True Grit (1969)

A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer in Indian territory.

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Charles Portis (novel), Marguerite Roberts (screenplay)

Stars:

John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby

Won 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Wayne	...	Rooster Cogburn
Glen Campbell	...	La Boeuf
Kim Darby	...	Mattie Ross
Jeremy Slate	...	Emmett Quincy
Robert Duvall	...	Ned Pepper
Dennis Hopper	...	Moon
Alfred Ryder	...	Goudy
Strother Martin	...	Col. G. Stonehill
Jeff Corey	...	Tom Chaney
Ron Soble	...	Capt. Boots Finch
John Fiedler	...	Lawyer Daggett
James Westerfield	...	Judge Parker
John Doucette	...	Sheriff
Donald Woods	...	Barlow
Edith Atwater	...	Mrs. Floyd

Storyline

The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy, Mattie Ross, (Kim Darby), on a mission of "justice", which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, "Rooster" Cogburn (John Wayne), because he has "grit", and a reputation of getting the job done. The two are joined by a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, (Glen Campbell), who is looking for the same man (Jeff Corey) for a separate murder in Texas. Their odyssey takes them from Fort Smith, Arkansas, deep into the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) to find their man.

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Plot Keywords:

texas | texas ranger | sheriff | marshal | undertaker | 

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Taglines:

A Brand New Brand Of American Frontier Story

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Genres:

Adventure | Western | Drama

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 June 1969 (USA)

Also Known As:

Temple de acero

Filming Locations:

Bishop, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$14,250,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character of Rooster Cogburn was supposed to be around forty. John Wayne was 61 when the film was made.

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Goofs

The white markings on Little Blackie's legs and face change throughout the movie.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Frank Ross: Little Frank... You take care of your mama.
Little Frank: I will.

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Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: Amerikai filmtípusok - A western (1989)

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Soundtracks

"True Grit"
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Lyrics by Don Black
Performed by Glen Campbell (uncredited)

User Reviews

It's all about the dialogue

Like most Americans, I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of westerns in my life. I don't care for them much, primarily because I usually can't fall for them.

In movies, the desire to please as wide an audience as possible seems always to win out, effectively robbing most westerns of the motion picture's essential gambit; the suspension of disbelief. It's very hard to lose oneself in a tale of the late 1800's when the female lead's eye-liner and coiff are pure 1950. Or 1940, 1960, whatever. In True Grit, very little of 1969 is allowed to intrude on this rather simple tale of justice and revenge. This movie is anchored by two very strong themes, shared by all the actors, across most of the scenes.

The first, is language. The dialogue is an absolute delight. Crack open anything by Mark Twain, Henry James or any other late 19th century author, and you will see that people really did speak differently 150 years ago. That the dialogue in 99% of westerns is straight from the time of their filming is a travesty, at best.

Second, is innocence. Not that of any one character however, but the innocence of the human race as a whole. It is probably almost impossible for any of us now, in this day and age, to truly imagine what it must have been like to live back when. But one thing's sure, people were much more naive. There was no such thing as mass-communication, a good percentage of the population didn't read, and newspapers, the only "organized" form of news at the time, were hard pressed to report on anything more than a day's ride from town.

This basic, shared innocence is achingly portrayed by Robert Duvall in two short sentences near the end of the movie when he's caught Mattie and he's attempting to threaten her. Study those two lines, and you'll see that "Lucky" Ned Pepper, the worst villain in the story, really has no idea of what he could possibly do to a slip of a girl. He's totally at a loss. The unspeakable, modern-day atrocities we consume every day with our coffee and bagels are so far from contemplation by Duvall's character, that all he can do is assure her, "I'll do what I have to". It's a priceless moment - frighteningly accurate commentary wrapped in two lines of simple dialogue, delivered with dead-on interpretation.

The only other western I can think of at the moment that delivers with such viscerally historic accuracy is "Unforgiven".

MjM