WEBVTT 00:00:07.648 --> 00:00:11.768 Mattie Ross is the star of the award winning film True Grit made by the Coen Brothers. 00:00:11.768 --> 00:00:16.160 This is a remake of the 1969 film starring John Wayne which is in itself 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:19.550 an adaptation of the 1968 Charles Portis novel. 00:00:19.550 --> 00:00:22.502 The 14 year old lead character is played by Hailee Steinfeld 00:00:22.502 --> 00:00:25.711 who much to my surprise was only 13 when filming the movie. 00:00:25.711 --> 00:00:29.020 This is a significant and welcome change from the original casting 00:00:29.020 --> 00:00:32.101 where actor Kim Darby was 21 when playing Mattie Ross. 00:00:32.101 --> 00:00:36.245 it's always nice seeing young actors playing lead roles in serious films 00:00:36.245 --> 00:00:38.987 especially young women, because they are offered so few of these. 00:00:38.987 --> 00:00:42.931 Without giving too much away, this is a classic western narrative about the search 00:00:42.931 --> 00:00:47.048 for revenge, self-reliance, and independence in a harsh and unforgiving land. 00:00:47.048 --> 00:00:51.093 The movie follows Mattie on her quest for revenge against the man who killed her father. 00:00:51.093 --> 00:00:56.742 To help her on in this venture, she hires notorious US Marshall Rooster Cogburn, known for his ruthless grit. 00:00:56.742 --> 00:01:01.421 The Marshall initially dismisses and ridicules Mattie because of her age and gender 00:01:01.421 --> 00:01:05.538 however, she convinces him of her confidence and they set out on the trail to find the killer 00:01:05.538 --> 00:01:08.981 For those of you who haven't seen True Grit, there's going to be a few spoilers ahead. 00:01:08.981 --> 00:01:13.005 What's so captivating about Mattie's character is how witty and smart she is 00:01:13.005 --> 00:01:15.760 and how daring, self-reliant and independent she is. 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:20.369 She's full of confidence in herself and her abilities in a hostile, male-dominated world. 00:01:20.369 --> 00:01:25.065 These are traits rarely ascribed to female characters, let alone female teenage characters 00:01:25.065 --> 00:01:29.149 One of my favorite scenes comes early on when Mattie sucessfully negotiates with 00:01:29.149 --> 00:01:30.815 an unscrupulous horse trader. 00:01:30.815 --> 00:01:35.169 And I want $300 for Papa's saddle horse that was stolen from your stable. 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:39.723 You have to take that up with the man who stole the horse. 00:01:39.723 --> 00:01:43.235 Tom Cheney stole the horse while he was in your care. You are responsible. 00:01:43.235 --> 00:01:49.679 hahaha... Yeah, I admire your saying, but you'll find I'm not liable for such claims. 00:01:49.679 --> 00:01:54.635 You are the custodian. If you were a bank and it were robbed you could not simply tell the depositer to go hang. 00:01:54.635 --> 00:01:59.268 I do not entertain hypothetical, the world as it is is vexing enough. 00:01:59.268 --> 00:02:04.400 Secondly, your evaluation of the horse is high by about 200 dollars. 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:05.429 How old are you? 00:02:05.429 --> 00:02:08.636 If anything, my price is low. Judy is a fine racing mare. 00:02:08.636 --> 00:02:12.246 I've seen her jump a 8 whirl fence with a heavy rider. I'm 14. 00:02:12.246 --> 00:02:14.720 Mattie really is a breathe of fresh air 00:02:14.720 --> 00:02:17.075 As Rebecca Keegan points out in her LA Times article 00:02:17.075 --> 00:02:24.319 “Given that female adolescents are frequently depicted on-screen as vapid, angst-ridden, pregnant or merely decorative. 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:29.217 Mattie Ross is a remarkable role. She never shakes out her braids in a makeover montage, swoons 00:02:29.217 --> 00:02:32.702 over a cute stable boy or frets about the daunting task at hand.” 00:02:32.702 --> 00:02:37.633 I wholeheartedly agree, however, I've been a little dismayed by some mainstream media articles 00:02:37.633 --> 00:02:41.005 and some blog posts that are quick to label Mattie a "feminist character." 00:02:41.005 --> 00:02:43.010 Personally, I think it's a little bit of a leap 00:02:43.010 --> 00:02:45.851 While it is certainly true that Mattie possesses a number of admirable traits 00:02:45.851 --> 00:02:47.966 rarely seen in female movie rolls, 00:02:47.966 --> 00:02:50.276 I'm just not convinced she's a feminist character. 00:02:50.276 --> 00:02:51.975 Here are the two main reasons why: 00:02:51.975 --> 00:02:56.200 All characters need a good story arc where they're one way when the story starts 00:02:56.200 --> 00:03:01.591 and they learn a lesson or change or grow or regress or something. 00:03:01.591 --> 00:03:05.030 The point is that the character has transformed from the place that they were 00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:07.954 at the beginning of the story to some place different by the end. 00:03:07.954 --> 00:03:11.353 For all intents and purposes, Mattie is basically the same person 00:03:11.353 --> 00:03:13.543 from the first scene to the closing credits. 00:03:13.543 --> 00:03:16.949 When she first steps off the train, she may be a little bit naive 00:03:16.949 --> 00:03:21.528 but she is still fairly confident, self-assured, independent and emotionally cold. 00:03:21.528 --> 00:03:24.811 During her experiences traveling with Rooster and LaBoeuf she retains all 00:03:24.811 --> 00:03:30.793 of those traits and seems fairly unaffected by the danger, brutality and death all around her. 00:03:30.793 --> 00:03:34.292 As an adult, she seems to have changed very little, if at all 00:03:34.292 --> 00:03:36.459 and that leads directly into point number 2. 00:03:36.459 --> 00:03:40.192 At no point in the film do we see a real range of emotion, such as sorrow, 00:03:40.192 --> 00:03:43.383 despair, or grief for the loss of her father 00:03:43.383 --> 00:03:46.643 Mattie's entire reason for being, as far as we're shown in the movie 00:03:46.643 --> 00:03:50.401 is to seek the death of his murderer, an outlaw named Tom Cheney. 00:03:50.401 --> 00:03:54.471 She is unwavering in her conviction that justice can only come through 00:03:54.471 --> 00:03:56.622 the hanging of Tom Cheney in the town square 00:03:56.622 --> 00:04:00.329 In fact, the whole film frames the murder of Tom Cheney as justice 00:04:00.329 --> 00:04:04.698 whether he meets it by the state, by the US Marshalls, or by Mattie herself 00:04:04.698 --> 00:04:08.025 It's never questioned that maybe "an eye for eye" is not such a good idea 00:04:08.025 --> 00:04:12.092 We don't see Mattie questioning capital punishment ie. the death penalty, 00:04:12.092 --> 00:04:15.461 or really considering any other potential forms of justice. 00:04:15.461 --> 00:04:18.697 Even after she kills Cheney, she still shows no emotion 00:04:18.697 --> 00:04:24.052 In fact, no one in the movie seems to be effected by brutality, death or the suffering of others. 00:04:24.052 --> 00:04:26.645 As we know, all people, regardless of gender 00:04:26.645 --> 00:04:29.543 are capable of the entire range of human behaviors 00:04:29.543 --> 00:04:32.956 But since we live in a male-dominated, male-centered society 00:04:32.956 --> 00:04:37.604 traits stereotypically identified as masculine 00:04:37.604 --> 00:04:42.011 are more valued and consequently, more celebrated by Hollywood. 00:04:42.011 --> 00:04:46.565 While traits stereotypically identified as feminine, 00:04:46.565 --> 00:04:49.037 are undervalued and often denigrated. 00:04:49.037 --> 00:04:53.550 This may be one of the reasons why people are quick to adopt Mattie as a feminist character, 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:57.736 and other female pop culture characters who are considered strong and tough. 00:04:57.736 --> 00:05:01.079 The feminism I subscribe to and work for involves more than 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:04.722 women and our fictional representations simply acting like men 00:05:04.722 --> 00:05:08.934 or unquestionably replicating archetypal male values 00:05:08.934 --> 00:05:13.117 such as being being emotionally inexpressive, the need for domination and competition 00:05:13.117 --> 00:05:15.909 and using violence as a form of conflict resolution. 00:05:15.909 --> 00:05:20.575 In my feminist vision, part of what makes a character feminist is watching her struggle 00:05:20.575 --> 00:05:24.616 with prioritizing values such as cooperation, emathy, compassion 00:05:24.616 --> 00:05:29.340 and non violent conflict resolution in a world largely hostile to those values. 00:05:29.340 --> 00:05:32.985 I think feminist characters should, like feminists in real life 00:05:32.985 --> 00:05:35.965 push beyond societal norms, challange gender roles 00:05:35.965 --> 00:05:38.895 and the institutions that actively work to maintain them. 00:05:38.895 --> 00:05:43.686 And let me be clear here, this is not to say that I don't want characters who are flawed, because I do, 00:05:43.686 --> 00:05:48.744 I want characters who are subtle, who make mistakes and who don't always do everything right. 00:05:48.744 --> 00:05:52.454 but I want those characters to fit into overarching themes where they're not stuck 00:05:52.454 --> 00:05:57.089 in stereotypical roles such as the damsel in distress, the girlfriend, or the love interest. 00:05:57.089 --> 00:06:02.635 And on the other hand, I don't want them to just recast tough male roles for women to play, 00:06:02.635 --> 00:06:04.833 which we've been seeing a lot of lately. 00:06:04.848 --> 00:06:08.201 In True Grit, Mattie is certainly subverting expected gender roles 00:06:08.201 --> 00:06:11.865 by being witty and smart and competent and independent 00:06:11.865 --> 00:06:14.993 yet she is not challagenging the set of partiarchal, archetypical 00:06:14.993 --> 00:06:18.236 male values ever-present in most mass media narratives, 00:06:18.236 --> 00:06:20.299 she is actually adopting them.