I never saw the 1969 version, starring John Wayne (his only Oscar) so I can’t compare. But for a Coen Brothers movie, this is pretty good. Usually I find their stuff too clever and knowing by half, so much so, they usually end up shooting themselves in the foot, in terms of tone, pacing or resolution. This time, not so. The little girl, Mattie Ross, played by Hailee Steinfeld was a knockout – and yes she didn’t look thirteen (after Somewhere I’m alert to these things!) Fifteen or sixteen, he says… ahem… blindly.
Anyway I can see why she was nominated for an Oscar. And if she wasn’t, she should have been. Did she win one? Beats me. Whatever, Jeff Bridges is good as the cantankerous drunken Marshal, Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn and so is Matt Damon as the errant, but gallant Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Frank?). Josh Brolin plays the bad guy, but I forget the name of his character. All are excellent, as are others I couldn’t identify, off hand.
The most notable thing for me was the dialogue which retained a marked formality, at once slightly distancing us from the characters (the story is told in flashback, or recollection as well) and yet giving them a surprising reserve and dignity given their station, somewhere in the wild west (Missouri? Arkansas?) of the 1870s. There are no apostrophising didn’ts, can’ts, don’ts, I’ves or shouldn’ts, etc to their speech. Everyone speaks as dialogue is reported in 19th century literature. Maybe they really did speak like that! Maybe it was just not done to acknowledge in the recording, in those days. In any case, I liked it, and it certainly didn’t impede the cast’s performances. Actually I’ve often thought some recent screen adaptations of Dickens and Austen fail to observe these niceties and are robbed slightly for it.
It also affords comic opportunity of course, and I suspect this was a good part of the appeal for the Coens, so that a civility of tongue is not always accompanied by similar restraint in actions – particularly from Rooster. But there is also a funny public hanging scene near the start of the movie that sets the tone in these things, as three condemned men are each given a moment for their final words.
I also liked the art direction (costumes, lighting, settings) and the directors’ understatement, their refusal to overplay comic or dramatic moments. The end of the movie which flashes forward to the rest of Mattie’s adult life, is quite sad, a surprising but moving note to what could have been just a reckless adolescent escapade.
I give it an 8.