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20 April 2010 12:57 PM, PDT
If you aren't excited for the Coen Brother's adaptation of True Grit, I'm not sure there's anything anyone can do to help you. The film has a stellar cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper; a solid, "pulls no punches" script; and is a return to the genre that got the brothers their first best picture and best director Oscars. The film also has Joel and Ethan reteaming with composer Carter Burwell, who has been working with them since Blood Simple, and lucky for us, he was feeling talkative at the Nashville Film Festival. Speaking with the audience as part of a special event, Burwell gave some details regarding the music that he is currently writing for the film and, as strange as it sounds, the key to the score might be protestant hymns. Starting by saying that the directors and he don't always "see »
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Portis’ novel is narrated in the first person by Mattie Ross, a thrifty, churchgoing spinster distinguished by a rare independence and strength of mind. As an old woman in the year 1928, she tells the story of her adventures many years earlier, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney.
As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross’ family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney isn't much use as a farmhand and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash." She says her father, a good, kind man, only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses and ends up spending only $100 on the horses, along with two gold pieces he always carried. When Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation, Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) on his horse.
Hearing that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper, Mattie wishes to track down the killer, and upon arriving at Fort Smith she looks for the toughest deputy Marshal in the district. That man turns out to be Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, and although he is an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy man who never seems to miss a drink of whiskey, he also has “grit.” Mattie decides she's found her man.
Playing on Cogburn's need for whiskey money, Mattie finally persuades him to take on the job, insisting that, as part of the bargain, she must go along. During the negotiations a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf appears. He too is tracking Chaney for killing a senator in Texas, and is out for glory and a big cash reward. Cogburn and La Boeuf don't much like each other, but after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt. The two men try hard to leave Mattie behind, but she proves more tenacious and resourceful than they'd expected and eventually she becomes an accepted member of the posse.
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