Rooster Cogburn

This movie is more than just a lot of fun to watch. John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn are wonderful, but only because they are together. The chemistry between them is electrifying.

Richard Jordan plays his villan role to a "T". He is mean and nasty, and he keeps his character believeable to the end. There is a scene between him and Katharine Hepburn at Fort Ruby that is absolutely brilliant, you could feel the lightning flashing between their characters.

Think about the scene where the wheel broke off the wagon: Hawk gets furious with his men and Jordan's character did a great job with his part: he seem really angry, as if looks could kill. His expressions, well, it gave me the willies.

Don't you agree that Anthony Zerbe created a believeable "Breed". The two of them, Jordan and Zerbe are so believeable together. Remember the scene in the saloon when Hawk learns about the wagon being taken by Rooster? He starts to go out and Breed tells him, that he worked with Rooster for three years...and that he knows that Breed will never take Rooster? There is some great chemistry in that scene! They have tried to make movies like this before, but it hasn't happened yet: movies that made the actors create a film a success that was not relying on special affects alone, but just the characters and the story.

The couple Wayne and Hepburn or Hepburn and Wayne are top notch , both of whom are wonderful . The film is a first-rate western , is the following-up to ¨True grit" in which Wayne won an Oscar , Academy Award , for his acting. The movie is a remake from "African Queen " in which Hepburn did couple with Bogart , here Wayne and Katharine hand similar roles , even there is one dangerous runaway by a river. The plot line centers the killing of the Hepburn's father. John Wayne and Hepburn set out in pursuit the evil people : Richard Jordan , Anthony Zerbe and Jack Colvin . Direction by Stuart Millar is good , cinematography by Harry Stradling is breathtaking , landscapes are spectacular and gorgeous , it has been shot in natural parks . Lively and rousing musical score by Laurence Rosenthal . Rating : 7/10 very good , well worth watching . However , the film received terrible reviews on release . Many critics felt that it was too obviously derived from ¨African Queen¨ , and that both John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn were too old for their parts . The motion picture will appeal to John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn fans .

Hired to track down a vicious gang, federal marshal Rooster Cogburn reluctantly lets a missionary and a Native American lad accompany him after their mission is ransacked by the gang in this belated sequel to 'True Grit'. John Wayne reprises the title role with just as much gusto despite noticeably looking older. Katharine Hepburn also puts in a strong turn as the missionary with the best scenes being the banter between the pair. The villains are not particularly interesting and the plot is no great shakes; in fact, 'Rooster Cogburn' feels more like a remake rather than sequel to 'True Grit' at times with Hepburn also seeking vengeance for a father killed. The plot is more complex than it first seems though. While most are quick to praise the chemistry between Wayne and Hepburn, it is the bond that slowly develops between Wayne and the young Amerindian, played by Richard Romancito, that is ultimately most touching. Romancito becomes a surrogate son of sorts to the once hardened old man who inadvertently finds himself with a 'family' for the first time as he pursues the gang. One wonders though just what messages (if any) the filmmakers had in mind with the project. Early on, Wayne is told "the west is changing and you aren't changing with it", and yet minutes later he hired because, again, he has "grit". Is the film meant to be a tribute to the virtues of old ways or a film about learning to change (unwillingly accepting companions)? Topped off with a memorable explosive climax, one thing for sure is that this is a more dynamic sequel than one might expect.

Hepburn & the Duke made a fairly decent movie and that's enough reason to see it at least once. The fact that Hepburn has a Father in the movie is suspect, at best, especially since he's not played by Moses himself. But that's besides the point here - they have terrific chemistry and their star power alone could put most of the actors on the screen today to shame. It would have been really memorable if the movie were worthy of them, though.

Don't get me wrong, True Grit is a good western and worthy of its classic status, but I've always found John Wayne's first go round as Rooster Cogburn to be uneven, at times colorfully into character but just as often just playing John Wayne. He won his only Oscar for it of course, but he hadn't yet completely found ol' Rooster's voice.

In this sequel co starring Katharine Hepburn, the Duke has every aspect of Rooster down pat. The scenes he and Hepburn share, trading their philosophies and anecdotes while they come to know and admire (and platonically fall in love with) each other is the engine of this film. Forget the plot, it's passable enough but very much secondary, this story gets along strictly on the strength of the two lead characters and it's worth seeing again and again just to watch these two Hollywood legends banter and spar in their one and only movie together.

This was the first John Wayne film I ever saw in a movie theatre (I was 9 years old in 1975) and it made me a lifelong fan. This is easily one of his most entertaining adventures. Hepburn and Wayne together is even more fun than Bogart and Hepburn in The African Queen. A timeless treasure.