This movie is a remake of the John Wayne movie and they really out did the original production. I was amazed by the performance of Jeff Bridges that played a lawman who was getting old and sinking into the bottle of whiskey. The supporting cast was also outstanding in both believability and dramatization of the particular characters. The young woman that played the fourteen year old Mattie Ross, Hailee Steinfeld, who was out to avenge her fathers murder committed by Tom Chaney, portrayed by Josh Brolin, a Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, was skillfully portrayed by Matt Damon. The main cast of characters looked and acted as if they were in the proper time frame for the story. The balance of the cast of the movie looked and gave the spirit of the times as they carried out the roles they were intended to portray.

The town of Fort Smith Arkansas was a bustling gateway to the frontier. Judge Parker and his court were important to the town but it did not totally drive the town because business and their commerce appeared to be the force of this frontier metropolis. The events of hangings brought people to town and justice appeared to be swift and hard. Rooster Cogburn was a US Marshal charged with the pursuit and capture of outlaws and had soul jurisdiction in the Indian Territory that was just across the river from Arkansas.

If you have not seen the John Wayne version of True Grit let me take the time to set the story for you. Tom Chaney murders the father of Mattie Ross and he then flees to the Indian Territory to escape the law. Mattie arrives at Ft. Smith to collect her father’s body and try and motivate the law to pursue Chaney and bring him back to Ft Smith to hang. With the jurisdiction in the Indian Territory only available to US Marshals Mattie seeks out a man who will get the job done and she proceeds to secure the money for a reward by out bargaining a horse trader that her father dealt with prior to being killed. Securing the money she uses some of the money as a reward for the capture of the murder and gets the commitment from Rooster Cogburn to chase and capture Tom Chaney. Mattie, Rooster and LaBoeuf are traveling together to chase down the outlaw. There is continued dissention on the trail between the three and they parted company with Mattie and Rooster continued on their quest of Chaney. They arrived at a cabin and captured two outlaws that were helping Lucky Ned Pepper a notorious outlaw and his gang. A set trap is sprung early when LaBoeuf arrives closely followed by Lucky Ned Pepper. Ned escapes and LaBoeuf survives the altercation. The trail of Ned goes cold and the law of Rooster Cogburn is ready to turn away from the chase. By chance Mattie comes across the remains of the outlaws gang and shoots Chaney in the side and miss’s completing the job when her weapon miss fires. She is captured and used as a hostage for the major four outlaws get away. She is held by her archenemy Tom Chaney as the rest of the gang escapes. Chaney feels that if he silences Mattie he would be off the hook. LaBoeuf shows up in the nick of time and stops Chaney’s plan cold. From this point on the new version varies from the John Wayne classic and appears more closely to the book version of the story.

I highly recommend this Western Movie to all the real western fans. This movie is on my top 100 Western Movies and it is in the top ten. The Coen brothers used their skill and unique insight to remake a great western movie into an all time iconic, realistic western classic movie. For me this is a five star western movie.

Is this a western movie? I am reviewing the movie “No Country For Old Men” and it has created a dilemma in my mind as to it being a western movie. The time frame places it in the west in the 1980’s during the early wild times where money brought drugs through the west Texas country because it was so isolated. The violence and blood could class this movie among the horror classics and the story is woven around a chase for the money.

The scenery and landscape of west Texas creates a character of a dry and wild place still in the 1890’s. The land shapes and outlines the three main characters and gives the viewer a glimpse of how little things have really changed. Actually living and growing up in this area Tommy Lee Jones, as Sheriff Bell, portrays a man who has spent almost all of his adult life as a sheriff in this west Texas County. He now is confronted with something that he just can’t see and feels over matched by it’s evil like a ghost of everything bad that he ever knew or saw. Llewelyn Moss is played by Josh Brolin, as a down to earth West Texas person who is just trying to get a break and sees his future in a drug deal gone bad. The bad guy needs no real introduction because from the beginning of the film Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Barden, explodes on the screen with violence and mayhem. He is chasing the money with a singular purpose while being followed at a distance by Sheriff Bell.

This dark movie begins with the impact of a violent murder in the Sheriffs office. A deputy is strangled by the handcuffs on the wrists of Anton Chigurh. Time drops back to place the reason and time as we see the dry landscape, drugs, money and a deal that went horribly bad in the desert. Llewlyen discovers the scene while hunting for antelope. The massacre of buyers and sellers of drugs draws him into the web of maybe getting something out of this chaos. Everyone is dead or dieing and Llewelyn sets out to track the survivor who has the money. Trailing him to a tree he spots him lying in the shade and he watches and waits him out as he dies under the tree. He goes over and retrieves the money and his troubles begin.

There are some light moments to take the edge off the mayhem but in reality it is very small and cannot cut the tension developed by the movie. Llewelyn returns to the massacre to do a kindness for a dieing man and the roof falls in on him. The chase begins by both buyers and sellers.

In the years of the early west the country and times were considered to be hard on women and horses. The movie depicts the hardness of west Texas to be hard on anyone who is in the way of Anton Chigurh as he searches for the money.

The movie for me was magnetizing and I could feel it happening around me. I recommend this movie for those with strong constitutions. You can then judge if you think it is a western movie. I have it as a western and it is rated in my top 100 best western movies.