True Grit (2010) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers’ remake of “True Grit,” the 1960s western.
Wearing Braids, Seeking Revenge
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 21, 2010

That old-time American religion of vengeance runs like a river through “True Grit,” a comic-serious tale about some nasty, brutish times. Beautifully adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen from the parodic western novel by Charles Portis, it turns on a 14-year-old Arkansas girl who hires a “one-eyed fat man” to hunt down her father’s killer. First published in 1968, Mr. Portis’s tall tale was brought to the screen the next year custom-fitted for John Wayne, who rode the role of that fat man, Rooster Cogburn, straight to an Oscar. Now it’s the thinner scene-stealer Jeff Bridges who sits and sometimes drunkenly slumps in the saddle. More