Question: Are those ski trails on the mountains at the beginning of True Grit?
Answer: The mountain in the background appears to have two vertical grooves down the surface facing the camera. Those grooves are far too wide to be ski trails. They are simply a natural part of the mountain. Mountains are subjected, over hundreds of thousands of years, to a variety of natural forces, such as wind erosion, water erosion, tectonic shifts and earthquakes, just to name a few. These cause mountains to have irregular shapes, and irregular surfaces.
Question: When George is killed by the hoodlums in the middle of the night one of them appears to be wearing a hat similar to the one worn previously by the prejudice guy in the restaurant. Are they supposed to be one and the same?
Answer: Correct: it is the same group of bigots, who has tracked them down in order to beat them.
Answer: It's ambiguous. Most likely both were targeted to be killed.
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