According to Wikipedia, the film, True Grit, is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14; Chaney made off with her father's horses and two of his California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, Mattie (played as a 14-year-old by Hailee Steinfeld) inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal to track down Chaney. She is given three recommendations, but chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he is described as the most merciless. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to hire him.
Meanwhile, at the boarding house where she is staying, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. LaBoeuf has been pursuing him for several months over a murder in Texas. He proposes to Mattie that they should team up with Cogburn, since the Marshal knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while LaBoeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave. Mattie rejects LaBoeuf's offer, partially because he would take Chaney back to Texas to be hanged for the prior murder, instead of her father's. After finally securing Cogburn's services, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney, though instead of meeting Mattie, Cogburn leaves a note telling her to go home while he goes to apprehend Chaney.
After she is refused passage on the river ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie rides into the water and is pulled across by her swimming horse. On the far side, she learns that the two men have agreed to split the Texas reward for Chaney. Accusing him of fraud, Mattie threatens to have Cogburn arrested for breaking their agreement, which specified that she must accompany him on the manhunt. Reluctantly, he allows Mattie to come along. After a disagreement, LaBoeuf sets off on his own in search of Chaney. Eventually, Mattie and Cogburn come across an isolated shack, where two outlaws (Paul Rae and Domhnall Gleeson) are staying. After they turn on each other, Cogburn kills the older outlaw, and as the younger one is dying, he explains that "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and his gang were planning on returning to the shack later that night. Believing Chaney to be riding with Pepper's gang, Cogburn and Mattie lie in wait for the gang.
However, LaBoeuf rides up to the shack ahead of the gang. When the gang arrives, they lasso LaBoeuf and drag him behind a horse. Cogburn opens fire from his hiding spot, killing three members of the gang and accidentally wounding LaBoeuf. During the night, Cogburn drinks a great deal of whiskey and is severely drunk the next morning. The following night, he and LaBoeuf argue again, and LaBoeuf departs once more. The next morning, as Mattie draws water at the river, she encounters Chaney, who is watering the gang's horses. She draws her father's pistol and shoots him. The pistol misfires as she tries to finish him off, and he drags her back to the gang. Ned uses Mattie as a hostage to force Cogburn to ride off. Though Mattie is initially hostile to Ned, she calms down when he promises he "doesn't hurt children". Not having enough horses for everyone, Ned leaves Mattie with Chaney, telling him that he will send a horse for him later. He orders Chaney not to harm Mattie and to drop her off in safe, colonized lands afterwards.
Once alone, Chaney disobeys Ned and attacks Mattie; LaBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out with his rifle butt, explaining that when he heard the shots in the morning, he rode back and encountered Cogburn, who devised a plan. LaBoeuf and Mattie watch from their distant perch as Cogburn takes on the four remaining members of Ned's gang. Although one escapes, Cogburn kills two of them, and mortally wounds Ned before his own horse is shot out from under him. As the dying Ned is about to kill Cogburn, LaBoeuf shoots and kills Ned, impressing Mattie with his ability as a marksman. Chaney comes to and attacks LaBoeuf. Mattie grabs LaBoeuf's rifle and kills Chaney, but the recoil knocks her back into an old mineshaft, where she unwittingly disturbs a ball of snakes. She is bitten before Cogburn can rescue her. Cogburn and Mattie leave the wounded but stable LaBoeuf at the mine with the promise they will send help, and Cogburn rides through the night to get Mattie to a doctor, arriving just in time.
Twenty-five years later, Mattie – now 40 and with only one arm, the result of an amputation necessitated by gangrene from the snakebite – receives an invitation from Cogburn to meet him at a traveling Wild West show with which he is performing. When she arrives at the site, she learns that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved into her family plot, and the film ends with her standing over his grave and pondering how time catches up with everyone.
Blogger’s comments:
I am impressed on how Mattie negotiate for a deal to secure the 300 over dollar so that she will have the money to hire Cogburn to track down Chaney, the murderer of her father. She is independent in her thinking and she is brave in her action. She insisted that she wanted to follow Cogburn to see to the arrest of Chaney and she is only 14 years old.
True Grit seems to send a clear message that if you wanted to do something in life, and if you are determined enough, you can be successful. Of course, we have to qualify to say that you also require to carry certain qualities in your personality. Mattie is a smart young girl, articulating and she knows the law of contract.
At the age of fourteen, her goal is simple. Her father was killed by Chaney and she wanted Chaney to be arrested and be hanged for his action. Chaney has committed a crime and he has to pay for it.
Although Mattie is never married, she has a sentimental attachment to Cogburn. She hired Cogburn to track down her father’s murderer and Cogburn has fulfilled the contract. That would have concluded the deal. However, she still remembers Cogburn because Cogburn saved her life by sending her to a doctor for the snakebite. Cogburn died three days earlier before she can meet him at the Wild West show. She wanted to treat Cogburn as one of her family members, therefore, dig out his coffin and rebury in her family plot.
The film ends with Mattie standing over Cogburn’s grave and pondering, that scene leaves you wondering the meaning of life. If Mattie just goes home together with his father’s coffin, she wouldn’t meet up with Cogburn and she wouldn’t lose her arm. She probably would have married to a handsome man and live happily. She probably regrets that she cannot take revenge on Chaney for the rest of her life. In life, you gain some and you lose some. There is always a balance.
Go for U.S. multinational companies with exposure to emerging market growth, says Puru Saxena, chief executive of Puru Saxena Wealth Management. He shares his investment strategy, with CNBC's Chloe Cho, Anna Edwards and Yousef Gamal.
Published: Tuesday February 22, 2011 MYT 8:33:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday February 22, 2011 MYT 11:53:56 AM
Magnitude 6.3 earthquake hits New Zealand (Updated)
If you are a Malaysian in Christchurch, tell us about the situation there. Email your story and pictures to talk2thestar@gmail.com
Photo Gallery
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A powerful earthquake struck New Zealand's already-bruised city of Christchurch on Tuesday, collapsing buildings, burying vehicles under debris and sending rescuers scrambling to help trapped people amid reports of multiple deaths.
The 6.3-magnitude quake struck the country's second-largest city on a busy weekday afternoon, in contrast to a major quake that damaged Christchurch last September but caused no deaths when it struck before dawn on a weekend. Police said there were reports of multiple fatalities from the latest temblor, while Prime Minister John Key told Parliament details of the deaths still were too shaky to confirm.
A car passing a destroyed building in Christchurch central business district. (AP Photo/Samual Sutherland
Witnesses said the quake destroyed the iconic stone Christchurch Cathedral, its spire toppled into a central city square, and police said there was a report of two buses crushed under falling buildings.
Live video footage showed sections of buildings collapsed into the streets, strewn with bricks and shattered concrete. Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, and thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered people to evacuate the city center.
"Make no mistake - this is going to be a very black day for this shaken city," he said when asked about possible deaths. The airport was closed and Christchurch Hospital was evacuated. Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water. Some cars apparently parked on the street were buried under rubble.
Some people were stuck in office towers and firefighters climbed ladders to pluck people trapped on roofs to safety.
In this vide image broadcast on New Zealand's TV3, a pedestrian steps over a raised ground in Greymouth. (AP)
"The details we have are extremely sketchy," the prime minister told Parliament. "The worrying fear, of course, is that this earthquake has taken place at a time when people were going about their business - it is a very populated time, with people at work, children at school. Sadly, I cannot rule out that there have been fatalities.
"But we are aware of significant damage to buildings that had people in them at the time," he said.
Key said people were being told to get out of the city for their safety. New Zealand police said in a statement that there were reports of multiple fatalities in the city, including a report that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. The police statement said there were other reports of fires burning.
Gary Moore said he and 19 other colleagues were trapped in their twelfth floor office after the stairwell collapsed in the quake. He did not know if people on other floors were trapped.
"We watched the cathedral collapse out our window while we were holding onto the walls," Moore said. "Every aftershock sends us rushing under the desks. It's very unnerving but we can clearly see there are other priorities out the window. There has been a lot of damage and I guess people are attending to that before they come and get us."
The multistory Pyne Gould Guinness Building, housing more than 200 workers, has collapsed and an unknown number of people are trapped inside. Television pictures showed rescuers, many of them office workers, dragging severely injured people from the rubble.
Many had blood streaming down their faces. Screams could be heard from those still trapped.
Parker, the mayor, said he was on the top floor of the city council building when the quake hit just before 1 p.m. local time, throwing him across the room.
"I got down onto the street and there were scenes of great confusion, a lot of very upset people," he said. "I know of people in our building who are injured and I've had some reports of serious injuries throughout the city."
The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). A 5.6-magnitude aftershock hit shortly after 7 miles (11 kilometers) east of the city at a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers).
"When the shaking had stopped I looked out of the window, which gives a great view onto Christchurch, and there was just dust," said city councilman Barry Corbett, who was on one of the top floors of the city council building when the quake struck. "It was evident straight away that a lot of buildings had gone."
Christchurch has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Sept. 4, which wrecked hundreds of buildings, and caused an estimated 4 billion New Zealand dollars ($3 billion) in damage, but no deaths.
A strong aftershock in December caused further damage to buildings.The city was still rebuilding from those quakes when Tuesday's temblor hit.
The city is home to about 350,000 people and is considered a tourist center and gateway to the South Island.
New Zealand sits on the Pacific "ring of fire" - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through the South Pacific. It records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year - but only about 150 are felt by residents, and fewer than 10 a year do any damage.
In this comedy , Emma(Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. It happened just so naturally. In order to protect their friendship , they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly " no strings attached"
"No strings" means no jealously , no expectation and don't fall in love.
I think they probably would have fallen in love even before they have sex or maybe they fall in love after having sex.
Sex is personal. In real life , you probably want no strings attached, but it is just impossible to achieve.
Adam's own father (Kevin Kline)has stolen away his former girlfriend(opehlia Lovibond) and he just couldn't accept this fact. He wanted to find a sex partner and to release his frustruction. He drank so much and past out. He managed to have sex with Emma in her room when he is sober.
There is one part showing Emma went to a party on the eve of her father’s funeral probably to recover from the pain of losing her father. In the Eastern societies, especially for those who subscribed to the Chinese way of thinking, this would not happen. People would be guarding the soul and would be near the coffin because the Chinese believed the soul is still around and they hoped that person inside the coffin might just come alive. Even the person cannot re-live, they would want to be on guard with the soul to pay their last respect.
This is the life style of the new economy. I received an invitation to attend a preview thru the internet. I thought it was a joke but I went and it turned out to be a real one.
When I was a journalist, I also received this kind of invitation. It is normally sent to the Chief Report or the News editor and he or she will assign the reporter to attend so that he or she can write a review about the film.
《大馬部落》2011年2月电影观赏会
有了好吃好玩得节目，这次《大馬部落》邀请博客们看电影！
这次由UIP为大家在2011年2月份呈现两部电影，时间和地点如下：
1. No Strings Attached
Screening details:
Date: 16th Feb (Wed)
Time: 9.00pm
Venue: TGV Sunway Pyramid
Synopsis: refer to UIP
2. True Grit
Screening details:
Date: 23rd Feb (Wed)
Time: 9.00pm
Venue: GSC 1 Utama (New Wing)
Synopsis: refer to UIP
参加电影观赏会条款：
1. 所有的博客必须在各自的部落格写下电影观后感，同时提及此为《大馬部落》活动。
2. 凡出席者必须登记，陪同伴侣(1位）也是一样。
3. 无法出席者必须尽早通知，可电邮info@mybloggercon.com
出席者可以在现场向有关单位- United International Picture 领取你们的电影票，不要迟到哦～～
