True Grit (2010) — a Coen brothers Western based on Charles Portis’s novel. Stars Jeff Bridges (Rooster Cogburn), Hailee Steinfeld (Mattie Ross), Matt Damon (LaBoeuf), Josh Brolin (Tom Chaney), Barry Pepper (Lucky Ned Pepper). Genre: revenge Western, coming‑of‑age. Runtime: ~110 min. Spoilers ahead.
1) Plot and main characters
Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross travels to Fort Smith to recover her father’s body and bring his killer, Tom Chaney, to justice. She is sharp, stubborn, and fiercely practical. Local lawmen are slow to act, so she hires U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed, hard-drinking tracker with a brutal reputation. A Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf, also wants Chaney for killing a Texas senator, which creates tension: Mattie wants Chaney tried in Arkansas for her father’s murder, while LaBoeuf wants him in Texas.
The uneasy trio rides into Indian Territory. Along the trail, they clash, split, and reunite. Rooster’s ruthlessness and LaBoeuf’s pride often collide with Mattie’s strict sense of right and wrong. They close in on Chaney, who has fallen in with outlaw leader Lucky Ned Pepper. After ambushes, near-misses, and a tense hostage exchange, everything builds to a violent showdown on the prairie.
| Character | Role & Traits |
|---|---|
| Mattie Ross | 14-year-old heroine; relentless, moral, fiercely logical; seeks justice for her father. |
| Rooster Cogburn | U.S. Marshal; rough, cynical, deadly; surprising heart beneath the whiskey. |
| LaBoeuf | Texas Ranger; proud, skilled marksman; different code of honor than Rooster’s. |
| Tom Chaney | Cowardly drifter who killed Mattie’s father; selfish and weak. |
| Lucky Ned Pepper | Outlaw chief; cunning and pragmatic; respects guts, not law. |
2) The film’s meaning (simple and clear)
The title “True Grit” means real courage: sticking to a hard path even when it hurts. The film shows that grit is not loud heroism but steady resolve. Mattie has it from the start—she bargains like an adult, rides into danger, and refuses to quit. Rooster has it too, but his grit is messy: he kills without ceremony and drinks hard, yet he keeps going when others won’t. LaBoeuf learns grit by swallowing his pride and helping the team.
The movie also argues that justice has a cost. Revenge feels clean in stories, but in real life it brings blood, trauma, and consequences. When Mattie gets the justice she wants, it does not bring peace; it leaves scars. Growing up means learning that the world is not simple. Heroes can be flawed; villains can be pathetic; and the price of “doing what’s right” can be pain you carry forever.
- Mattie’s logic vs. the wild frontier’s chaos.
- Law on paper vs. justice in practice.
- Mythic Western glory vs. lonely, cold rides and real wounds.
3) Ending explained
Near the end, Rooster faces Ned Pepper’s gang in open country. In a reckless, legendary charge, Rooster rides straight at four men with guns blazing. He kills several but is pinned, and Ned moves in to finish him. From a long distance, LaBoeuf takes a risky shot and drops Ned, saving Rooster at the last second. Tom Chaney, however, sneaks up and assaults LaBoeuf.
Mattie intervenes. She raises her father’s heavy Colt Dragoon and shoots Chaney dead. The recoil throws her backward into an old pit filled with bones and a rattlesnake 🐍. She is bitten. Rooster climbs down, cuts the wound, sucks the venom, and rushes her to help. He puts her on her pony, Little Blackie, and rides all night at a brutal pace 🐎. The horse collapses from exhaustion; Rooster mercy-kills it and carries Mattie in his arms to a doctor. This is the film’s emotional peak: Rooster spends himself to save the child he once treated like a nuisance. It shows his buried tenderness and the real meaning of “true grit.”
- Key event 1: Mattie ends Chaney’s life herself—justice delivered, but at great personal cost.
- Key event 2: Snakebite leads to amputation; her victory immediately creates a lifelong wound.
- Key event 3: Rooster’s midnight ride proves his heart; the legend is real, but it hurts.
In the epilogue, many years have passed. Adult Mattie has lost her arm and, by her own words, never married. She receives word that Rooster is in a traveling Wild West show. She goes to see him, but he has died three days earlier. She arranges to move his body to her family plot and stands by his grave, reflecting that time gets away from us ⏳. The ending is not tragic but sober: Mattie achieved justice, yet the cost is permanent, and life moved on without comfort. Rooster, the rough outlaw-marshal, dies offstage, not in a blaze of glory but as an old legend whose last brave act was saving a child.
So what does the ending “mean”? It ties the themes together:
- Justice over revenge: Killing Chaney does not heal Mattie; it only completes a duty.
- Grit as compassion: Rooster’s charge is brave, but his night ride is greater—quiet sacrifice.
- Myth vs. reality: The West makes legends, but people pay with blood, limbs, and loneliness.
A simple way to see it: Mattie started with a clear rule—“a killer must face justice.” She ends knowing rules cannot protect you from consequences. She keeps her principles, but carries scars. Rooster began as a cynical gunman; he ends as her protector and, in memory, her only true friend. The film’s final note is tender and unsentimental: courage is real, heroes age, and time—like the frontier—does not yield.