Search My-West

"Informative and entertaining, My-West will be a valued destination for westerners and devotees of all things western. Well-written posts, evocative photos and fine art, valuable travel tips, and an upbeat style make this a destination site for travelers and web surfers. Go West!" - Stan Lynde, Award-winning Western novelist and cartoonist
Subscribe to Movie Reviews

MOVIE REVIEWS

Entries in Jeff Bridges (1)

Saturday
Feb122011

WILD WEST BERLIN –True Grit Opens the Berlin Film Festival

By Bennett Owen

My nose is still bleeding but I was there, along with about a thousand of my closest friends, as True Grit took a bow in its international premier.  

They liked it. Not just for the Coen Brothers’ idiosyncrasies;

not only for the superb acting and star power of Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin and Matt Damon. Not because it’s a movie you’re ‘supposed’ to like.

They liked it because it’s a powerful and well-told story that extols the virtues of courage, valor, faith and determination…True Grit…and all that bundled up inside a 14-year old girl named Mattie Ross. 

The smart money in Berlin says international audiences will stay away from this uniquely American film. But at the reception afterwards a prominent German actress, Veronica Ferres swooned, saying, “The actors were men, not the pretty boys that star in our movies.”

And for any man with a child, the love and devotion shown in that final, four-minute flight to civilization is positively heartbreaking.  I’ll be watching that scene over and over…until the pixels fade…or the tears stop coming…whichever comes first.

Some random notes:

  • Jeff Bridges seems like a truly likeable fellow with a keen sense of humor
  • Hailee Steinfeld received major thumbs up for her choice of dress.  She’s having great fun with her new-found fame
  • The director of the Berlinale admits he was disappointed that the film lacked the trademark Coen Brothers quirks.

The German critics believe this film marks the swan song of a genre.  I predict it signals a renaissance.