True Grit

There is a moment in “True Grit,” released in 1969, when John Wayne and four or five bad guys fight one another across a mountain pasture. The issue is very evident: Someone will have to back away or die.

Roger Ebert said in his review, “Director Henry Hathaway pulls his telephoto lens high up in the sky, and we see the meadow isolated there, dreamlike and fantastic. And then we're back down on the ground, and with a growl Wayne puts his horse's reins in his teeth, takes his rifle in one of his hands and a six-shooter in the other and charges those bad guys with all barrels blazing.” As a scene, you should not take it seriously.

Ebert said, “The night I saw a sneak preview, the audience laughed and even applauded. This was the essence of Wayne, the distillation. This was the moment when you finally realized how much Wayne had come to mean to you. I have on occasion disliked his movies, most particularly "The Green Berets." But Wayne has a way of surmounting even bad movies, and in 40 years he has also made a great many good ones. In the early ones, like "The Quiet Man" or "The Long Voyage Home," he was simply an actor or simply a star. But long before many of us were born, John Ford began to sculpture the actor and the star into the presence.” Today there is not a movie actor who is more an archetype.

One of the great things of “True Grit” is that it recognizes Wayne’s great charisma. It was not directed by John Ford (who in any case might not have been intent enough about Wayne), but it was directed by another Western director, Henry Hathaway, who has made the movie of his career and gave us a masterpiece. This is the type of film you call a movie, instead of the type of movie you call a film.

It is one of the most pleasant, cheerful scary movies of all time. Ebert, “It goes on the list with "National Velvet" and "Robin Hood" and "The African Queen" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Gunga Din." It is not a work of art, but it wouldn't be nearly as good if it were. Instead, it is the Western you should see if you only see one Western every three years (an act of denial I cannot quite comprehend in any case).”

It is based completely on Charles Portis’ novel, and it tells the story of Mattie Ross from near Dardanelle, in Yell County. One day her father goes to the city and is murdered by a spineless snake. Mattie, played completely new by Kim Darby, goes to town to hire someone to go into the Indian Territory and capture the criminal.

She makes a deal with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, who is a one-eyed, grimy, polished, roughshod, overweight mischief with a heart of gold completely covered by a screen of leather. Then a Texas Ranger, played by Glen Campbell, joins in when he shows up and says he has a reward for the murderer (who also, as it looks like, killed a state senator in Texas). “It is a small reward,” the ranger says, “but he was not a large senator.”

Ebert mentioned, “After two horse-trading scenes in which Mattie outtalks the horse trader and drives him to distraction, the three set out into Indian Territory. Rooster and the ranger can't get rid of Mattie so she comes along. And we embark on a glorious adventure not far removed from Huck Finn's trip down the Mississippi, for this is also an American odyssey. Portis wrote his dialog in a formal, enchantingly archaic style that has been retained in Marguerite Roberts' screenplay.”

Campbell, who needs some acting practice, finds it difficult to convince the dialogue but Hathaway helps him out. Also, Kim Darby, especially in the horse-trading parts, is a miracle. You may even laugh so much when she sees that geldings, in her experience, are not worth the money if you want to breed them. Ebert said, “And as for Wayne, I believe he can say almost anything and make it sound convincing. (In Otto Preminger's "In Harm's Way" he had to say: "I mean to get into harm's way," and he even made that convincing.)”

With no surprise, Wayne takes over this powerful movie. He is not playing the same Western character he always plays. Instead, he can play Rooster because of every Western character he has played. He brings a relief and authority to the character. He never reaches, nor does he hesitate. Everything is there, a silent confidence that comes out of 40 years of acting. You have to love the veterans.

Surprisingly, the film got a 1975 sequel, “Rooster Cogburn.” Dennis Schwartz started his review out by saying, “A disappointing ripoff film that exploits the two aging legendary actors, John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn, with this overbaked and awkwardly conceived sequel to the popular True Grit--the film that gave Wayne his only Oscar (albeit a sentimental one). The stars were both 69 at the time and with Kate coming off hip surgery and the Duke diagnosed with lung cancer. Wayne reprises his role in True Grit as the unschooled, gruff, one-eyed patch-wearing hard-drinking marshal who has a paunch. While Kate plays the same type of strong-willed, sharp-tongued, elderly spinster role she did in the African Queen, here as a Bible-thumping teacher at an Indian missionary. Aside from the good chemistry between the two stars, the film has little to offer but B Western antics and an uninteresting formulaic story line.”

In the Arkansas Territory in 1875, Judge Parker (John McIntyre) fires Marshal Rooster Cogburn for using extreme force and then re-hires him to track Hawk (Richard Jordan) and his 9-man team who killed an army patrol and stole a wagon filled with nitro-glycerine and a Gatlin gun so they can rob a bank in the nearby town. The Judge promises permanent rehiring as marshal if he brings in Hawk alive, and he also promises a team but they never arrive. Rooster rides off alone and finds that the outlaws killed the Yankee preacher father (Jon Lormer) of Eula Goodnight (the great Katherine Hepburn) and the family of the young Indian man Wolf (Richard Romancito) at the missionary. The two make Rooster take them with him so they can get revenge for the murderers of their family.

Schwartz said, “Rooster crows about his ornery ways, Eula nags and talks Bible talk, and Wolf hero worships his elders.” The three prove to be right for the gang, as they trick them into thinking they have a team with them and therefore the gang runs leaving the wagon behind. Hawk was in town with Breed, played by Anthony Zerbe, casing the bank and when he returns, he goes after the wagon. For some weird reason (Schwartz said, “Probably because it was in The African Queen script rooster”) Rooster takes the nitro and Gatlin gun downstream on a raft. Not to say it works out find, as he runs away from the gang and hits them with the nitro.

Not much to go on about. Schwartz said, “It was made strictly to cash in on the success of True Grit and offers nothing fresh. The writer Martin Julien was a pseudonym for producer Hal B. Wallis's wife Martha Hyer. It uses the True Grit story by Charles Portis, but Hyer pens the tailor-made parts for the Duke and Kate.” Director Stuart Millar looked like he was along with the film, as this is a great right and they overact because that the way they wanted to play it.

I personally think this is underrated and not really so bad like everyone else said. If you want a bad sequel, let’s take a look at “True Grit: A Further Adventure,” released in 1978.

Hard living lawman, Rooster Cogburn (Warren Oates), is with once again Mattie Ross (Lisa Pelikan) when he is given money to escort her across the country to Monterey, California where her grandfather lives. Along the way they make a stop at the home of Annie Sumner, played by Lee Meriwether, and her sons where he has to give bad news that her husband Jake was killed. However, Cogburn having gambled all of his money the lawyer gave him to take Mattie to California decides to stay for a little while in a nearby town to earn some money while keeping an eye on one of the Sumner boys who wants to be like his father who was a law man. Meanwhile, Mattie goes to change Rooster for the better in her typical direct manner.

Ignoring the fact that they changed actors we have a storyline where Rooster is one escort duty and staying in a town where he needs to raise some money after gambling everything away. Obviously this isn’t as easy and Rooster is dealing with some bad guys and blackmailers while trying to keep an eye on not only for Mattie but also the Sumner boys as he doesn’t want to see them end up the same way. He even makes some time to help Annie who could lose the ranch. TheMovieScene said in their review, “The thing is that it is an incredibly generic storyline with nothing to make it stand out or with this being a made for TV movie it feels like something you would find in the likes of "Bonanza" and "The High Chaparral" which isn't bad if you were bought up on these western TV dramas.”

Obviously the major thing about this movie is the change of actors and we have Warren Oates playing Rooster Cogburn. Unfortunately Oates trying to make his own mark on Rooster Cogburn ends up being a generic character and not the hard living one John Wayne made. TheMovieScene said, “On top of that this Rooster Cogburn has the whitest teeth of anyone I have ever seen in a western. As for Lisa Pelikan as Mattie Ross, well Pelikan plays her like a cross between Kim Darby's plucky Mattie and Katharine Hepburn's uptight Eula Goodnight and to be honest it kind of works as at least it is memorable.”

TheMovieScene continued, “What this all boils down to is that this 1978 version of "True Grit" is entertaining in its own right and kind of fun for those who grew up on western dramas such as "Bonanza".” However, if anyone is expecting it to be on the same level as John Wayne's "True Grit" will end up being disappointed.

I’m sorry to say, but this made-for-TV sequel put me to sleep a couple of times and I had to stop it so that I could wake myself up because of how bored I was by it. If anyone likes it, fine, but I personally did not. Just don’t see this one, but do see “True Grit,” as that is one of the best Westerns and maybe another one of my favorite Westerns, and “Rooster Cogburn,” as that is an underrated and wrongfully hated movie.

Check in next week for the finale of “John Wayne Month.”