True Grit
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| True Grit | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Henry Hathaway |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Written by | Charles Portis (novel) Marguerite Roberts |
| Starring | John Wayne Glen Campbell Kim Darby |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein, Glen Campbell |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  June 11, 1969 |
| Running time | 128 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Rooster Cogburn |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
- This article is about the 1969 John Wayne western film. For other uses, see True Grit (disambiguation)
True Grit is a 1969 western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. The film is adapted from the 1968 novel, True Grit, by Charles Portis.
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[edit] Plot
After her father is killed, Mattie Ross, a headstrong 14-year-old girl, hires the aging, irascible and drunken U.S. Marshal Rooster J. Cogburn to track down the killer, Tom Chaney. To do so, the pair must head into Indian territory, and are joined by a young Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, who also hopes to capture Chaney and collect a reward.
[edit] Cast
- John Wayne as Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn
- Kim Darby as Mattie Ross
- Glen Campbell as La Boeuf
- Jeremy Slate as Emmett Quincy
- Robert Duvall as Lucky Ned Pepper
- Dennis Hopper as Moon
- Strother Martin as Col. G. Stonehill
- Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney
- Donald Woods as Barlow
[edit] Production
Filming took place mainly in Ouray County, Colorado, in the vicinity of Ridgway (now the home of the True Grit Cafe), and the town of Ouray. The courtroom scenes were filmed at Ouray County Court house in Ouray.
Wayne called Marguerite Roberts' script “the best [he’d] ever read.” He particularly liked the scene with Darby where Rooster tells Mattie about his wife in Illinois, calling it the best scene he ever did.
In the last scene, Mattie gives Rooster her father's gun. She comments that he got a tall horse, as she expected he would. He notes that his new horse can jump a four rail fence. Then she admonishes him "You're too old and fat to be jumping horses." Rooster responds with a smile “Well, come see a fat old man sometime” and jumps his new horse over a fence. Despite popular belief, Wayne did not jump over the fence himself. In fact, according to biographer Garry Wills in his book on Wayne, Wayne was not healthy enough to do such stunts. It should be remembered that Wayne had an entire lung removed four years prior to making the film and actually had trouble walking more than 30 feet without breathing heavily. But Wayne fell in love with the horse, which would carry him through several more westerns, including his final movie, The Shootist.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Awards and nominations
John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe. Upon accepting his Oscar, Wayne said, ""If I'd known this, I'd have put that eyepatch on 40 years ago." The song “True Grit”, by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, received nominations for both Academy Award for Best Song and Golden Globe.
[edit] John Wayne's performance
Garry Wills notes in his book John Wayne's America that Wayne's performance as Rooster Cogburn bears close similarities to the way Wallace Beery portrayed characters in the 1930s and 1940s, an inspired if surprising choice on Wayne's part. Wills comments that it's difficult for one actor to imitate another for the entire length of a movie and that the Beery mannerisms temporarily recede during the scene in which Cogburn discusses his wife and child.
[edit] Differences from the novel
- See also: True Grit (novel)
Unlike the book, the movie doesn’t introduce Mattie as an old woman telling a story of her childhood, but instead begins and ends in 1873, when Mattie is 14 years old. Also, in the book, Mattie remains the central character throughout; in the movie, Mattie starts out as the main character, but Rooster Cogburn gets an equal share of the limelight once his character is introduced. The film also downplays the novel's Biblical tone and adds a hint of romance between Mattie and La Boeuf.
Also, the film's Colorado location and mountain scenery is in sharp contrast to the script's references to place names in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
[edit] Sequels
A film sequel, Rooster Cogburn, was made in 1975, with John Wayne reprising his role from the first film, and Katharine Hepburn as an elderly spinster, Eula Goodnight, who teams up with him. A made-for-television sequel, entitled True Grit: A Further Adventure was made 1978, starring Warren Oates and Lisa Pelikan, and featured the further adventures of Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross.
