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:

The strangest trio ever to track a killer.

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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

John Wayne's competitor for Best Actor this year was Richard Burton, who was nominated in Anne of the Thousand Days for playing England's King Henry VIII, a role that had already won an Oscar for Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII., making them the first pair of actor both nominated for playing the same part. Wayne's successor in this role, Jeff Bridges, would also be nominated for Best Actor for playing it. Bridges actually won his Oscar for Crazy Heart, which featured Robert Duvall, who also appears in this film. Duvall would also go on to appear in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, in which Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro would both win an Oscar for playing Vito Corleone.

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Goofs

(at around 1 min) The boom mic's shadow is clearly seen on La Boeuf as he sits down by the dinner table after taking off his spurs.

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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

Spoofed in Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006)

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Soundtracks

"WILDWOOD FLOWER"
(Folk Song)

User Reviews

The Honor of a Lifetime

Now personally there are John Wayne performances in terms of acting that I like better than True Grit. Among others Fort Apache, The Searchers, Red River, The Horse Soldiers, to name a few. And certain films like The Commancheros and McLintock and Big Jake I find to be more entertaining.

What True Grit does is succeed on both levels, being both great entertainment and giving John Wayne the acting role of a lifetime in the person of Rooster Cogburn.

Mattie Ross from Darnell and Yell County Arkansas personified by Kim Darby has come to Fort Smith seeking the killer of her father Jeff Corey. Turns out he's also killed a State Senator in Texas so Texas Ranger Glen Campbell informs her. Both of them team up with United States Marshal Rooster Cogburn who resides in Fort Smith with Chin Lee and my favorite movie cat, General Sterling Price.

Corey is now in the outlaw band headed by Robert Duvall at large in the Indian Nation Territory that became Oklahoma. True Grit's plot is the trio's pursuit of Duvall, Corey and the rest of the gang.

But oddly enough True Grit isn't really about plot. It's about the creation of a character. Like Margaret Mitchell who wrote Gone With the Wind with Clark Gable in mind for Rhett Butler, Charles Portis wrote the novel True Grit with only John Wayne in mind as Rooster Cogburn. It must have been one singular delight for Charles Portis to see the Duke flesh out Rooster Cogburn exactly as he conceived him.

Tough old Rooster, likes an occasional drink, isn't above a little larceny, but has one stern moral code about real bad guys. Bring him in dead or alive and make sure you shoot first coming up against them. And he's got quite the colorful past as he relates tales of his younger days to Campbell and Darby on the trail.

In other reviews I've said that John Wayne had one of the great faces for movie closeups. You can see a perfect example of that in that scene with John Fiedler who plays Darby's lawyer J. Noble Daggett. A man who rates high in the legal profession in that area having forced a railroad into bankruptcy.

The camera is facing Fiedler as he's talking to Wayne about his visit with Darby who's life Wayne saved. Wayne's got about a third of his face to the camera. But even with that third, your eyes are focused on the Duke and his reactions and then as the camera slowly pans around to Wayne in full face his reaction shots are hysterical. You don't work with scene stealing character actors like Chill Wills, Walter Brennan, and Gabby Hayes for 30 years without learning something.

John Wayne was up against some stiff competition in 1969 for the Best Actor Oscar. It was his second nomination, the first being for Sands of Iwo Jima. He was facing Richard Burton as Henry VIII in Anne of a Thousand Days and a couple of newcomers named Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight for Midnight Cowboy. He was certainly the sentimental favorite.

If in no other place in our lives, sentiment does have its place in cinema. It was an honor well deserved, not just for one performance but for a lifetime of achievement in cinema being the player who put more people into movie seats than any other person ever. So many of the Duke's contemporaries like Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power were never even nominated for an Oscar much less win one.

Because the Motion Picture Academy has deemed this John Wayne's grandest cinematic achievement, it's almost a command to support this fine western and the man who defined the western hero and is still defining it.