True Grit
Movie, 2010, The 2010s, Set in Indian Territory
True Grit is #29 of 34 in release order and #26 of 34 in chronological order in the Westerns.
The story
Following the murder of her father by a hired hand, a 14-year-old farm girl sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. Marshal she can find—a man with 'true grit'—Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn.
True Grit recap
True Grit (2010) follows fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross as she hires a hard-drinking U.S. marshal to track her father's killer into Indian Territory. Joel and Ethan Coen write and direct, staying closer to Charles Portis's novel than the 1969 film. Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to settle her father's affairs after the hired man Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) shoots him. She chooses Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) for his grit and haggles hard for the money. The Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), chasing Chaney for an earlier killing, joins them, quarrels with Rooster and leaves. In a dugout, Rooster kills two horse thieves and learns that Chaney rides with Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper). While fetching water, Mattie finds Chaney and shoots him, but he survives and the gang takes her. Rooster charges four men alone across a meadow, and LaBoeuf, who has returned, shoots Pepper from far away. It remakes the 1969 film earlier in this collection.
True Grit ending explained
True Grit ends with Mattie, now an adult who lost her arm to a snakebite, moving Rooster's body to her family plot. She kills Chaney herself, and the recoil drops her into a pit of rattlesnakes. Rooster rides her horse until it dies, then carries her to help. Twenty-five years later he invites her to a Wild West show, and she arrives three days after his death. She never married and never learned what became of LaBoeuf.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Where to watch True Grit
True Grit is streaming on fuboTV, Paramount+, Kanopy, Hoopla, and Pluto TV in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes 95%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, before Django Unchained.
- Chronological order: after The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, before Django Unchained.
Cast
- Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn
- Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross
- Matt Damon as LaBoeuf
- Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney
- Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper
- Dakin Matthews as Col. Stonehill
- Jarlath Conroy as Undertaker
- Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy
- Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (The Kid)
- Elizabeth Marvel as 40-Year-Old Mattie
- Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell
- Ed Corbin as Bear Man
Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen.