True Grit · reception & legacy

How True Grit has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A hit from day one — the Coens' biggest box-office success and a 10-Oscar nominee — but it's since settled into an odd spot: fans keep 're-discovering' it as secretly top-tier Coen rather than the 'minor, classical' entry it was first filed under.

What's debated

The forever debate: is Jeff Bridges' mumbling Rooster Cogburn an improvement on John Wayne's Oscar-winning original, and was Hailee Steinfeld — in nearly every scene — a lead fraudulently campaigned as Supporting?

Its footprint

It went 0-for-10 at the Oscars, one of the biggest shutouts in Academy history, and became a key exhibit in the 'Roger Deakins can't win' saga (he lost that year too, before finally winning for Blade Runner 2049). Mattie Damon jokes aside, Mattie Haggler's horse-trading scene is endlessly clipped and quoted as an all-time negotiation showcase.

Where it stands

The 'gateway Coen' — their warmest and most classical film, routinely fought over in Coen-ranking lists between 'mid-tier' and 'underrated masterpiece'.

Named by the director

Influences Joel Coen has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• The Night of the Hunter (1955) — The Coens invoked Laughton's film as their tonal reference — a child's-eye journey through a perilous adult world — rather than the classic western, and the score is built on the same hymn, 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms'.