coen, the chieftains of American quirk, flesh out their latest slice of murky Americana. It tells the tail of Mattie Ross, a quick-witted and resourceful 14 year-old out to bring her father’s murderer to justice. To do this, she retains the services of a one-eyed, gun-totin’, whiskey swiggin’, crotchety rogue of a US Marshall, Rooster Cogburn, and a tawdry Texan Ranger by the name of LaBoeuf. The role of Cogburn gave John Wayne the only Oscar of his career in 1970, and his work is generally the main reason why the previous version is fondly remembered some 40 years on. This time round, however, the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, dons the eye patch and the Coens claim their film is a sharper rendition of the source material, Truer Grit if you will.