also, forgot to add how nice it was to see Barry Pepper again. Completely forgot about him.

Yeah...I like him too. LOVED his character in SPR....so sad to also remember him from Battlefield Earth......

He was in Casino Jack as well, and looked really damn rough.

YEAH.....i just wikipediad him and holy crap..he doesn't look THAT far off from Ned Pepper. Add the stache some dirt and some shitty teeth...Barry Pepper.

This is damned near a perfect film. Everything about it was just so well done I walked out wanting to buy a ticket for the next show and just sit back and enjoy it all again. the dialog, characters, period details - everything is just pitch perfect. The best western since Unforgiven by a mile. Can't wait to own it and watch it again.

So is this better than Leon the professional? Plots seem similar. They're basically tied at imdb around 8.5/10.

I was gonna try to see this at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan either yesterday or today, but the snowstorm that hit the East Coast has made travel difficult-to-impossible.

What a thoroughly entertaining movie from start to finish.
just excellent acting and haley steinfeld just killed it never standing in the shadows of three powerful actors.
I love a good western and haven't had this much fun (though this was a little more cerebral) since 3:10 to Yuma. Just great and haley will be nominated and could win.

Is this a joke post?

Yeah, I dunno, bro. That's got to be a joke...or very forgetful person of plots.

Well, I didn't see the movie yet, but it seems to be about a young girl wanting revenge and going to a professional killer for help. Not similar at all?

Was just curious if this was better than Leon - yes, I know that wasn't a western.

US marshall = professional killer? Not really......

You have 2 little details that are also part of True Grit....in fact...with your thought process you could say Leon is similar to the Wayne version of True Grit. So....what do you say to that?

If I had to say, I would pick True Grit as the better movie, but they are so different that there is no special point to the direct comparison.

As one would expect from Luc Besson, Leon features a lot of over-the-top action set pieces with a cartoonish/comic dimension to the violence.

The tone of True Grit is grittier and downbeat. The story-telling and direction is more matter-of-fact, and the humor more droll.

Plus, the Lolita-thing that is such a part of Natalie Portman's performance as Mathilda does not enter into the picture for a moment with Hallee Steinfeld.as Mattie.

Thanks. Fargo was the only Coen brothers movie I saw and that was a long time ago, so wasn't sure what to expect with True Grit.

Saw it this afternoon, great stuff.

Gathered with several friends for this last night and found it largely entertaining. Bridges and Steinfeld were as good as advertised; I loved the dialog and humor. I was, however, largely underwhelmed by the villains. Chaney existed more as a MacGuffin than as a character, and while Brolin invested him with some intrigue it could have been anyone in the role and not really affected the film at all. Heroes are defined by their adversaries, and I felt Rooster Cogburn, et al, got a "bye" in this film. There was never any sense that any of the principles were in true danger because the villains had no real presence.

Still, I'm glad my guts cooperated and I got to catch this on a big screen because the landscapes were gorgeous and it's a beautifully shot movie. You don't get that kind of scenery and scope often these days (at least, not without it feeling artificial).

Agreed. If I were going to write a full review your first paragraph would be my main criticism of the film. Though I feel like the movie ended up being just as much about the relationship formed in just a few days between Cogburn and Mattie as it was about the revenge on Chaney.

I'd really like to see if a director's cut expands on Chaney's character, or the villains in general at all. The film felt pretty short to me.

The heart of the film was always going to be about Cogburn & Mattie--and it should have been. That's the appeal of the story. It just seems to me that it would have been stronger had there been a genuine heavy to be found. The character threatened the most is Mattie and I might have been concerned for her had the film not opened with a narration of her as an adult setting the scene. I know the Coen brothers don't need me nitpicking their storytelling, but I felt like they sabotaged the best chances for genuine suspense by doing that.

What little of Chaney you see is what you pretty much got from the book. I think he had some more lines in the book but...it was a short physical presence indeed.

I can appreciate that, and I'm sure the Coen brothers did a bang-up job being faithful; but this is the danger of being too literal in adapting a story from one medium to another. In prose, I may have had the sense of suspense and the thrill of the chase, etc., but on screen I can see how relaxed Cogburn is, regaling Mattie with anecdotes. Bridges's Cogburn is just putting in another day at the office, and that slack needed to be picked up by a truly imposing villain. There was none.

In terms of story structure, Maddie was the protagonist, and Cogburn/LaBoeuf were the antagonists.

Well put. I still feel cheated out of some meaningful bad guys.

Great movie but I agree the villains were a bit underdeveloped. I haven't seen the original in years but I remember Bruce Dern who was one of the all time great bad guys was really menacing in that movie. You just didn't get that feeling in this one

Loved it.

I hate to say it but I didn't like it. Love westerns, love coen bros, but I don't know, it just didn't work for me. Maybe I just watched the trailer too much or built it up to much, but what a disappointing movie.

I'm not saying its a bad movie, just didn't work for me. I thought No Country was miles better. Glad everyone else liked it I guess.