True Grit - A badass western.
True Grit was released in 2010, and Stars Jeff Bridges as Rueben “Rooster” Cogburn and was written and directed by the Coen Brothers. It was nominated for ten academy awards, but won none…which is wonderful because it would have, ex post facto, ruined this film. Perhaps, next time they remake this film, if they really want an Oscar, they’ll make Rooster a transgender mermaid from China who is just trying to find his way in the post-civil war south whiling fighting the patriarchy, and systemic racism and stuff.
This film was made right before, every single remake put out by Hollywood replaced the male lead with a female lead and before the wokies destroyed everything. Full disclosure – this movie is freakin’ awesome and is one of my favorites…so here is my totally non-biased, white patriarchal review.
The movie begins with the father of fourteen-year old Mattie Ross being murdered by Tom Chaney while on a trip to Fort Smith Arkansas to buy some horses. Mattie goes to retrieve the body and bring him home, but you soon find out Mattie, isn’t just there to bring her father’s body home, she is there to make sure his killer is brought to justice. Mattie is played by Hailey Steinfeld, who is also pretty amazing in this film. You soon find out that Mattie is a shrewd negotiator, with a matter-of-fact personality that only a mother could love, and she is one of those people that’s just too smart for their own good.
Mattie quickly finds the local sheriff and asks about Chaney…He says that he fled to Indian Territory with Lucky Ned Peppers and his gang. The Sheriff has no jurisdiction there, so he isn’t going to pursue him. Mattie asks who the best Marshal is that she can hire to track down Chaney. The sheriff mentions three names: the first is the best tracker and the third has the most convictions, but the second is meanest - Rooster Cogburn…but he has a problem with the cork. Mattie concludes that Rooster is the best option and goes about tracking him down.
She soon finds him in an outhouse behind a tavern…Rooster yells at her through the door and tells her that the outhouse is occupied and will be for a while and tells her to go away. Mattie is persistent, and Rooster finally concedes to track down Chaney, perhaps because he respects Mattie’s persistence and spunk or perhaps just because he needs more money for whiskey.
Mattie insists that she is coming with him, so Rooster tells her to show up the next morning. When she does, Rooster is already gone, partnering with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf who is also pursuing Chaney for the murder of a Texas Senator. LaBoeuf is played by Matt Damon, who is kinda of turd, but this movie is so awesome that it even makes Matt Damon good.
Mattie catches up with the both of them, and after mouthing off to Matt Damon, he spanks her. Cogburn stops him by pulling his gun on him forcing Matt Damon stop. After some disagreement Matt Damon goes his own way to find Chaney by himself, as do Rooster and Mattie. Rooster and Mattie come across an old dugout where they find two criminals who are working with Ned Pepper. Rooster tries to smoke them out – a shootout ensues and the two surrender because Rooster shoots one of them in the leg.
Using the injury to his advantage, Rooster tries to get information from one of them. The other criminal isn’t having it and cuts his accomplices fingers off and stabs him in the chest. Without flinching, Rooster shots the one with the knife in the face…as the one lays dying, he asks Rooster for help, and in one of the coolest lines ever, Rooster says, “I can do nothing for you son” – but it sounds awesome when he says it, because he is Rooster freakin’ Cogburn.
He tells the criminal that if he gives him good information that he’ll see to it that he gets a proper burial. Rooster gets the information he needs before the man dies. Later, Mattie asks Rooster about burying the man to which Rooster replies, “the ground is too hard, if he wanted a proper burial he should have got killed in the summer”
After finding out that the Pepper gang was on their way to meet up at the dugout Rooster decides to ambush them, however, Matt Damon shows up at the dugout just before Pepper’s gang arrives…a shootout ensues and Rooster rescues Matt Damon in the process, but probably also shot him in the shoulder. They stay the night in the dugout which is also filled with whiskey, to which Rooster partakes…pretty much all night and all morning as they continue their pursuit.
The trail they were following goes cold…both Rooster and Matt Damon are frustrated and have had enough of each other – they tell Mattie the search is over and Matt Damon rides off. In the morning Mattie goes down to a stream to get some water and runs into Chaney. Chaney recognizes her and asks her what she is doing out there…and she tells him that she is there to bring him to justice and shoots him in the side…before she can shoot him again, he grabs her and takes her off to Pepper’s gang – Rooster is unable to rescue her in time.
There is some back and forth between Rooster and Pepper…Pepper thinking that Rooster rides off and stops his pursuit of the men in order to save the girl. However, Matt Damon was still close enough to hear the shots fired and meets back up with Rooster to save the girl. Meanwhile, Pepper rides off to handle some business leaving Mattie with Chaney, but tells Chaney not to lay his hands on the girl which lasted about five minutes after Pepper leaves. Matt Damon saves Mattie just before Chaney was about to slit her throat while Rooster takes on Pepper and his men in the most badass way imaginable.
Rooster, who is old and fat and only has one eye, has a joisting style four-to-one shootout with Pepper and his men as they ride at each other on their horses, guns blazing. Rooster kills three of the men and shoots Pepper, but also takes a shot in the shoulder himself and gets knocked down and pinned under his horse in the process. Just before Pepper can shoot Rooster, Matt Damon shoots Pepper with his rifle some 400 yards away.
Chaney comes to and hits Matt Damon on the head with a rock knocking him out, Mattie grabs Matt Damon’s rifle and shoots Chaney sending them both flying backwards. Throwing Chaney off the top of the mountain and throwing Mattie backwards into a pit filled with snakes. Rooster arrives to rescue her, but she gets bit in the process.
Not having any time to waste, Rooster rides to get her to a doctor…They ride all day and into the night…after the horse collapses from exhaustion Rooster shots it in the head without thinking twice. Mattie cries, but Rooster doesn’t hesitate. The horse is going to die, it need not suffer and sentimentality will not save Mattie. As a man, Rooster Cogburn is a mess, he’s been divorced, at least a couple times and is estranged from his son, he is a drunk and well past his prime, and for all intents and purposes seems to be a pretty miserable man, and yet there is something enduring about him. As the sheriff said earlier in the film, Rooster is the meanest…but a man of true grit. He is a man of courage, he is a man of resolve and fear doesn’t enter into his mind.
After killing Mattie’s horse, Rooster picks her up and begins running with her in his arms. This old fat man with one eye who just got shot in the shoulder and has been a life-time heavy smoker and drinker, runs with this fourteen-year old girl in his arms into the night with only darkness in front him. He ends up making it to the doctor’s house just before collapsing himself.
Why put Himself through so much? Maybe, because he saw true grit in Mattie and had a respect for this young girl, maybe it’s because Rooster had a code that he operated on that was motivated by more than money, maybe it’s because he saw an innocence in Mattie, that was lost in the world around him and himself, maybe he saw her need for a protective father figure given that her father was murdered, or maybe, he is just an old school badass who is going to protect woman and children at the expense of his own life.
Fast forward twenty-five years and we see a one-armed woman. We learn that Rooster got her to the doctor, but her arm needed to be amputated. The now grown Mattie, who is dressed in all black and carries an expression on her face similar to Cogburn’s (which is not pleasant) is on her way to see Cogburn (whom she hasn’t seen since he left her at the doctors twenty-five years ago) at some type western show/carnival where Rooster tells stories of the west with, presumably, a couple of other marshals. Mattie arrives three days after Rooster dies, but has his body buried on her property…the scene of Rooster’s casket being slid into the back of a train is almost the exact same as the transportation of her father’s casket earlier in the film…not a mistake.
Man Test
Does this film pass the man test? Absolutely, the name of the film is True Grit, and has a
standoff, four-on-one shoot out on horses, with an old one-eyed man…period.
Christian Worldview
What about Christian worldview? Well, most Christians would look at Rooster Cogburn and see the epitome of toxic masculinity…and quite frankly, as a man, Rooster is a hot mess. However, the churches solution to what the world calls toxic is no solution at all, and is just following the noxious lies of feminism which creates much bigger problems in the end. As the saying goes, hardmen make good times, good times make soft men, soft men make hard times.
The churches solution to what the world deems as toxic is even more toxic. Creating a bunch of soft, pansy ass cowards in tight pants that are afraid to ride in the car by themselves without wearing a face diaper will never stand up to the evil men of this world, who won’t go away just because we’re super nice and are very passionate about it. All this does, is allow evil men to flourish putting the most vulnerable at risk.
Our desire to whitewash and sanitize everything in the evangelical world has to stop. This is no excuse for sin and no excuse to dwell in the toilet bowl of society. But we would do well to remember that people are often a mess, and that our Lord often uses messed up people to do amazing things so that He receives all the glory.
After the flood, Noah turned into a drunk. Abraham pimped out his wife twice, Moses was a murderer, Samson was a walking male extremity, David banged Bathsheba and then had her husband killed, and Solomon even makes Walt Chamberlin blush…Not to mention, the Apostle Paul – the world’s greatest evangelist started his career murdering Christians. Now, I am not making light of any of their sin…not in the least, but I am pointing it out. God save sinners, and God uses sinners, because there are no other kind of people.
Cogburn was a mess of a man, and we shouldn’t make light of that or excuse that. However, Rooster has, in abundance, the one thing that men desperately need today and that is true grit, and that, is not toxic, but glorious. After all, it takes true grit to kill the dragon and get the girl.
As I said earlier, I love this movie…and I give it an A+
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