True Grit (2010)
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A determined 14-year-old girl hires a rugged lawman to hunt down the outlaw who murdered her father.
The story
In 1878, 14-year-old Mattie Ross travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, after her father is murdered by hired hand Tom Chaney. Seeking justice, she hires the 'meanest' deputy U.S. Marshal available, the boozy and trigger-happy Rooster Cogburn, to track down the outlaw. She is joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who is also hunting Chaney but has his own grievances with Cogburn. The group embarks on a perilous journey through the frontier to apprehend the outlaw and ensure he is tried in Arkansas, leading to a tense and dangerous pursuit across the lawless lands.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1878, 14-year-old Mattie Ross travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to find the man who murdered her father, Tom Chaney. She hires the formidable Rooster Cogburn to hunt him, while Texas Ranger LaBoeuf also pursues Chaney. After a series of skirmishes and a tense standoff at a rural dugout, the lawmen pursue the outlaw into the Winding Stair Mountains. During the pursuit, Cogburn and LaBoeuf's partnership fractures, and Mattie is left to navigate the dangers of the trail. After a series of near-misses and a confrontation with the outlaw's gang, Mattie eventually faces Chaney alone. She manages to wound him but is taken hostage. A final, desperate shootout ensues where Cogburn and LaBoeuf face the outlaw's gang in a high-stakes standoff. Laubeuf shoots the gang leader, and Mattie ultimately shoots Chaney dead. The film concludes with a jump forward of twenty-five years, where an adult Mattie receives news of Cogburn's death and moves his body to her family cemetery.
- First release year
- 2010
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Joel Coen; Ethan Coen
- Writers
- Joel Coen · screenplay; Ethan Coen · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Jeff Bridges · Rooster Cogburn; Hailee Steinfeld · Mattie Ross; Matt Damon · LaBoeuf; Josh Brolin · Tom Chaney; Barry Pepper · not specified
- Genres
- Western; adventure drama
- Themes
- justice; grit
- Tone and mood
- serious; western
- Setting
- The American frontier in 1878, specifically Arkansas and the surrounding territories.
- Premise and plot tags
- revenge; western; coming-of-age
- Source material / true-story basis
- Charles Portis's 1968 novel
- Reception
- The film received critical acclaim, with praise for its acting, direction, and production values, and was noted for its faithfulness to the source material.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 8.10 · scale: 10 · review count: 280; Metacritic · score: 80 · scale: 100 · review count: 41
- Awards and nominations
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award · Best Young Performer · win; British Academy Film Awards · Best Cinematography · win
- Production trivia
- Hailee Steinfeld was selected from 15,000 applicants.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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