True Grit Western

365 Words2 Pages
True Grit is a film centered on the fourteen year old Mattie Ross. After the murder of her father, Mattie takes it in her own hands to track down and kill her father’s murder, the wanted Tom Chaney. Mattie is portrayed as a strong willed and eager girl, who wants to see the deed done. She hires Marshall Rooster Cogburn to track down Cheney as she accompanies him. Texas Ranger LaBoef is also on the hunt for Cheney. The film is set up in western times with a western setting, but doesn’t quite portray Stanley Corkin’s idea of a traditional western. In Corkin’s piece, “Cowboys and Free Markets: Post-World War II Westerns and U.S. Hegemony,” he states that one theme of a traditional western is the, “inevitable subordination of women to men” (Corkin, 125). In the film, Mattie is just as powerful as the male characters, even when being beaten by a male. Throughout the film Mattie displays leadership by pushing Cogburn though his tantrums and onward toward finding Tom Cheney. She displays intense confidence and unwillingness to give up. Mainly, Mattie proves her insubordination to men by finally killing Cheney herself. Corkin later states that a western is associated with settlement of the frontier; declaring “the need for settlement and nationalism” (Corkin, 127). The main drive in True Grit isn’t a need for settlement at all, but rather simple revenge. While traveling the west, Mattie does not find the urge to settle or live, but only feels a drive for catching her father’s murderer. Corkin states that, “Westerns act to justify this world-system by presenting a scenario in which white, male American heroes are showing bringing order and civilization to formerly benighted places” (Corkin, 134). This film brings up no white, male hero, just white males helping the girl find justice for her father. The film True Grit does not accurately portray Corkin’s thoughts on
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