The craven, dickless men who run Hollywood today have an understandable hatred of the Western, a genre which has traditionally mocked, with scorn and contempt, cowardly eunuchs like themselves. Still, it’s a hard genre to kill. Real Westerns keep showing up unexpectedly astride the trail every ten years or so — an Unforgiven or a True Grit — always welcomed by audiences, always profitable. It must annoy the hell out of the eunuchs.
The Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit, from 2010, may be a sort of miracle, as Unforgiven was, but it’s real enough and its commercial success understandable enough. It’s one of the best Westerns ever made, beautifully crafted, humane, inspiring, thrilling, dealing with the timeless themes of the Western — shame, honor, redemption.
The Blu-ray edition of it belongs in every American home. It’s not just a joy in itself, it’s an immensely satisfying rebuke to the Hollywood nullities who fear and hate such works from the shallows of their shriveled, dessicated hearts.
Easily one of my top 10 movies of the past decade.
I’ve watched it many times and still find new things to enjoy about it — the sure sign of a great film.
The Coen Bros. True Grit is a masterpiece. I could watch it on a loop for a day or two and still not get tired of its beauty and ferocity. I wept at that movie, not at its sadness, but because it was perfect – visually, narrative-ly, and the actors were pitch perfect – thank you Jeff Bridges for erasing John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in my head.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Miss Sally. Matt Damon’s performance in particular seems better and better the more I watch the film.
amen, bros !