I was really interested by the language in True Grit, too. I saw it after spending the past couple of months working on a story in the form of a character's journal from 1898, in which I had to drastically reduce my own contraction use (though I didn't eliminate contractions entirely.) It's an interesting experiment, and harder to do than it seems at first. Some sentence just don't sound right to contemporary ears without contractions--the rhythm feels all wrong. I was impressed by the 100% percent commitment to that writing style in True Grit.

I'd love to hear about how contraction reduction works for you.