Wild Wild West

Gunfights, showdowns, snake-bites, the hangings and other related
Western mores are all accommodated in this long-forgotten genre
that directors Joel and Ethan Cohen create in True Grit

DOES the remake of True Grit signal the revival of the Western? It doesn’t seem likely judging from what Unforgiven did to revive the Western in 1992 when it picked up a few Oscars. It was directed by Clint Eastwood and had Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman as co-stars but did little to re-establish the good old Western, a genre of telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West.

I saw the original True Grit starring John Wayne and newcomer Kim Darby in 1968 with Wayne finally getting the Best Actor Oscar as a consolation for a long and successful career of action films, mostly Westerns. He was a tough guy, even off screen. In the remake, Jeff Bridges plays his part as US Marshal Reuben "Roster" Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld plays the spunky adolescent Mattie Ross out to avenge the death of her dad. And she does an excellent job except that her lines are too glib or smart Alecy for those distant Wild West days. 

Directors Joel and Ethan Cohen do well to create that aura of the Wild West and they are helped no doubt by music by regular collaborator Carter Burwell. It begins with the voice-over by an adult Mattie played by Elizabeth Marvel, who makes an appearance at the end. Based on the novel True Grit by Charles Portis, it recreates the Choctaw ambience aptly but with the changing attention span, it could have been better adapted to the times with may be a sub-plot or a reduction of its 110-minute duration.

Comparisons, we know, are odious but the older version had the benefit of John "the Duke" Wayne who had, by then, become a cult figure. Jeff Bridges, rugged beard et al, chewing tobacco, who narrates a string of anecdotes about his four wives and the dozen outlaws he had to shoot all in the line of duty, does a good job no doubt and the final twist in the plot gives the narrative and added boost. There are also two cameos by Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LeBouef and Josh Brolin as the villain Tom Chaney. Gunfights, showdowns, snake-bites, sucking our poison, the hangings and other related Western mores are all accommodated in this long-forgotten genre and Gen Next will surely be enlightened. For us, it will add a touch of nostalgia to the days of Wild Bill Hickock and Billy the Kid.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins has a field day in what is for him an alien setting but it doesn’t show. Jeff Bridges does an honest job and so does newcomer Hailee Steinfeld in this somewhat slow-moving entertainer. But in terms of an old genre, True Grit is worth a watch.

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