History Film / TrueGrit

* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: Single action revolvers like the Dragoon don't have safeties, but Chaney takes the time to stupidly point out how Mattie can cock the gun, then that she needs to cock it further since such revolvers also have a half-cock they can stop at.

* BadassPreacher: Unseen HeroOfAnotherStory LT Quinn is both a lay preacher and a U.S. marshal. He believes ThouShallNotKill and brings his prisoners back alive while managing to avoid being killed by anyone who tries to take advantage of his unwillingness to kill them. The occasional fugitive escapes him by running, but there's no indication that he's ever lost a fight.

* TheGhost: In all three versions, Harold and Farrell’s mother and brothers and Rooster’s fellow marshals William Waters and Lt Quinn don't appear but are mentioned with varying degrees of detail.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Labouef has been pursuing Chaney for years without success, although given Chaney’s ButtMonkey status this doesn’t exactly impress Mattie. Rooster's fellow ([[TheGhost unseen]]) Marshals [[ScarilyCompetentTracker William Waters]], [[DeadPartner Columbus Potter]], and [[ByTheBookCop LT Quinn]] may also count.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Labouef has been pursuing Chaney for years without success, although given Chaney’s ButtMonkey status this doesn’t exactly impress Mattie. Roosters [[TheGhost unseen fellow Marshals]] [[ScarilyCompetentTracker William Waters]], [[DeadPartner Columbus Potter]], and [[ByTheBookCop LT Quinn]].

* {{Bookworm}}: Mattie is very well-read and eloquent for her age.

** [[spoilers:In both versions, Chaney; Pepper and the posse are all successfully killed. With the 1969 version though, Mattie nearly dies of a snake bite; her hrose dies of exhaustion and [=LaBoeuf=] is killed from a head injury. Mostly downplayed though.]]
** In the 2010 one while [=LaBoeuf=] survives, Mattie loses her arm due to the snake bite; Cogburn's forced to shoot her horse when the legs break and about 25 years later--having lived a quiet and isolated life as a "bitter" unmarried woman, when Mattie goes to see Cogburn at a traveling show he's been performing in, arrives and is informed that he died before she could get there. While the prior version has Mattie state her intention to have Cogburn buried in her family plot someday as a show of gratitude, this version indeed does have her follow through with it.]]

* BittersweetEnding: ''Heavy'' on the bitter. [[spoiler:Mattie has to have her arm amputated due to a snakebite. She never sees Cogburn or LeBoeuf again. She did get an invitation from Cogburn years later to see him again, but she arrives a few days after he had already died. She also has to wonder for the rest of her life what happened to LeBoeuf, since he stayed behind when Cogburn had to take Mattie to get medical help for the snakebite. And on top of that, due to not being involved in very ladylike affairs, Mattie never gets married and the movie ends with her as a somewhat lonely middle aged woman. Despite all of this, they ultimately did achieve their goal of bringing Mattie's father's killer to justice.]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: While the original book also deconstructed a lot of TheOldWest, the 2010 version digs deeper into these characters. Maddie grows up [[spoiler: so bitter and cold due to only living by something as dehumanizing as vengeance]], while we see Rooster as more self-abusive and hate-filled (which may explain his alcoholism). His "true grit" and noble sides are still there but his addictions do make him much less of a romanticized western hero than how he was portrayed in the original film.

The novel has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted to film]] twice. The first version, released in 1969, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Creator/JohnWayne as Rooster (in a performance that earned him both an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward and a UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}} for Best Actor), with Glen Campbell as [=LaBoeuf=] and Kim Darby as Mattie. The film was followed by two sequels: 1975's ''Film/RoosterCogburn'' (original release title ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073636/ Rooster Cogburn (... and the Lady),]]'' starring John Wayne and Creator/KatharineHepburn), and 1978's ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078422/ True Grit: A Further Adventure]]'' (made for TV, starring Creator/WarrenOates).

[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/true_grit_1969_5.jpeg]]

** When she later goes to buy another horse from him he's downright ''terrified'' of her.

* ShopKeeper: In the 1969 film, also a FunnyForeigner -- an old Chinese man, whose store Rooster likes to crash in. In the 2010 film, [[DoYouWantToHaggle a terrible haggler.]] The Chinese vendor appears in the 2010 movie as well, in about two scenes, one of which he's smoking opium.

* DiagonalCut: In the gun equivalent of this trope, for several seconds after [[spoiler:[=LaBoeuf=] shoots Pepper at long range]], it's unclear that he was hit at all. Then he falls over dead.
* BittersweetEnding: ''Heavy'' on the bitter. [[spoiler:Mattie has to have her arm amputated due to a snakebite. She never sees Cogburn or LeBoeuf again. She did get an invitation from Cogburn years later to see him again, but she arrives a few days after he had already died. She also has to wonder for the rest of her life what happened to LeBoeuf, since he stayed behind when Cogburn had to take Mattie to get medical help for the snakebite. And on top of that, due to not being involved in very ladylike affairs, Mattie never gets married and the movie ends with her as a somewhat lonely middle aged woman. Despite all of this, they ultimately did achieve their goal of bringing Mattie's father's killer to justice.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The 2010 version, ''heavy'' on the bitter. [[spoiler:Mattie has to have her arm amputated due to a snakebite. She never sees Cogburn or Leboeuf again. She did get an invitation from Cogburn years later to see him again, but she arrives a few days after he had already died. She also has to wonder for the rest of her life what happened to Lebeouf, since he stayed behind when Cogburn had to take Mattie to get medical help for the snakebite. And on top of that, due to not being involved in very ladylike affairs, Mattie never gets married and the movie ends with her as a somewhat lonely middle aged woman. Despite all of this, they ultimately did achieve their goal of bringing Mattie's father's killer to justice.]]
* {{Bookworm}}: Mattie.

* DownerEnding: While the climactic confrontation has a positive outcome, the conclusion set twenty-five years later reveals that [[spoiler:Mattie has lost an arm to snakebite and grown up into a caustic old maid with few or no friends, Cogburn died before they could meet again, and she hasn't heard from [=LaBoeuf=] since the shootout with Pepper's gang.]] Can be seen as a BittersweetEnding, depending on how content you may think Mattie is (in the original book, she's perfectly fine with things), or how bad you think things turned out.

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: This version takes a harder stand against revenge compared to the book and 1969 movie, with [[spoiler: Mattie actually getting to kill Chaney, only for the act of doing so being directly responsible for her getting bitten by a snake and losing her arm, and she grows up bitter and cynical as she realizes that her vengeance didn't truly improve her life in any way.]]

* BountyHunter: Rooster.

The novel has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted to film]] twice. The first version, released in 1969, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Creator/JohnWayne as Rooster (in a performance that earned him both an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward and a UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}} for Best Actor), with Glen Campbell as [=LaBoeuf=] and Kim Darby as Mattie. The film was followed by two sequels: 1975's ''Film/RoosterCogburn'' (original release title ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073636/ Rooster Cogburn (... and the Lady),]]'' starring John Wayne and Creator/KatharineHepburn), and 1978's ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078422/ True Grit]]'' (made for TV, starring Creator/WarrenOates).

* {{Fingore}}

The novel has been [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted to film]] twice. The first version, released in 1969, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Creator/JohnWayne as Rooster (who won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward and a UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe|Award}} for his performance), with Glen Campbell as [=LaBoeuf=] and Kim Darby as Mattie. The movie had two sequels: 1975's ''Film/RoosterCogburn'' (original release title ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073636/ Rooster Cogburn (... and the Lady),]]'' starring John Wayne and Creator/KatharineHepburn), and 1978's ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078422/ True Grit]]'' (made for TV, starring Creator/WarrenOates).

A second adaptation was released on December 22, 2010, directed by Creator/TheCoenBrothers. Staying [[TruerToTheText closer to the source material]], it places a greater emphasis on Mattie, played impressively by 13-year-old Creator/HaileeSteinfeld. Creator/JeffBridges as Rooster and Creator/MattDamon as [=LaBoeuf=] costar, with Creator/JoshBrolin as Tom Chaney. The film was nominated for ten UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, but won none.