Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen • 2010 • United States
Starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin

Originally filmed in 1969 as a John Wayne vehicle, Charles Portis’s classic western novel gets a truer, grittier adaptation courtesy of the Coen brothers. Jeff Bridges is marvelously grizzled as the one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who aids a vengeance-obsessed fourteen-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld) on her quest to hunt down her father’s killer. Soft-pedaling their usual bravura eccentricities in service of the story, the Coens deliver a rollicking, masterfully crafted take on the old-fashioned oater, enhanced by the superb performances and Roger Deakins’s beautifully expressive cinematography.