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True Grit | 2010 | PG-13 | - 1.7.3
Remake of the 1969 John Wayne film and based on the Charles Portis novel: A 14-year-old-girl (Hailee Steinfeld) approaches a marshal (Jeff Bridges) to hire him to find and bring to justice the man who killed her father. Along with a Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) they set off into wild territory filled with danger and outlaws. Also with Josh Brolin, Nicholas Sadler, Barry Pepper and Nicholas Sadler. Directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen. [1:50]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A man tells a teenage girl that he considered "stealing" a kiss while she was asleep and he was sitting in the room watching her.
► We see a man sleeping in his long underwear and a teenage girl wakes him up.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man hacks another man's fingers off with a large knife we in a quick scene we see the fingers separate and they are shown bloody on the table, as well as the man's bloody stump; he then stabs the man in the chest and we see the knife sticking out.
► A man is shot in the head (blood splatters on the wall and we see the bloody bullet wound on his face). A man is shot in the chest (we see a bloody spot on his shirt) and falls back off a high rock ledge.
► We see a man with a bloody bullet wound in his shoulder (we hear that the bullet went straight through) and a bloody mouth (he tells us that he bit his tongue); another man puts his fingers in the man's mouth and says there are some loose teeth, and that his tongue is cut and asks if he should "just pull it free" and tries to do so while the injured man screams (he does not pull anything out).
► Four men on horseback approach another man on horseback, they argue from a distance, and then charge toward each other while shooting; one man is shot in the chest (blood spurts), another man is shot and falls off his horse hitting his head on a rock (blood sprays), another man is shot in the arm (we see blood on his shirt and hand), and another man's horse is shot and he is pinned under it.
► A man and a teenage girl approach a cabin, the man and another man inside yell back and forth, the man outside shoots into the cabin and we hear that a person inside was wounded (we see him later with a bloody leg wound).
► Four armed men on horseback surround another man on foot, they lasso him and he's dragged behind one of the horses; a man on a bluff shoots three of the men and one horse (the men shoot back and no blood is seen). A man is shot off his horse by another man from a great distance.
► A man draws a gun on a teenage girl, she draws her gun on him, the man approaches her, and she shoots him (it looks like it's on the torso or arm and we see blood spurt), he strikes her in the face and pulls her away while another man shoots toward them.
► A man tackles a teenage girl and holds a knife to her throat, and another man hits him on the head with his rifle butt (we see blood on his face and head as he lay unconscious). A man throws a teenage girl to the ground and puts his foot on her face while pointing a gun at her head (he does not shoot). A man is struck on the head with a large rock (we see blood on his head and face).
► Three men stand on a gallows platform with nooses around their necks, two of the men speak (one grieves for the lives of his family and one says that he killed the wrong man) their heads are covered with black sacks; the third is interrupted before speaking presumably because he's Native American, the floor falls out from under the men, and they swing from the ropes around their necks (we hear a loud thud) while many townspeople, including women and children, watch (we see them being cut down later). A man and a teenage girl find a man hanging from a tree and a bird pecking at his face; the girl climbs the tree, cuts the body loose, it falls to the ground and we see that the face has been pecked and discolored (no blood is visible).
► A teenage girl stumbles and falls into a cave, she is unable to free herself, struggles to retrieve a knife from a dead body next to her, we see many snakes coiled up in the chest area of the skeletal remains, snakes slither toward her, we hear rattling, one snake crawls on her shoulder and she grabs it and throws it off, and a rattlesnake bites her on the hand (we see the bloody bite marks); a man cuts a mark on her hand and attempts to suck the venom from her hand (he spits a few times).
► A man lies dead on a table and a teenage girl identifies him as her father. A teenage girl walks into a funeral parlor and past a table where a dead man lies (he's covered by a sheet and his hand is visible). A funeral director tells a teenage girl that she can kiss her father if she'd like (he lies dead on a table). We see a dead body draped over the back of a mule (or horse). We see three dead men leaning against the outside of a cabin. We hear that a man died.
► A man rides a horse until it begins to slow down, he jabs the horse with a knife to make it run, and it runs until it collapses from exhaustion (we hear it breathing heavily and moaning); the man shoots the horse while a teenage girl protests.
► A man pulls a teenage girl off her horse, puts her over his knee and spanks her repeatedly, then gets a switch and hits her several times on the leg before another man draws his gun and threatens him. A man pulls a boy over a railing and onto the ground (he is uninjured) and kicks a young girl off a porch (she is unharmed) after seeing them hitting a mule with a broom; he kicks one of the children off the porch once more after a few minutes. A teenage girl throws an apple and hits a man on the back of the head.
► A man shoots at pieces of food that he throws into the air and he shoots at an empty bottle that he throws into the air; then he nearly shoots another man on horseback when trying to hit another piece of food. A man fires a gun into abandoned old mineshaft and we hear the bullet ricochet. A teenage girl struggles to get her horse across a river safely (she does and they are both uninjured).
► We see a flashback to a man lying dead on a dirt road outside a saloon and hear that he was shot by someone who was drunk and thought he had been cheated while gambling. A man has a patch over his eye (presumably from an injury). A man has a scar on his face from black powder.
► Two men argue in several scenes. A teenage girl and various people argue in several scenes. A man tells a younger man that his leg wound will "fester and they'll have to cut it off and then they'll send you to prison." A man testifies in court that he found a woman dead with flies around her face and a man with his chest blown open and his feet burned. A man in a courtroom talks about a dead man being found dead and with his arm in a fire and his sleeve and hand smoldering. We hear that a teenage girl lost her arm after "it had turned black" from a snake bite and see her as an adult with only one arm. A man testifies in court to an incident where another man raised an ax to threaten him and cussed at him, and that another man shot his companion and he shot three other men, killing two and injuring one. A man in a courtroom asks another man how many men he has shot and he replies by asking whether he meant shot or killed (the answer is about 23). A man in a courtroom describes another man coming at him with a "king bolt." A teenage girl says that she intends to kill the man who killed her father. A man tells a teenage girl that he will flay the flesh off a man's feet and she could rub pepper on them. A teenage girl is told by a funeral director, "If you want to sleep in a coffin, it'll be OK" as she enters and walks passed dead bodies on tables. A teenage girl talks about her father having been killed by another man. A man in an outhouse yells at a teenage girl who stands outside knocking and trying to speak to him. A teenage girl threatens to take several people to court in several scenes. A man talks about sending horses to a soap works plant. A man talks about having robbed a bank. A man talks about buying a dead body and removing the teeth.
► A man on horseback is shown wearing a bear's head and pelt as he approaches another man and a teenage girl. A teenage girl packs a handgun in a flour sack and prepares to search for the man who killed her father. A teenage girl sorts through a collection of possessions left by her murdered father and retrieves a handgun. A man lays rope around the area where he will sleep (on the ground) in order to ward off snakes. A man watches a girl sleeping and she wakes up with a start.
LANGUAGE 3 - 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (SOB, wicked, coward, malefactors, pitiless, pencil neck, rodeo clown, baby girl, slow witted, crow bait, unpleasant looking, crafty, one eyed fat man, gimp, drunkard, whiskey drinker, Texas brush popper, fraud, marauder, thumper, wet nurse, foolish, harpy in trousers, trash), 5 religious profanities, 2 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks alcohol from a bottle in several scenes and becomes so inebriated that he falls off his horse in one scene, a teenage girl asks a man, "You wanna be kept in whiskey?" and a man says "my drinking picked up." We see a man with a cigar in his mouth, a teenage girl rolls several cigarettes for a man, a man smokes a pipe, a man holds a cigarette in his mouth in several scenes, and a man rolls and smokes cigarettes in several scenes.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Murder, death of a parent, revenge, desperation, outlaws, gambling, justice, grief, malaria, defamation, misjudging people, remaking classic movies.
MESSAGE - In the old west life was very cheap; courage can be found in anyone, regardless of age or condition.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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