Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf looking to the distance in the film True GritImage via Paramount Pictures
A host of classic Westerns are heading to Pluto TV soon in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. Among these movies are the landmark titles High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Once Upon a Time in the West. There is, however, also room for a more contemporary Western gem. The movie in question often ranks among the genre’s best examples of the last two decades, along with Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchainedand perhaps a couple of other titles. Westerns had a bit of a rough run in the 1990s and after the turn of the century, but the genre is witnessing a resurgence thanks, in part, to the success of Taylor Sheridan‘s sprawling work on television. Sheridan’s run began in the mid-2000s, a few years after the Coen Brothers delivered the critical and commercial hit True Grit.
They made it a point to tell audiences that the movie was an adaptation of Charles Portis‘ novel, and not a remake of the 1969 movie starring John Wayne. Their version was headlined by Jeff Bridges as the alcoholic lawman Rooster Cogburn, who agrees to track down a murderer for a teenage girl named Mattie Ross, played by Hailee Steinfeld in a career-defining debut performance. They were joined by Matt Damon, who played the memorable Texas ranger LaBoeuf, and Josh Brolin as the murderer. True Grit opened to excellent reviews and received 10 nominations at the Oscars, including in the Best Picture category. Bridges and Steinfeld also earned nods for their performances.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
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⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
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Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
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🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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When To Watch ‘True Grit’ for Free
The movie now holds a “Certified Fresh” 95% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens’ most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book.” True Grit was also a major box-office success, grossing more than $250 million worldwide against a reported budget of $35 million. Only a few years later, Bridges starred in the Sheridan-penned neo-Western Hell or High Water, which earned him another Oscar nomination. True Grit will be made available to stream for free on the Pluto TV service in July. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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