Coen Brothers' TRUE GRIT: Number One With A Bullet

The Irony of TRUE GRIT

A few days ago, I went to a screening at the DGA of TRUE GRIT starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and introducing Hailee Steinfeld. The house was filled with excited voting members of the film/TV community. At the end of the movie, a question and answer session was held by a monitor with Hailee and Jeff.

The movie was loving shot by the Coen Brothers and deftly acted by the cast. The cinematography captured the period as if an original sepia photo from the West had come to life.
But I found the conversation after the film to be more thought provoking than the movie and I will tell you why.

Jeff Bridges called TRUE GRIT “a family movie” No offense to Jeff I think he is a fine actor but I don’t see TRUE GRIT as a family movie. It is a movie filled with guns, alcoholism, violence and revenge. Fascinating side note, in Arizona it is legal to carry a concealed weapon in a bar that serves alcohol. So has America really learned much since the Wild Wild West?
Many of us prove our point with guns. Look at the War after 9/11 that is still going strong bringing back soldiers with physical and mental injuries. It is also ironic that the young women in True Grit ends up loosing her arm after seeking justice from the man that killed her father. There is a price to be paid when we seek revenge.

In 2009 there were close to 10,000 murders in the United States compared to approximately 63 in the United Kingdom, 381 in Germany and 7 in Japan.

Last week TRUE GRIT was number one at the box office.
Also last week Jared Loughner allegedly shot and killed 6 people, injured 14including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
On November 16, 2010, Ronni Chasen publicist and friend of Jeff Bridges was shot to death on her way home from a movie premiere.

Gun Violence is a staple in American Cinema. I heard on KPFK.org recently that since Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, over 1,000,000 Americans have been murdered by guns.

Getting back to the TRUE GRIT screening and question and answer session, I kept my mouth shut and my hand down while I thought of the irony of what Jeff Bridges said about his movie.
Everyone was so busy giving warm accolades and in such a rosy mood that I didn’t want to kill the idol worship with a serious question of the irony of True Grit being the number one movie in America one week after the shooting in AZ where they have some of the most lax gun laws in the world.