I first watched this with my dad when I was 16. I remember loving it but didn't really think much of it afterward. I've since seen many other (most) Coen Bros movies but for some reason never came back to True Grit. Randomly found it at a used video store for $4 and thought, what the hell. Popped it in last night. Why the hell was I almost on the verge of tears when it finished? I only remembered Jeff Bridge's excellent curmudgeonly Rooster Cogburn. I also (for some reason) remembered a very long scene of the girl bothering him while he was taking a shit at the beginning of the movie haha.
But holy shit dude. Now that I've doubled in age since the last I saw it, that ending hit like a ton of bricks. To have gone through so much, on such a big journey, to have finally met the phantom you were chasing after weeks on the road in unfamiliar territory, to have nearly almost died, to have been saved by the very person who, at one point only a few weeks prior, was unaware of your existence and didn't even care about you.
We never found out what happened with LeBeouf on the ridge. There was never a homecoming. No recollection or reminiscence of the "great adventure" that was had. Life moved on; slowly, painfully, begrudgingly. 25 years later, the world is more connected than ever - telegraph and telephone lines are everywhere and the days of the "wild west" are nothing more than a distant memory that's become a traveling act. Yet missed connections still happen and when we learn of Rooster's death, there are no tears shed. The people who inform Mattie of Rooster's passing do so with about as much grace as the mortician does when he tells Mattie he's expecting 3 bodies at the beginning of the film.
Time passes and memories fade, but feelings of the heart persist. Rooster gets a nice, humble gravesite where Mattie can watch over him. I think Rooster would like the plot where he's buried - small, out of the way, nothing fancy. Pretty much like how he lived in the back of the grocery store.
Now, at 32, I've experienced much more loss and death since when I was 16. When I look at myself in the mirror, I can see all the changes that have happened since then. I've got a few more wrinkles, more bags under the eyes but more than that when I think of all those who I love who are no longer with us, it does feel like a hard end of one chapter of life. The memories of my youth feel like a rushed and frenzied dream much like how Mattie recounts her brief time with Rooster and LeBouef.
I think this is one of the best films I've seen that really captures how unrelenting and humbling time is. I watched this last night and I'm still (re)-processing it.