The Coen brothers ride high in the saddle

The greatest pleasure in watching the Coen brothers’ remake of “True Grit’’ (2010) is seeing Jeff Bridges (right), Matt Damon, and newbie Hailee Steinfeld (far right), give such equally matched, entertainingly prickly performances. Without tweaking the John Wayne original beyond recognition, the film lends contemporary weight (and levity) to the story of young Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) tagging along with boozy lawman Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) and a vainglorious Texas Ranger (Damon) to avenge her father’s murder. A close second on the satisfaction index: listening to the Coens’ dialogue, which has to be the most fun they have had with fancifully mannered genre lingo since “Miller’s Crossing.’’ (“Hoorawed by a little girl!’’ Damon’s LaBoeuf sniffs in one spat.) The Coens give due credit to respected source novelist Charles Portis; the Blu-ray’s featured supplement is a half-hour devoted to the Southern newspaperman-turned-under-acclaimed author. It includes everyone from writers and editors to Dwight Yoakam raving about Portis’s gift for blending literary and populist sensibilities. The spotlight is on others in a half-dozen shorter featurettes, including an interview with the perky Steinfeld. This week also sees the Blu-ray debut of “The Outlaw Josey Wales’’ (1976). It’s a film rightly cited by a new featurette as one of several Clint Eastwood essentials that bridge the gap between traditional westerns (e.g., Wayne’s “True Grit’’) and newer, sterner stuff (e.g., the remake). Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel supplies fresh commentary, treading lightly around costar Sondra Locke. (“True Grit,’’ Paramount, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99)