True Grit.

“God’s gonna cut you down” –Johnny Cash

True Grit’s trailer alone is enough to send chills up your spine. A young girl looking to avenge her father’s death; a young Texas Ranger who needs to bring a man to justice; a drunk-as-a-skunk one-eyed Marshal who is commissioned to help them both. Setting the pace of the story is the late great Johnny Cash making us stomp our feet to the sweet sounds of up-and-coming revenge.
Mattie Ross is a young girl whose father was killed by Chaney (Josh Brolin), one of her father’s hired hands who took his horses and two pieces of gold. TWO! Talk about being in a recession! Mattie comes across Texas Ranger LeBoef (Matt Damon) and hires the washed-up boozehound Marshal “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to be her guide into the only lands where Chaney is known to be hiding. What starts out as a simple tale of selfish revenge turns into a beautiful story of selfless acts of humanity as Mattie and Cogburn learn the weight and consequence of their actions.
The Coen Brothers are masters at the craft of filmmaking by turning the silverscreen into a moving canvas of classic paintings. When the Coen Brothers’ names pop up on trailers, there’s an instant feeling of “Bro, gotta see that sh*t!” But this go round, even though the movie itself is an amazing piece of cinema, I don’t believe that it will pull the weight against the other Best Picture nominees. Sorry Coen Brothers, but No Country for Old Men is still a better picture than True Grit but I won’t be un-happy if they took the Oscar again. As for Hailee Steinfeld who plays the unstinkable Mattie Ross, my hat tips to you for a Best Supporting Actress nod.