True Grit (1969)

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Charles Portis (novel)
Marguerite Roberts (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 June 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Western | Drama

Tagline:

The strangest trio ever to track a killer.

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Texas | Texas Ranger | Marshal | Justice | U.S. Marshal

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

John Wayne	...	Marshall Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn
Glen Campbell	...	La Boeuf
Kim Darby	...	Mattie Ross
Jeremy Slate	...	Emmett Quincy
Robert Duvall	...	Ned Pepper
Dennis Hopper	...	Moon
Alfred Ryder	...	Mr. Goudy (Defense attorney)
Strother Martin	...	Colonel 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

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | USA:G (edited for re-rating) | USA:M (original rating) | Australia:M (TV rating) | Iceland:12 | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-15 (2002) (DVD) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1969) (theatrical) | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT | Australia:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bishop, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Tuesday Weld turned down the role of Mattie.

Goofs:

Continuity: La Boeuf puts the serving spoon back in the bowl and picks up his fork. The next shot shows him putting the serving spoon back in bowl and picking up a piece of chicken.

Quotes:

Mattie Ross: You never told me you had a wife.
Rooster Cogburn: Oh, well, I didn't have her long. My friends was a pack of river rats and she didn't crave their society so she up and left me and went back to her first husband who was clerkin' in a hardware store in Paducah. "Goodbye, Reuben," she says, "the love of decency does not abide in you!" That's a dee-vorced woman talkin' for you, about decency. Well, I told her. I said, "Goodbye, Nola, and I hope that nail-sellin' bastard makes you happy this time!"
Mattie Ross: Did you have any children?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Home Improvement: Loose Lips and Freudian Slips (#8.22)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

True Grit

Come see a fat old man sometime!

He may have been 62 years old with only one lung when he made True Grit, but John Wayne fills the screen with energy. His portrayal of Rooster Cogburn deservedly won him an Oscar.

Cogburn seems an unlikely Western hero: he's old and fat, wears the wrong colour of hat and likes to pull a cork. Yet he's the marshall that Mattie Ross hires to bring her father's killer to justice. The fact that she insists on coming along to help him is perhaps the weakest aspect of the story but the end result is so enjoyable that we can forgive this.

Robert Duvall, as Lucky Ned Pepper, makes a great job of playing the leader of the outlaw band Rooster, Ross and Ranger have to confront.

The action culminates in a scene that no other western has matched before or since.