Reference in film: True grit

True Grit, 2010, is a modern twist of the old Western theme. The Coen brothers have made up a story which is entertaining in story, amusingly sophisticated manner of speaking and very large & nice landscapes. Clean, cold, rough, hard and naked landscapes. One of the main characters, Cogburn, is even expected to have died because he couldn't take the warmer climate further south. This movie demands a wide screen, as it is such a natural landscape based story. The graveyard topic is unavoidable in western films, I guess. Like any movie true to its' form, this one builds on established, preconceived notions on the graveyard. They were all called Boot hill, right?

The name isn't specified in True Grit, but as the screen images show: The Coens cultivate a clean version of the old Boot hill. The degree of graveyardishness is emphasized by the single, black, leafless tree (strangely dead despite there being no indications of winter) and no other shrub around. The tree is no coincidence tho, as it is the marker from afar and some of its' branches have been pruned. The silhouette is designed. It is such a minimalist, more so than a standard cliché kinda graveyard, not even a fence, wall or any sort of frame around it has been allowed to mess with the point: It's a place of insight, where short messages and statements of truths are spoken. Not a place to hang out. The main character, Mattie, rounds it all off with a stroke of common knowledge, "Time just gets away from us", which is emphasized by the graveyard, the strong reminder of time itself being a commodity of limited supply. Mattie certainly is a woman of knowledge and guts, one-armed but cool. A somewhat violent film, but that comes with the western territory. I think it's a very good and entertaining film. The big picture.