For all his villainy, Ned breathes a beguiling warmth-yet even he is unable to hide Chaney’s contrariness, who’d rather be mean than concentrate on trying to escape from Cogburn. He sees himself in her, and senses that she shares his own “take no prisoners” fighting spirit.Ĭhaney (Josh Brolin) rides with the dreaded Ned (Barry Pepper) and his gang.
His lone eye brightens when he spots a feisty underdog and, oh boy, does it light up when he sees Mattie. While on Chaney’s trail, Cogburn sees two idle kids hassle a tied animal for the fun of it, and he angrily unties it and whacks the kids. But he’ll move heaven and earth to battle alongside the powerless. He’s past craving shiny badges for his work or stealing credit from the work of other men. (L–R) Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld), Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) and Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) on the trail of the killer of Mattie’s father, Tom Chaney, in “True Grit.” (Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)Ĭogburn doesn’t want to like anyone and doesn’t want to be liked. And, as Cogburn speaks, the camera inches closer to his face, sentence by sentence, a gripping introduction to the man who will transform Mattie’s life. As she cranes her neck to see him through a haze of cigar smoke, we do too. We hear his voice even before we see him.įirst, the camera offers only a glimpse, through Mattie’s eyes, blocked as she is by the burly shoulders of men crowding the room. The camera takes its time, dwelling on Mattie walking up to a courtroom where Cogburn’s testifying in a case. Recalling her father’s killing, Mattie says with a quiet fury that, although Chaney fled, he needn’t have he could have “walked” his horse, for no one in town cared enough to pursue him.Ĭinematically speaking, the directors-Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan-use a sort of eye-patch perspective to introduce the hardened, one-eyed Cogburn. Mattie’s courage stems more from her contempt of cowardice than from any bravado. Watch her eyes glaze over when she first feigns closing the gate on their little chat, then hustles him until he gives in. Stonehill (Dakin Matthews) over money and horses is an acting masterclass for any wannabe actor or actress. Mattie’s three-minute verbal jostle with Col. Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, a young girl who seeks justice and hires Rooster Cogburn to see it done in “True Grit.” (Paramount Pictures) Her pigtails and babyface are about the only way to tell that she’s a child. She maintains solid eye contact, doesn’t wave her hands around or shake her head about. Her staccato style of speaking and her narrowed eyes when she spies an opening in conversation show she means business. One of the earliest scenes shows Mattie’s tiny frame relative to a man’s the camera looks down at her as if to prove that point. Cast while still a 13-year-old, Steinfeld was a find-apparently from a casting pool of 15,000 girls across the South. She’s strong-willed, clear-headed, creative, confident, and courageous. The opening five minutes build Mattie’s character.
The pursuit itself, with its twists and turns, isn’t as important as how the story is told, the way characters form before your eyes, and how they live or die. Haunted by mutual suspicion, the characters discover that their pursuit transforms them, brings out their best and sometimes their worst, and forces them to see each other differently. marshal, agrees to hunt down the man who killed a young teen’s father in “True Grit.” (Paramount Pictures) Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, a washed-out deputy U.S. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) joins the search, but wants Chaney tried in Texas for the killing of a state senator, rather than hanged outright. Marshal Rooster Cogburn ( Jeff Bridges) to hunt down Chaney and see him hanged in Arkansas. She promptly hires a washed-out deputy U.S. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a 14-year-old girl from Arkansas, watches cowardly ranch hand Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) flee after killing her father. The first thing you see when you’re watching “True Grit” (2010) is not a picture on the screen, but a proverb that’s more a lamentation than a lesson: “The wicked flee when none pursueth” (Proverbs 28:1).
0 kommentar(er)
