{"id":1321,"date":"2010-12-22T14:35:03","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T14:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/true-grit-has-it.html"},"modified":"2010-12-22T14:35:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T14:35:03","slug":"true-grit-has-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/true-grit-has-it.html","title":{"rendered":"‘True Grit’ Has It!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"true_grit_poster_01.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I grew up in the age of Westerns and Frontier shows.  <\/span>My Mom would drop me at the Paramount or
\nCenter theaters in downtown High Point on a Saturday morning in the 50s and
\nearly 60s and I would watch  <\/span>the silver
\nscreen images of Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Red Raider, Tom Mix,  <\/span>Zorro, Wild Bill Hickock,  <\/span>Roy Rogers, and then I’d come home and watch Davy
\nCrockett,  <\/span>The Rifleman, Gunsmoke,  <\/span>Palladin, The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, Dan’el
\nBoone,  <\/span>and so many others.  <\/span>And there were cartoons as well—
\nremember  <\/span>Quick Draw McGraw and Babba
\nLouey??  <\/span> <\/span>I had my own cowboy suit, and little silver
\ngun and holster.  <\/span>And I used to ‘rescue’
\nmy friends the Jewish girls down the street, except of course when I was trying
\nto impress them by climbing a tree, and got stuck between big branches and had to be rescued myself.  <\/span><\/span>  But heck, I lived to fight another day, waiting for my own ‘High Noon’ moment.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Those were the days, and of course they led to  <\/span>Clint Eastwood, ‘the man with no name’,  <\/span>and to too many John Wayne movies  <\/span>(‘I can still hear him saying ‘Now listen
\npilgrim, one more word out of you, and you’re dead where you sit’). The last
\nhurrah of John Wayne was the only movie he was ever nominated for an Academy
\nAward for—- ‘True Grit’.    <\/span>And now the
\nCoen Brothers have seen fit to do a remake with Josh Brolin as the bad guy, and
\nMatt Damon as the good guy’s side kick, and Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn the
\nSheriff and a new female phenom as the ‘wronged woman’. <\/p>\n

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a really good Western.  <\/span>I reckon ‘3:10 to Yuma’ was pretty good, but
\nnot world class, not even up to the snuff of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
\nKid’.   <\/span>Now ‘Lonesome Dove’ was world
\nclass, but that was a TV Western and it was a serial, not a one off.  <\/span>The era of Westerns proliferating prodigiously
\nhas come and gone and been replaced by the sci fi and Marvel clans and fans.  <\/span> <\/span>So,
\nknowing the body of work of Mssrs. Coen, I went to this movie with some fear
\nand trepidation that they were going to parody Westerns, or worse.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I was prepared to deliver a stern message to
\nthem in this review—- ‘DON’T MESS WITH WESTERNS’.  <\/span>If you can’t do ’em right, don’t do ’em at
\nall.  <\/span>I was oiling up my six gun and
\nprepared to fire at will because those Coens are a moving target of the jocular
\nsort,  <\/span>sort of like trying to shoot at
\nJingles, or Barney Fife for that matter.  
\n<\/span>They’re tongue in cheek jokesters.   <\/span>I’ve seen fun parody (Mel Brooks ‘Blazing
\nSaddles’) but this isn’t that.    <\/span>And in
\nfact,  <\/span>maybe because of Stephen Spielberg’s
\noversight of the film,  <\/span>they play this
\none pretty much straight— thank the Lord. <\/p>\n

Remakes are difficult, especially if you are trying to
\nactually out gun the original if it was any good. 
\n<\/span>And it was.  <\/span>But honestly,  <\/span>this is a better film than the first ‘True
\nGrit’ in many ways, not the least of which is the acting.  <\/span> <\/span>I don’t
\nknow what charm school they found Hailiee Steinfeld in but if I wasn’t already
\nmarried to a really smart woman for decades, 
\n<\/span>I’d be wishing I was young and could spark that girl.   <\/span>She lights up the screen. Her performance
\nis mesmerizing and complete convincing as Mattie Ross the wronged daughter of a
\nmurdered father, seeking justice any way she can get it.  <\/span>In the original,  <\/span>Rooster Cogburn may well have been the
\nreference of the phrase ‘true grit’,  <\/span>but
\nin this movie its Mattie Ross whose got that quality in spades, hands down she
\nwins, no contest, despite great performances by both Jeff Bridges and Matt
\nDamon.  <\/span><\/p>\n

For an hour and 50 minutes, which seemed longer because the
\nCoens quite rightly did not rush the pace of this film, we watch a drunkard of
\na U.S. Marshall,  <\/span>a somewhat prissy Texas
\nRanger, and Mattie wander across the great western landscape of America in
\nsearch of Tom Chaney (played well by Josh Brolin but he needed more lines), the
\nman who murdered Mattie’s father. The cinematography is grand, the camera
\nangles very Coenish, and the music— well its ‘Leaning on the Everlasting Arms’  <\/span>as both theme and variation.  <\/span><\/p>\n

True Westerns play out as morality plays,
\nwhere justice is sought in the rough and tumble West, and justice looks like
\nsomething out of the Old Testament.  
\n<\/span>Indeed, the film begins with a quote from Proverbs 28.1— “The wicked
\nflee when no one pursues”  <\/span>but that is
\nonly half the quotation.  <\/span>The second line
\n(not mentioned in the film) is “but the righteous are as bold as a lion”.  <\/span>That suits Mattie to a T.  <\/span>Everybody in the film wants to go to heaven,
\nand they all know the Bible as the Good Book, 
\n<\/span>but some are sensible enough to realize their persistent bad behavior
\nbrings that destination into doubt. <\/p>\n

I remember my visit to Silverton Colorado
\nand the cowboy graveyard there.  <\/span>One
\ntombstone read “Here lies the body of Lester Moore,\/ Shot in the back with a
\n44,\/ No Les, no more.”  <\/span>Rough justice was
\nabout the only justice in the wild West, and like the persistent widow in Jesus’
\nparable,  <\/span>Mattie Ross will cajol Marshall
\nCogburn until she is vindicated.  <\/span>There
\nare lots of scenes with wry humor in them, especially the bargaining scene
\nbetween Mattie and the horse trader,  <\/span>and
\nthe court room scene.  <\/span>You wouldn’t want
\nto get into a haggling contest with this 14 year old wunderkind  <\/span>whirlwind. 
\n<\/span>Hurricane Mattie will blow you away. <\/p>\n

Like so many Westerns, the plot
\nline is simple and linear, the only real big suspense is how the story will play
\nout, and whether justice will truly be done in the end.  <\/span>But there is joy in the journey along the
\nway, and the interaction between Bridges, Steinfeld and Damon is
\npriceless.  <\/span>The dialogue is witty and wonderful.
\n <\/span>There should be some Oscars coming out
\nof this film for sure and it won’t be for the soundtrack.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I am glad to know that there is someone out there
\ncapable of making a good Western, without making fun of one that was a good
\nWestern.   <\/span>What is most interesting is
\nthat this version of ‘True Grit’ is much closer to and more faithful to the
\noriginal Portis novel, and hooray for authenticity.  <\/span>Ms. Steinfeld would do well to move on to
\nAnnie Oakley while the gun is still warm in her hands, and she is young.  <\/span>We need a few more old West tales that tell
\nof the plight and pluck of women.   <\/span>As
\nfor now,  <\/span>Mattie’s my heroine. <\/p>\n

This movie does partake of the grit
\nand dirt, and blood and guts of Westerns. 
\n<\/span>There’s ‘life and death upon one tether and running beautiful together’.  <\/span>But it is not excessive when it comes to gore,
\nand one never got the feeling it was overdone, like say in  <\/span>‘Slaughterhouse Five’.  <\/span>It’s just the old West, and there was a lot
\nof shootin’, hangin’, spittin’, drinkin’, chawin’ by unshaven louts, losers,
\nloverboys, and the Law.  <\/span><\/p>\n

And standing in
\ncontrast to all the slippage amongst the lying, stealing, cheating, no good
\nmales,   <\/span>is  <\/span>Mattie.   
\n<\/span>I’ll not spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say this is a
\nholiday film well worth seeing this season, which reminds you there is a
\nGod,  <\/span>there will be justice, the Good
\nBook is still good, and ‘virtue can triumph’ 
\n<\/span>even in the dirty, stinking, rotten wild West.  <\/span> <\/span>Shoot,
\nafter kids video games these days,  <\/span>seeing
\nthis movie is tame stuff and older kids should be allowed to see a character
\nlike Mattie Ross.  <\/span>She’s someone to look
\nup to.   <\/span>And yes, in the end redemption
\nis possible in the old West for scoundrels too, scoundrels like me and you.  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span>  <\/span> <\/span>  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

                <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in the age of Westerns and Frontier shows.  My Mom would drop me at the Paramount or Center theaters in downtown High Point on a Saturday morning in the 50s and early 60s and I would watch  the silver screen images of Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, Red Raider, Tom Mix,  Zorro,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n'True Grit' Has It! - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/true-grit-has-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'True Grit' Has It! 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}