Film

True Grit

Name: True Grit
Genre: Drama, Adventure, Western
Released: 2010
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper

Other titles called True Grit: the 1969 film.

Joel and Ethan Coen's blunt, funny, oddly formal take on Charles Portis's novel follows fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross as she hires a drunk, one-eyed marshal to hunt her father's killer. The dialogue is stiff and stylised, almost biblical, and the violence arrives sudden and unglamorous. It's a western built on dry comedy and moral steel rather than gunfights, anchored by Hailee Steinfeld's ferocious debut.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love a spare, dry-witted western where the dialogue is as sharp as the landscape and the odd couple of a stubborn teenager and a gruff, bottle-loving old marshal does the heavy lifting.

Skip it if the period dialect can feel mannered at first, and long stretches of riding and talking will test anyone wanting a western that gallops.

What it asks of you: A lean run of under two hours, unhurried scenes of riding and bickering, and steady attention to the clipped, old-fashioned talk, which carries as much weight as the action.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

No Country for Old Men2007

The Coens' other West Texas nightmare, where fate and violence move with the same flat, unstoppable logic. Same dry dialogue, same sense morality is a losing bet against pure chaos.

But No Mattie Ross-style redemption here — it's bleaker, colder, and offers almost no comfort by the end.

Unforgiven1992

Eastwood's elegy for the western hero strips away the myth of righteous gunfighting, asking what violence actually costs the men who deal it — a mirror to Rooster's own reckoning.

But Slower and more meditative; if you wanted True Grit's pace and wit, this trades some of both for weight.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

A hushed, painterly western about obsession and myth-making, with landscapes as vast and lonely as anything here, and a similar interest in how legends get built from grubby men.

But Nearly three hours of slow-burn dread — gorgeous, but patience-testing if you want momentum.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from True Grit

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Winter's Bone2010

Same architecture, transplanted: a fierce teenage girl navigating a violent, morally compromised world of men to find out what happened to a missing father — just swapped for the Ozarks and meth country instead of the frontier.

Jennifer Lawrence's breakout turn matches Steinfeld's for sheer nerve — a young woman refusing to back down amid genuine menace, filmed with the same unsentimental clarity.

But No period romance or wit to soften it — this is contemporary rural poverty rendered starkly, without True Grit's dry humour.

Hell or High Water2016

Jeff Bridges again, this time as a weary Texas Ranger chasing bank-robbing brothers — modern-day grit, dry humour, and the same sense of a dying code trying to hold its ground.

But Contemporary setting trades the period atmosphere and biblical dialogue that make True Grit so distinct.

3:10 to Yuma2007

A tense, well-drawn showdown between lawman and outlaw with real moral shading — good if you want the same era's tension without the coming-of-age angle.

But More conventional in structure; without Mattie's voice driving things, the story feels a little more familiar.

Django Unchained2012

Tarantino's own revenge-western turns the genre's violence up to operatic extremes — same bones, a quest, a killer, a reckoning, dressed in blood-soaked spectacle instead of restraint.

But Far bloodier and more stylised — if True Grit's restraint appealed to you, this is its loud, gleeful opposite.

The Revenant2015

A brutal survival-revenge story set in similarly unforgiving frontier terrain, driven by the same stubborn will to see justice through no matter the physical cost.

But Punishingly grim and much less funny — there's no dry wit here to leaven the suffering.

Lonesome Dove

An epic, character-rich frontier saga with the same unsentimental eye for hardship and death, giving you hours more of the genre's best writing if the format suits you.

But Six hours is a big ask, and its pace is leisurely compared to True Grit's tight economy.

Open Range2003

A quieter, old-fashioned western about honour and consequence, with the same sense that violence, however necessary, always leaves a mark on the person who deals it.

But Gentler and more conventional — it won't give you Mattie's sharp voice or the Coens' particular dry wit.

The Night of the Hunter1955

A black-and-white forebear that shares True Grit's stylised, almost biblical dialogue and its vision of children forced to outwit a predatory adult across a hostile American landscape.

Robert Mitchum's preacher-killer is one of cinema's great monsters, and the film's expressionist visuals and moral fable structure feel like a direct ancestor to the Coens' own heightened style.

But It's a 1955 studio film with all the visual grammar of its era — stagier and more overtly symbolic than True Grit's naturalism.

Paper Moon1973

Same odd-couple engine — a sharp-tongued girl and a morally dubious older man forced together on a journey across a hard American landscape — but played as bittersweet comedy instead of revenge drama.

Tatum O'Neal's performance is every bit as commanding as Steinfeld's, and the black-and-white Depression-era road trip has real warmth under its con-artist cynicism.

But It's gentle and funny where True Grit is grim — if you want more of the violence and moral weight, this won't deliver it.