DVD Collectors Online

In the moments following LaBoeuf shooting and killing Ned Pepper, an endless string of implausibilities are thrown into the plot, which helps to bring the story to a hasty conclusion, at the expense of the gritty realism that was showcased throughout the entire picture prior to this. Mattie proclaims in amazement that LaBoeuf takes down Pepper from 400 yards, and just a few seconds later, Chaney strikes LaBoeuf in the head with a rock. Another minute goes by, and Mattie shoots and kills Chaney and falls backwards into the pit. She struggles for about a minute and discovers the rattlesnake in the pit. All of a sudden Cogburn is at the top of the pit and starts down into it to rescue her. How the hell did he get out from beneath his dead horse so fast and scurry up the hill to where Mattie, LaBoeuf and Chaney were? That 400 yards I mentioned was not only a linear distance, but also a couple of hundred feet above the field where Cogburn's shootout occurred. He goes from helpless, pinned, drunken gunman, to Superman in a matter of about three minutes. Just getting the horse off him would have taken a good 5 - 10 minutes, and then he had to sprint up the hill, which would have taken another 10 minutes at least, especially in his physical state. You can say that I'm being picky, but the next gaffe in the story would have quashed my disbelief, had the Coens incorporated a little common sense on the part of Cogburn into the story. After Cogburn rescues Mattie from the pit, after she's been bitten by a rattlesnake, he takes LaBoeuf's horse to get her to the nearest doctor, hundreds of miles away. He tells LaBoeuf that he will send someone back for him after he gets Mattie to a doctor. Why didn't Cogburn just grab Ned Pepper's horse when he pushed his dead horse off of him? It was just standing there about 10 - 15 feet away from him. We see this when Cogburn races off with Mattie and they pass by the free standing animal. Had he grabbed that horse originally, it would have made his ascent up the hill more believable. Not to mention that the two other horses that Pepper's associates were riding, could have been used as somewhat fresh horses to aid in Mattie's flight out of Indian territory, especially after Little Blackie's death from overheating.