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.