Faux Western

Has it really been three months since I wrote something?

Time flies. Yeah, I thought I'd have something better than that too.

One thing that did cross my river was going to see True Grit; the Coen brothers new film; and it got me thinking, given our recent political shout-about. Omnipotent government versus the ideal of the rugged individual as epitomized by western lore. A lot of mouth breathers and self aggrandizing shouters have festered the channels of communication with invocations of our impending doom as we slip slide into the abyss of the mommy state. Better to invigorate our national soul with the comfort food that is the idea that life and it's immediacies are significantly improved when our individualism trumps our need for community and it's inevitable propensity towards socialism. Better to starve than be sapped of our vigor. Certainly in the abstract, as a barometer of character, it may have it's virtues, as we may all seek to be glorious in our devotions to the cause, but as a workable solution to the good life, and THAT, my dear readers, is the crux of the problem, for the good life has no single measure; only the desires of each who dreams of it, and are inextricably bound up in the prosperity of community.

The movie, a remake of the John Wayne pic, and based on the novel by Charles Portis, is, as I find most Coen brothers films, unsettling in a good way. I don't note that as any objective critique, only that I respond that way when I watch their films. This is primarily due to their recognition of human supidity and hubris and the manner in with they allow it to inhabit the tone of their work. Again, that's simply my reaction and part of why I enjoy their films so much.

The premise is simple enough, after her father is murdered by the skeevy Tom Chaney, our heroine, Mattie Ross, seeks revenge through the capable, albeit drunken, one eyed Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn, as is wryly conveyed in the film, is not know for bringing men in alive. This renders the notion of Mattie to see Tom hang more bluster than a call to justice. In fact, justice is in short supply in this tale. So is morality and any abiding sense of community. Townspeople are, as often is the case in the fictionalized Hollywood version of the old west, scared selfish town dudes and their shrewish wives. There is no invocation of God other than of his grace and it's seeming randomness. Life is hardscrabble and apt to end at any moment. Only the hard and determined survive on their own. The rest huddle in town to be controlled by corrupt land barons, sheriffs, politicians, or marauding thugs. Makes you wonder how anyone managed to live through it.

The actual West was anything but what is presented on film. Community is what settled the West. Towns were not gunslinger heavens, and killers were not heroes venerated by the locals. Justice could be swift, and given human predisposition, occasionally misguided, ending in the wrong neck being stretched. It was community that kept people alive; allowed them to prosper. Posses were lawful associations charged with bringing the lawless to justice rather than the mobs the name is associated with. Saloons weren't gun club central as most towns required gun to be checked in when coming in to town.

This is where the films head off into symbolism and myth. In truth, if Tom Chaney did commit murder in town, he would have been arrested or chased down. That, of course, isn't very exciting and does nothing to perpetuate the western myth. It's nice to believe that the virtuous man ( or woman ) is immune to the clarion call of social depravity resting in the eyes of town folk; will stand up to all evil,and in the end carry, however uncomfortably ( thank you, Clint ), the banner of the good. True Grit subverts this. Vengeance is vengeance. There is no speech in the end of noble actions, only the cold turn of self righteousness; I did what I felt was right and no amount of argument will dissuade me of my belief. That her crusade nearly killed her is the price you pay for your vengeance. Perhaps God will sort things out in another life, but not in this one. Justice has no place because justice is a social construct that requires adjudication, the application of rights, burdens of proof, and the application of law. These are the hallmarks of community not individuality. Revenge carries no reveries of right, but the absolute of hate.

Mattie Ross got what she wanted and became what she sought.