True Grit (2010) - Oscar Nominee!

"Terrific: tough, exciting, funny, gorgeous and bewitchingly acted, this is darn close to perfection.  Angie Errigo, Empire
"...a true picture of how the West was won, or -- depending on your view -- lost.  Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"...formidably well-crafted...  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"An old-time, classically told Cowboy Movie, and a darned good one.  Norm Schrager, Filmcritic

Editor's Note Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) joins an aging U.S. marshal (Jeff Bridges) and another lawman (Matt Damon) in tracking her father's killer into hostile Indian territory in Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Charles Portis' original novel. Sticking more closely to the source material than the 1969 feature adaptation starring Western icon John Wayne, the Coens' TRUE GRIT tells the story from the young girl's perspective, and re-teams the celebrated filmmaking duo with their NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN producing partner Scott Rudin. Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper co-star.

	Matt Damon
	Barry Pepper
	Hailee Steinfeld
	Jeff Bridges
	Josh Brolin
	Jarlath Conroy - Co-Star
	Bruce Green - Co-Star
	Ed Lee Corbin - Co-Star
	Peter Leung - Co-Star
	Joe Stevens - Co-Star
	Jake Walker - Co-Star
	Orlando Smart - Co-Star
	Maggie Goodman - Co-Star
	Brandon Sanderson - Co-Star
	Ruben Nakai Campana - Co-Star
	Jonathan Joss - Co-Star
	Don Pirl - Co-Star
	Roy Lee Jones - Co-Star
	Elizabeth Marvel - Co-Star
	Paul Rae - Co-Star
	Candyce Hinkle - Co-Star
	Domhnall Gleeson - Co-Star
	Dakin Matthews - Co-Star
	Ty Mitchell - Co-Star
	Leon Russom - Co-Star
	Nicholas Sadler - Co-Star
	David Lipman - Co-Star
	Scott Sowers - Co-Star
	Carter Burwell - Composer
	Ethan Coen - Screenwriter
	Joel Coen - Screenwriter
	Roger Deakins - Director of Photography
	Nancy Haigh - Set Decorator
	Betsy Magruder - Assistant Director
	Craig Berkey - Sound Re-Recording
	Skip Lievsay - Sound Re-Recording
	Charles Portis - Source Writer
	Greg Orloff - Sound Re-Recording
	Mike Watson - Stunt Coordinator
	Robert Graf - Production Manager/UPM
	Catherine Farrell - Post-Production Supervisor
	Joel Coen - Director
	Ethan Coen - Director

Los Angeles Times
"[O]ne of their most broadly entertaining films yet....[The Coen brothers] worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio." 12/22/2010

Wall Street Journal
"Joel Coen and Ethan Coen fill the film with self-conscious good humor -- hey, it's the Coen brothers -- and the charmingly old-fashioned locutions of the Charles Portis novel." 12/24/2010

Chicago Sun-Times
3.5 star out of 4 -- "The casting is always inspired and exact. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western." 12/22/2010

New York Times
"[B]oth musically and visually, TRUE GRIT is a parable about good and evil. Only here, the lines between the two are so blurred as to be indistinguishable, making this a true picture of how the West was won or -- depending on your view -- lost." 12/21/2010

Washington Post
3 stars out of 4 -- "TRUE GRIT has sweep and scope and entertainment value to burn..." 12/22/2010

USA Today
"Joel and Ethan Coen have pulled off an impressive feat: repurposing a classic film with their idiosyncratic blend of dark, deadpan humor and palpable suspense..." 12/22/2010

A.V. Club
"The Coens direct TRUE GRIT with a light touch....It's simultaneously rollicking and grave, alternating moments of fine dark humor with startling violence..." -- Grade: A- 12/21/2010

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[T]he Coens have crafted a vastly entertaining Wild West show that is memorable in every particular." 12/21/2010

Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A]ll credit to Damon, who plays down the Texan's vanity and braggadocio, leaving just enough of it in evidence to be funny without being off-putting." 12/21/2010

Movieline
"[A]lternately somber, funny, elegiac and steadfastly if unconventionally moral....The Coens use the landscape beautifully, capturing the majesty of ripply baptismal rivers and craggy, charred-bone trees alike." 12/22/2010

Entertainment Weekly
"The best of the new TRUE GRIT comes from the actors who bring their vivid characters to life....With typically impeccable dusty-Western cinematography by Roger Deakins..." -- Grade: B 12/24/2010

USA Today
Included in USA Today's "10 Best Films Of 2010" -- "The Coen brothers fire on all cylinders with this remake of the 1969 Western..." 12/31/2010

Film Comment
"[T]he brothers clearly enjoy adopting Portis's dry plainspoken idiom....Bridges sounds as if he's talking through his collar, in a vocal performance that's entertaining no matter what he's saying..." 01/01/2011

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "TRUE GRIT is really about Jeff Bridges, giving another peerless performance for the Coens....Certainly with TRUE GRIT, he's done great work in a great film." 02/01/2011

Sight and Sound
"[T]he production, by their regular team, is formally superb....The Coens inject something of its macabre fairytale timbre, retaining the book's grotesque touches and adding more." 02/01/2011

Variety 8 of 10
It's hard to imagine bigger boots to fill than the ones that earned John Wayne his Oscar in "True Grit," and yet Jeff Bridges handily reinvents the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' back-to-the-book remake. Though the sibs return things to the perspective of vengeance-bent 14-year-old Mattie Ross, all eyes are definitely on Cogburn. Rather than a case of the Dude doing the Duke, Bridges' irascible old cuss is a genuine original who feels larger than the familiar saga that contains him. Awfully gritty for its PG-13 rating, this characteristically well-crafted outing could draw a wide range of audiences, ranking among the Coens' more commercial pics. - Peter Debruge

Rolling Stone 9 of 10
What makes True Grit a new classic for the Coens is the way the brothers absorb the unfairly unsung Portis into their DNA, like they did with Cormac McCarthy in "No Country for Old Men." True Grit is packed with action and laughs, plus a touching coda with an older Mattie, but it's the dialogue that really sings. Great filmmaking. Great acting. Great movie. Saddle up. - Peter Travers