Out of the many Westerns that have been created over the years, the 1969 version of True Grit was one that gained a ton of appreciation over the years. Featuring famous names like Gen Campbell, Robert Duvall, and John Wayne, the story of a young girl trying to get vengeance on the man that killed her father through a drunken washed-out Deputy calls back to a lot of classical western themes and clichés while also keeping the main emotional focus in perspective, which led to the film even getting John Wayne his first ever Academy Award. For a movie like this to be made in 2010, there was a slight fear of how it would be taken not just because of the classic nature of the story, but also because cowboy films were a thing of the past in the late 2000s so it was wondered if it would even work in current times. But by getting the famous directing duo, the Coen Brothers, to work on the film, that pushed the film in the perfect direction and made a film that in many ways, surpasses its original. Following the original story of the 1968 novel written by Charles Portis, 14 year old Mattie Ross (played by Hailee Steinfeld) wishes to avenge her recently murdered father by killing the culprit, Tom Chaney (played by Josh Brolin) who has run off and joined up with another gang led by dangerous outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper (played by Barry Pepper). After struggling to get respect and attention from anyone else, Mattie gets the help of Rooster Cogburn (played by Jeff Bridges), an overweight, slow, heavy drinking lawman in order to get to Chaney and along with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (played by Matt Damon), the three unlikely team set off to find Chaney and get Mattie her desperately needed revenge. Though remaking a western as monumental as the original would have appeared incredibly difficult, the remake is not only a fitting update to the classic story, but it improves upon several of the original film’s elements as well. With a great story, defined characters, amazing performances, and truly wonderful direction, this is a more than worthy update.

Remaking the story could allow for it to be taken in a different direction that still holds true to the original story’s themes, yet the new movie managed to do that without having to change barely anything. Keeping pretty faithful throughout a majority of the film, the film’s ending drastically changes from the original, leaving the audience with a completely different feeling when it ends. Instead of being the typical hopeful and triumphant conclusion that normal westerns are known for, now steps in a more bittersweet note that has no high-flying action, or no riding into the sunset, but rather on a quiet, still, even sad final image. It takes the simplistic handling of the idea of justice and revenge from the original and flips it on its head without having to change anything about the story, it’s a wonderful surprising change that adds onto the film as opposed to take away from it. The rest of the film’s retelling is also spot-on, with a much smoother faster pace that makes the familiar scenes feel different just by how quickly it breezes through them. The pacing is perfect, and it never gets boring, no time is wasted, everything feels in spirit, and the directing keeps everything from feeling confusing or dull. The Coen Brothers purposefully use the black-and-white nature of the Western plains to create a less than perfect ending for the characters, evolving the story from something that was once a picture-perfect ending and adding some harsh realism into a typical western.

The characters are all still well defined from their original portrayals yet have been given extra layers to them to make them both more relatable and imperfect. Mattie, for example, is a strong-willed girl who wouldn’t stop to catch her father’s killer in the original story but was still terrified of what was coming her way, reacting to the dangerous western landscapes like a typical girl of that time-period. This Mattie feels more like an emotionless killing machine who will not stop for anything to see the man hung, coming across more as a Terminator than a typical farm girl. Steinfeld’s performance is by no means monotone as she’s doing a very impressive job as her cold exterior matched with her sharp wit and deathly attitude makes her feel bigger than many people in the room, being able to more easily bounce off of the other characters in the movie without feeling too overpowered. While that could be more unrealistic, it just makes her a vastly more interesting character, seeing a young character act this direct and cold towards her goal is both intriguing to watch and engaging for the audience, and it also works wonderfully with the ending, as her heartless cold nature matches with the endings direction perfectly. Rooster Cogburn is another great example; his actions aren’t quite as obvious as they were when John Wayne was playing him; his squeaky clean role he’s built for himself meant that when the character did something bad, everybody knew that it was going to end on a good note as John Wayne was in the role. In this film, its Jeff Bridges instead, who makes the character far more flawed and uncertain about his actions, which in turn meant the audience was also unsure of his actions. Jeff Bridges has always been an actor that doesn’t feel like he is ever a character, only playing himself outside of a few roles. Here, it always feels like he’s the character on-screen and it never once takes the audience out of it. People like Matt Damon seem like odd choices, but it works in favour of the character, so it works pretty well. The only real downsides to the film are the villains played by Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin; neither are giving bad performances at all, but neither is as memorable as they should be. Brolin is not pathetic enough to leave a tragic irony on the character, and Pepper doesn’t have enough time to leave any impact.

The film’s presentation captures the similar scope and feel of the original film, but also changes the tone and meaning of a lot of them by continuing to build to the film’s changed ending. The original film utilised its grand sweeping shots of the landscape to capture the grand scale of its story along with the traditional feel of a western, while this film uses it to establish the film’s environment as cold and incredibly dangerous. The film does not feel as lush and nice looking as the original film did with its natural greens and blues and instead opts for much harsher colors with strong shading and rather dull lighting. It gives itself a completely new visual style while also being nice-looking in its own unique way. The music works in a similar format; while the original track is famous for the film and even got nominated for an academy award, this film seems to also be mocking the original theme; with a similar musical theme and melody but hiding a sombre element underneath that contrast wonderful with the score’s seemingly hopeful melody. The lines themselves are identical to the original film but due to the fast pacing, it makes them come out much faster and maybe will not be absorbed as much as they were in the original. While most of the dialogue is very good and does a great job setting up story and character in both versions, this version goes by so smoothly to the point that it may not be as easily clarified. Either way, there is never a scene in the film that drags its feet, outside of a particularly strange scene involving a man dressed in a bear skin, its strange and random, but it’s kinda funny as well. The movie balances its tone perfectly as well. It allows the atmosphere and the environment to give itself a dark sense of humor that works more for levity and relatability.

Both versions of True Grit are classics within their own rights; both tell great stories with great characters, actors, and visuals, all the while calling back to the classical western feel in an honest, faithful, and new way. However, while the original is still great, the remake just offers up better versions of the original’s aspects. The story is given a much darker message and theme, the characters are more fleshed out and more realistically acted, the visuals are more prominent and less flashy, the pacing is improved massively, it’s just an amazing film that works even better as a remake to an already great film. For anyone, a fan of the original story or film, this is a great remake that give a different reaction to a classic tale. A wonderful follow-up that could have so easily failed, this film showed it still had True Grit.