Anyway, I will give you my thoughts of a general nature about the film, in case you haven't yet seen it and perchance will be interested. I found the story immediately gripping, and I formed an early opinion of the main protagonist (Mattie Ross), that here was a character I wanted to learn more about. I haven't seen the John Wayne version of this film, but I feel pretty sure that this girl's character would never have been written the way it was here back in the 60's.
I was most struck by the quality of the dialog, because it seemed to be very well controlled and modeled after the dialects that I sometimes hear quoted in soldiers' letters from the era of the Civil War. If that and other sources of dialect from around the era of the movie's setting were used, I think it was a good move, because it helped make the setting a lot more believable. Maybe not authentic, but very believable to me. And here, the talents of the actors and directors came into play most markedly. Like actors I encountered in London, playing roles in 16th Century English for Antony and Cleopatra, these folks acted their lines as if they were the most natural way of speaking possible for them. I appreciated this effort, every bit as much as I did with the Southern Cracker tongues used in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"
As to the various actors in the film, I think the strongest presence of course had to be Jeff Bridges, playing Rooster Cogburn. As I said, I never saw John Wayne play this part, so I can't compare them, but I don't think I would want to compare the efforts anyway. Bridges was masterful at his part, and he made it his from the moment he appeared on the screen. Well, actually, he started making it his creation BEFORE appearing to view... I won't spoil your enjoyment of that rather odd introduction.
Now, Matt Damon, playing Texas Ranger LaBeef... that character was a pure puzzle to me. I went from thinking he was a joke, to being sickened by him, to cheering him on. Overall, I think he put in a fine supporting role, definitely worth checking out.
And of course, Hailee Steinfeld, the girl at the center of the story, was most intriguing to me. Her innocent-looking face made the iron of her character's will rather a pleasant surprise. The moments when she lapsed into some child-like antics (very rarely) certainly made me sit up and notice that she really IS a child. A child that has been forced to grow up too soon by a horrible trauma.
As for other elements of the film -- the scenery, costumes, music, and so forth -- they are all excellent in quality, exactly what one should have come to expect from a Coen Brothers opus. I really doubt there's much of any way they could outdo themselves in any project they decide to work on. But as I said, they started with a strong story. From that, they crafted a great screenplay from the original material and ended up with what I think is a truly great film. Definitely worth going out to see in the theaters. Hopefully, it will be available there for many weeks to come.
