Film · Film · 1969
Pass it on
True Grit
68Worth an evening.
A child with a task, a contract, and no interest in being charmed. The frontier as a debt to be collected.
The review
The 2010 film is the sterner, better-written picture. The 1969 film is the one that fixed the story in the popular mind, and Mattie is already right in it: a child who will not be patted on the head while her father's killer is alive. Use whichever you will actually finish. Prefer the Coens if you want the language. Prefer this one if you want the myth the country already knows.
Either way, the virtue is the girl who keeps the contract. It is not the marshal's drinking.
Journal
Keep True Grit in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 68. Yours can differ.
The glance
Piety is the thin one.
Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
Consider this
High Noon
74 instead of 68
High Noon is still a western film, and it scores 74 instead of 68. What you gain is republic: A town that will not keep its own peace.
The eight
- 8Industry
She manages money, horses, and a hired man. The competence is the pleasure.
- 7Household
She is doing a daughter's duty. The household is already broken and she acts anyway.
- 4Piety
Scripture is quoted, often as a weapon. It is still in her mouth for a reason.
- 8Courage
She goes into the territory. The film lets her be afraid and continue.
- 6Republic
A marshal is the law she can afford. The formal law has not helped her.
- 6Temperance
Vengeance is the motive. The story treats it as a debt more than a thrill.
- 8Truth
She is not updated into a modern girl. The stiffness is the point.
- 7Stewardship
She is trying to close her father's affairs. That is stewardship of a grim kind.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · True Grit · 68IMDb
