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I am finally get­ting around to see­ing a few movies that have been on my list. Last week it was Black Swan. Today, after an early brunch with the family, we walked over to the Regal Majes­tic in down­town Sil­ver Spring to see True Grit.

I think it’s impor­tant to state right up front, that I have never really been a fan of west­erns. I’ve enjoyed some of the clas­sics, but it is just not a genre that I have grav­i­tated to over the years. In fact, I never saw the orig­i­nal movie. (Although, given the all-star cast in that ver­sion, I’m now tempted to put it in my Net­flix queue.) To take this a step fur­ther, — and I’m sure that I will get clowned for this — I have never seen Blaz­ing Sad­dles all the way through. I know…I know, that was a com­edy; but, to me, it was a west­ern first.

Ok, I’ll make this brief. (If you want an in-depth review of the movie, there are plenty avail­able.) Over­all, I enjoyed the movie. I don’t know if it’s my issue with the genre, but there were a few patches of the movie that felt unnec­es­sary and made the movie feel long. (My wife com­mented that she dozed off a cou­ple of times.) Jeff Bridges, as Rooster Cog­burn, was com­pelling. It seems that he’s devel­op­ing a knack for nail­ing the drunken, prickly guy with a good heart char­ac­ter. Matt Damon, as LaBouef, was good, but not great. The same could be said for Josh Brolin. Brolin’s role was rather minor in the movie, so he didn’t really have a chance to shine too much. The per­son who kept my inter­est through­out the movie was Hailee Ste­in­feld as Mat­tie Ross. I loved the way Mat­tie kept all the adult male char­ac­ters in check with her stub­born­ness and quick wit. The pair­ing of Ste­in­feld and Bridges worked really well and didn’t feel gim­micky. I think the Coen broth­ers did a good job with the screen­play. From what I under­stand, this adap­ta­tion is much closer to Charles Por­tis’ novel than the orig­i­nal movie.

All-in-all, I enjoyed True Grit; though I can’t say that it swayed my gen­eral dis­in­ter­est in west­erns. Hon­estly, I think that my appre­ci­a­tion of the movie had more to do with the smart writ­ing and act­ing. If some­one can tell me that that’s the norm (good sto­ries, dia­log and act­ing), I would be inclined to check out more westerns.

If you saw True Grit, please share your thoughts. I am inter­ested to hear from fans of west­erns, par­tic­u­larly those who saw the 1969 original.