True Grit vs. Winter's Bone (2010)

Perhaps if it would be somebody to check out (in detail) every entry of my blog - implying here the older ones from the Ro version too ( case that I might find very weird, considering my "outputs" value due to the time and speed of writing :) ), that reader would probably think that I really like the western genre. And this is quite far from the truth. Somehow however I managed to see pretty much all of the major western titles that were released during the last years. I have no idea how this happened - because like I said I'm not into westerns, but in the current topic's title case I really felt that I should give it some time and try to write an entry about it. Anyway, western is only half of the current entry - "True Grit". The other half - "Winter's Bone" is a drama with a touch of thriller. It happened to see one movie quite close after the other, but obviously that's not the main reason for the "double topic" entry. Honestly I don't know if "vs". from the title has any meaning in this case, but it sounds better than "and", so ... :). The idea is that although the films have different genres they also do have pretty much in common. I could even change the classification above considering that "Winter's Bone" could pass as a western without the "west" part as location and being placed in the present time, and "True Grit" as a drama + thriller (which eventually can be found more or less in any western). Ok ... I already have a double intro part ( and I'll fall asleep myself if I go on with it :) ) so I'll cut it short and get on the movie subjects ...

"True Grit" is the latest Coen brothers movie ("A Serious Man", "Burn After Reading", "No Country for Old Men", "The Big Lebowski", "Fargo", "Barton Fink", etc.). In short, the idea it's a fairly simple revenge story. A guy who went to complete a sale on some horses is killed by the man he hired to help him. The daughter, aged only 14, wants justice and offers a reward for the killer's head. For this she hires an apparently all-time drunk federal marshall, also without an eye and with a reputation as a "kill first ask later" type of guy (character played flawlessly by Jeff Bridges). And because the man really seems to offer an "absolute guarantee" for the payed money between the fumes of alcohol, the girl is strongly decided to join him in pursuit of the fugitive. The group is completed by a Texas ranger (again an ok played character - Matt Damon) who has another reward to collect, also placed on the killer's head. As I said, the idea seems simple in the start. But what can be seen on screen in the action evolution is definitely more complex.

One of the first things to mention is how the main characters are constructed/developed. This is something that I didn't see such carefully built and approached in such detail very often (referring to somebody's entire filmography - not just one movie). I guess it depends on the fact that the director and the screenwriter are one and the same, and the Coen Brothers and Tarantino for example fit on this criteria. And of course, character building is just a small part of the script - which is written in that way it catches you and keeps you staring at the screen despite the fact that the story is quite simple. Actually I think that the script is in general the best part (or at least the point of attraction) from the Coen brothers movies. In this case however is not an original script, as it also wasn't in "No Country for Old Men" (besides that, the movie is actually a remake - there is a "True Grit" with John Wayne released somewhere in '60 - '70 which I have not seen) . Anyway, unlike "No Country for Old Men", the novel which is put on screen in the current case has a more simple mainline that doesn't want to seem so .. "philosophical". The result is that the main action point in the script itself is the simple fugitive chase. But .. a simple chase can bring up all sorts of lateral idea paths, witty dialogues, and finally (more finally than the final, as a light spoiler) a little twist that you probably won't anticipate .. well, unless you've read the book. Besides that, the film is nice to watch from the cinematography point of view - to say so :) (Roger Deakins is the image director - who I slowly begin to like, though until recently I pretty much considered his work as overrated as it was in "No Country for Old Men"). Also the editing worth mentioning (by Coen brothers, as in all their major titles I think; they actually seem to "go" with the idea of an directing-script-editing triplet in what they do). And one more thing. Something that adds a certain "air" that you're not quite sure of at first, but you're certain in the end. The soundtrack - Carter Burwell (I actually did not appreciate the guy until now besides "Bella's Lullaby" from "Twilight", but just as a musical piece, not as a soundtrack related to the movie - which I didn't see). And speaking of that certain air/atmosphere it gives .. it's a bit hard now to find a very clear description. Let's say it's something like a romance drama "air" - although you won't find anything like that in the film. In any case it gives a "warm feeling" in the end, and to give something as comparison now, probably one example would be the feeling you get on watching "Legends of the Fall" even if the movies have totally different subjects.

Ok, I've written enough about the first piece of today's topic, so I'll get to the second one before giving a clearer explanation about why I put them side by side. A few posts ago I wrote about "Balibo" as perhaps one of the most difficult to watch war movies that I've seen. "Winter's Bone" is pretty much the same thing I think for dramas or thrillers. The film is an indie movie = not very large budget, having been awarded the highest distinction at Sundance in 2010 (the most important festival in terms of Independent Cinema in the US). It has a subject that is somehow close to the main idea of "True Grit", but still different. Somewhere in a community from a mountain area of the US, a 17 years old girl receives a visit from the local sheriff who gives a notice that her father, released on bail, disappeared. The problem is that the house where the girl lives and the land also were offered as collateral guarantees on bailing him out. The problem becomes even more troublesome given the context of the daughter who is struggling to raise her brother and younger sister + her mentally ill mother. At this point the film seems to resemble a bit with "Frozen River" as a general feeling, as an info for those who have seen it (another Sundance-winning indie a year or two ago .. they seem to have a preference for social dramas).

After establishing the plot as described, the action is concentrated on the girl's search, struggling to find the whereabouts of her father just to avoid seeing her family thrown into the street (or more exactly, in the woods). The story gets more complicated as it's progressing, the community of which the girl is part of being actually formed from more close or distant relatives - the main character falling apparently in the second category, most of these people being involved in some not very legal activities. To summarize, the whole community resembles a classic image of a family / mafia clan but placed in a rural area in the woods (placement which is actually suitable for growing + refining various weeds - and not that kind you're using to make a tea). As a spoiler, the girl slowly realizes that her father permanently disappeared, but this doesn't clear off also the house losing problem, so the process of seeking to send him to the trial is switched on seeking a proof to send his body to the morgue. No matter how harsh or chilly the previous phrase sounds, that's not nearly at the same level as the movie. It's exactly what I said above when I mentioned that it's hard to watch. It's probably one of the best made pieces of cinema I've seen in managing to create an literally oppressive and also scary feeling without resorting to extreme violence (although this isn't entirely missing). It's a feeling that I also had when I've watched "Training Day" for the first time long long ago. I remember that when I left the cinema, I actually had a slight feeling of insecurity on the street on the way home = something like we live in a world with some bad bad people maybe just around the corner. And the interesting part is that the tension is created at the level of interaction between characters, attitude, etc., rather than through the action sequences, which aren't generally very credible in an action movie. And I must say for that fact that "Training Day" looks like a kids movie comparing to "Winter's Bone". Here "the chill factor" grows up as the end of the search approaches, being topped by the title related sequence = that one actually requires a bit of stomach to watch it, although if you take it out of the context and you place it in a "normal" thriller / horror / action it would probably look like a normal scene for that type of movie. And yet ( to give another light spoiler:) ) the movie doesn't stop there. Because it would end overly harsh. It lets you relax a bit after, fading out in a note that still wants to be somehow positive, and for how "dark" the story is probably it actually is positive enough. For all this - the plot, climax, end - and how the movie takes you through them I would give credit particularly to the direction - Debra Granik - about whom I'm hearing for the first time. She's actually co-authoring the scenario too, but like I said I think that the directing is the main part from the movie making worth mentioning and I'll probably keep an eye on future movies of her.

I'll end this already way too long entry :) with why I placed these two movies together in the same topic.
There is one first reason, less important, and it actually might sound a little weird :). I'm not a fan of Romanian literature and I don't remember too much of what I read in school, but one of the literary pieces that were the subject of study was "Hatchet" by M. Sadoveanu ... ( Ya, I know, sounds weird already :)) ) The action is placed in some rural mountain area, around the beginning of the 20th century I think. The basic idea in the book is that a shepherd's wife gets worried about her husband missing for too long after he went to make some deals by selling or buying sheep (if I recall correctly). Well .. she takes her son, and following the path her husband took, starts her own investigation. After some time she finds the remnants of the dead (which she actually expects to find from some point onwards..), scene which was very grim in the novel. After that, she eventually manages to find out also the assassin, who is finally killed with a hatchet (the initial murder weapon) by the victim's son ( ya, well .. Romanian classic literature can be quite violent sometimes :) ). The idea is that I thought the two movies discussed complement one each other rather odd in a relatively close manner to the book I mentioned, and not just related to the subject but also the feeling. So, for somebody really really interested reading it may give a clear idea about how the two movies might feel as a whole ( although I have no idea if that book was ever translated in English :) ).
Anyway, leaving this apart the main reason why I thought on writing this overly long post as a 2 in 1 :) would be as I said, that we have basically the same type of character - a lonely girl, minor, and very stubborn :) and pretty much the same path of action as an overview idea - she wants to solve a problem way tougher/harder than it should be "allowed" for her age. Although the movies are from different genres, you can still make some interesting comparisons between a big budget film intended to be a blockbuster (and because of that may seem a little to light/commercial sometimes) and an indie movie that aims more at film festivals (and it seems so close to reality at a point that you don't know if you'll ever want to see it again). Eventually you might reach the conclusion that both of them are pretty much at the same level as value ;).

Rating: 4 out of 5
(For both - you have something a bit too extreme in each when you see them one after another :), if it was to take them separately I would probably give a 5)