True Grit (1969 film): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Short description|1969 American western film}}

{{About|the John Wayne film|remake with Jeff Bridges|True Grit (2010 film)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}

{{Use American English|date=October 2021}}

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| image = Truegritposter.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| border = yes

| director = [[Henry Hathaway]]

| producer = [[Hal B. Wallis]]

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Historians believe Cogburn was based on Deputy U.S. Marshal [[Heck Thomas]], who brought in some of the toughest outlaws. The cast also features [[Robert Duvall]], [[Dennis Hopper]], [[Jeff Corey]] and [[Strother Martin]]. The title song, sung by Campbell, was also Oscar-nominated.

The movie's success, launched a [[True Grit (film series)|series of films]] including a 1975 [[Rooster Cogburn (film)|sequel]], a 1978 [[Television film|made-for-TV]] [[True Grit: A Further Adventure|sequel]], and a 2010 [[remake]] [[True Grit (2010 film)|film adaptation]].

A [[True Grit (2010 film)|remake was released in 2010]], starring [[Jeff Bridges]], [[Matt Damon]], [[Hailee Steinfeld]], and [[Josh Brolin]].

==Plot==

In 1880, Frank Ross, of [[Yell County, Arkansas]], is murdered and robbed by his hired hand, Tom Chaney. Ross's young daughter, Mattie, travels to [[Fort Smith, Arkansas|Fort Smith]], where sheand hires aging U.S. Marshal [[Rooster Cogburn (character)|Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn]] to apprehend Chaney. Mattie has heard that Cogburn has "true grit". Mattie earns the moneyenough to pay his fee by shrewdly horse trading. She gives Cogburn a payment to track and captureMeanwhile, Chaney, who has taken up with outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper in [[Indian Territory]] (modern.{{efn|Modern-day [[Oklahoma]]).}}

A youngYoung [[Texas Ranger Division|Texas Ranger]], La Boeuf, is also pursuing Chaney and joins forces with Cogburn, despite Mattie's protest. The two try, unsuccessfully, to ditch Mattie.

AfterDays several dayslater, the three discover horse thieves Emmett, Quincy, and Moon, who are waiting for Pepper at a remote dugout cabin. Cogburn captures and interrogates the two men. Moon is shot in the leg during the capture, and Cogburn uses the injury as leverage for information about Pepper. Quincy slams a Bowie knife down on Moon's hand to shut him up, severing four of his fingers, then stabskills Moon in the chesthim. Cogburn shoots andQuincy kills Quincydead. Before he diesdying, Moon reveals Pepper and his gang are due at the cabin that night for fresh mounts.

Rooster and La Boeuf lay a trap. Upon arriving, Pepper is suspicious and draws La Boeuf's fire, whowhich ruinsblows theircover of the planned ambush bywith shootinga andpremature shot, inadvertently killing Pepper's horse. A firefight ensues, during which Cogburn and La Boeuf kill two ofgang the gangmembers, but Pepper and the rest of his men escape unharmed. Cogburn, La Boeuf, and Mattie make their waygo to [[J. J. McAlester#Legacy|McAlester's store]] with the dead bodies. Cogburn tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade Mattie to stay at McAlester's.

The two lawmen and Mattie resume their pursuit. Fetching water one morning, Mattie finds herself face-to-face with Chaney. She shoots Chaney with her father's [[Colt Dragoon|gun]], injuring him, and then calling out to her partners. Chaney lunges attakes Mattie whohostage attempts to fire again, butwhen her gun misfires and she is taken hostage by Chaney. Pepper and his gang arrive, Pepper takes charge of Mattie and threatens to kill her if Cogburn and La Boeuf don'tdo not ride away. Pepper leaves Mattie with Chaney, instructing him not to harm her. Mattie is convinced Rooster has abandoned her.

Cogburn and La Boeuf double back. La Boeuf finds and takes charge of Mattie, and they watch from a high bluff as Cogburn confronts Pepper and his gang of three. Cogburn gives Pepper a choice between being killed now, or surrendering and being hanged in Fort Smith. CallingPepper thisstarts "boldmocking talk for a one-eyed fat man" (Cogburn wears an eye patch), Pepper enrages Cogburn, who delivers one of cinema's classic lines: ''"Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch!"''.

Enraged, Cogburn charges the four outlaws, guns blazing., Inand themanages initialto head-on charge, Cogburn hitshit Ned in the chest above the heart. Cogburn eventually kills the Parmalee brothers, with "Dirty Bob" fleeing. The severelySeverely wounded, Ned has enough strength to shoot Rooster's horse, trapping Rooster's leg under him as Bo goes down. As a last act, the mortally wounded Pepper prepares to kill Rooster, but La Boeuf makes a long shot with his [[Sharps rifle]], killing Ned.

As La Boeuf and Mattie return to Pepper's camp, Chaney comes out from behind a tree and strikes La Boeuf in the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious. Mattie shoots Chaney again, but the gun's [[recoil]] knocks her back into a snake pit. Her arm is broken in the fall and she is caught in a hole, drawing the attention of a rattlesnake. Cogburn appears and shoots Chaney, who falls backwards into the pit, dead. Cogburn lowers himself down into the pit on a rope to retrieve Mattie, who is bitten by the snake before Cogburnhe shoots and kills it. La Boeuf helps them out of the pit before dying.

Cogburn is forced to leave La Boeuf's body behind as he and Mattie race to get help on Mattie's pony, which drops from exhaustion, forcing Cogburn to commandeer a wagon to get Mattie to a doctor he knows in the territory. Sometime laterLater, Mattie's [[Lawyer|attorney]], J. Noble DaggetDaggett, meets Cogburn in Fort Smith. On Mattie's behalf, Daggett pays Cogburn the remainder of his fee in Chaney's capture, plus a $200 bonus for saving her life. Cogburn offers to wager the money on a bet that Mattie will recover just fine, a bet Daggett declines.

In the epilogue, Mattie, her arm in a sling, is back at home recovering from her injuries. She promises Cogburn he will be buried next to her in the Ross family plot after his death. Cogburn accepts her offer and leaves, jumping over a fence on his new horse to disprove her good-natured jab that he was too old and fat to clear a four-rail fence.

==Cast==

{{more citations needed section|date=June 2024}}

{{div col}}

* [[John Wayne]] as [[Rooster Cogburn (character)|Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn]]

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* [[Ron Soble]] as Captain Boots Finch

* [[John Fiedler]] as Lawyer Daggett

* [[James Westerfield]] as Judge [[Isaac Charles Parker|JudgeC. Parker]]

* [[John Doucette]] as Sheriff

* [[Donald Woods (actor)|Donald Woods]] as Barlow

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* Isabel Boniface as Mrs. Bagby

* [[H.W. Gim]] as Chen Lee

* Ginger Cat as General [[Sterling Price]] (uncredited)

* [[John Pickard (American actor)|John Pickard]] as Frank Ross

* [[Elizabeth Harrower (actress)|Elizabeth Harrower]] as Mrs. Ross

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* Jay Ripley as Harold Parmalee

* Kenneth Becker as Farrell Parmalee

* [[Wilford Brimley]] as Minorminor Rolerole (uncredited)

* Leo Alton as Boardingboarding Househouse Guestguest (uncredited)

* Forrest Burns as Courtroomcourtroom Spectatorspectator (uncredited)

* Gene Coogan as Boardingboarding Househouse Guestguest (uncredited)

* [[Myron Healey]] as Deputydeputy at Prisonerprisoner Unloadingunloading (uncredited)

* [[Boyd "Red" Morgan]] as Red (Ferrymanferryman) (uncredited)

* [[James McEachin]] as Judge Parker's Bailiffbailiff (uncredited)

* Dennis McMullen as Bailiffbailiff (uncredited)

* Robin Morse as Bitbit Partpart (uncredited)

* [[Stuart Randall (actor)|Stuart Randall]] as [[J. J. McAlester]] (uncredited)

* [[Connie Sawyer]] as Talkativetalkative Womanwoman at Hanginghanging (uncredited)

* Jeffrey Sayre as Courtroomcourtroom Spectatorspectator (uncredited)

* [[Jay Silverheels]] as Condemnedcondemned Manman at Hanging (uncredited)

* Dean Smith as Minorminor Rolerole (uncredited)

* Vince St. Cyr as Gaspargoo (uncredited)

* [[Max Wagner]] as Courtroomcourtroom Spectatorspectator (uncredited)

* [[Guy Wilkerson]] as the Hangmanhangman (uncredited)

* Chalky Williams as Courtroomcourtroom Spectatorspectator (uncredited)

* Tom Gosnell as John Wayne stunt double (uncredited)

{{Div col end}}

==Production==

Hathaway says he decided to make the film like "a fairytale... a fantasy that I couched in as realistic terms as possible."<ref name="hen">{{cite magazine|magazine=Take One|first=Scott|last=Eyman|title='I made movies' an interview with Henry Hathaway|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_take-one_september-october-1974_5_1/page/8/mode/1up|date=September-OctoberSeptember–October 1974|page=12}}</ref>

Filming took place mainly in [[Ouray County, Colorado]], in the vicinity of [[Ridgway, Colorado|Ridgway]] (now the home of the True Grit Cafe), around the town of [[Montrose, Colorado|Montrose]] (in Montrose County), and the town of [[Ouray, Colorado|Ouray]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Higgins |first1=Jim |first2=Shirley Rose |last2=Higgins |title=Movie Fan's Guide to Travel |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=March 22, 1970 |page=H14 }}</ref>{{sfn|Shepherd|Slatzer|Grayson|2002|p=274}}<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUP9rOLf30| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211118/0EUP9rOLf30| archive-date=2021-11-18 | url-status=live|publisher=[[YouTube]]|author=JeepsterGal|date=October 3, 2007|access-date=July 18, 2018|title=John Wayne in True Grit, Then and Now, Extended Video}}{{cbignore}}</ref> (The script maintains the novel's references to place names in Arkansas and Oklahoma, in dramatic contrast to the Colorado topography.) The courtroom scenes were filmed at Ouray County Courthouse in Ouray.<ref>{{cite news |last=Parry |first=Will H. |title=Born-Again Boom Town |publisher=[[Copley Press|Copley News Service]] |newspaper=[[Moscow-Pullman Daily News]] |page=5D |date=November 22, 1990 }}</ref>{{sfn|Gelbert|2002|p=44}}

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The scenes that take place at the "dugout" and along the creek where Quincy and Moon are killed, as well as the scene where Rooster carries Mattie on her horse Little Blackie after the snakebite, were filmed at Hot Creek on the east side of the Sierra Nevada near the town of [[Mammoth Lakes, California]]. [[Mount Morrison (California)|Mount Morrison]] and [[Laurel Mountain (California)|Laurel Mountain]] form the backdrop above the creek. This location was also used in ''[[North to Alaska]]''.{{sfn|Shepherd|Slatzer|Grayson|2002|p=274}} Filming was done from September to December 1968.{{sfn|McGhee|1990|p=361}}

[[Mia Farrow]] was originally cast as Mattie and was keen on the role. However, prior to filming, she made a film in England with [[Robert Mitchum]], who advised her not to work with director [[Henry Hathaway]] because he was "cantankerous". Farrow asked producer [[Hal B. Wallis]] to replace Hathaway with [[Roman Polanski]], who had directed Farrow in ''[[Rosemary's Baby (film)|Rosemary's Baby]]'', but Wallis refused. Farrow quit the film, which was then offered to [[Michele Carey]], [[Sondra Locke]] and [[Tuesday Weld]], but all three were under contract for another film. John Wayne met [[Karen Carpenter]] at a talent show he was hosting and recommended her for the part, though the producers decided against it because she had no acting experience. Wayne had also lobbied for his daughter Aissa to win the part. [[Olivia Hussey]] was also offered the role by Wallis, but the offer was rescinded after she said she "couldn't see herself with Wayne" and said that he "can't act."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hussey |first1=Olivia |title=The Girl on the Balcony|year=2018|pagepages=84-8584–85|isbn= 978-1-496-71707-8 |publisher=Kensington Books|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Groucho |title=Groucho Reviews: Interview: Olivia Hussey—Romeo and Juliet |url=http://production.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/229 |website=Groucho Reviews |access-date=4 January 2023}}</ref> After also considering [[Sally Field]], the role went to [[Kim Darby]].{{sfn|Davis|2002|p=286}}

[[Elvis Presley]] was the original choice for LaBoeuf, but the producers turned him down when his agent demanded top billing over both Wayne and Darby. [[Glen Campbell]] was then cast instead. In multiple interviews, Campbell claimed that Wayne, along with his daughter,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Gt_103Y1w|title = Country music singer Glen Campbell talks about John Wayne|website = [[YouTube]]}}</ref> approached him backstage at his show, and asked him if he would like to be in a movie.

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Wayne called [[Marguerite Roberts]]' script "the best script he had ever read", and was instrumental in getting her script approved and credited to her name after Roberts had been blacklisted for alleged leftist affiliations years before. This came in spite of Wayne's own conservative ideals.{{sfn|Shepherd|Slatzer|Grayson|2002|p=274}} He particularly liked the scene with Darby where Rooster tells Mattie about his life in [[Illinois]] (where he has a restaurant, his wife Nola leaves him because of his degenerate friends, and has a clumsy son named Horace), calling it "about the best scene I ever did".{{sfn|Ebert|2011|p=164}} [[Garry Wills]] notes in his book, ''John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity'', that Wayne's performance as Rooster Cogburn bears close resemblance to the way [[Wallace Beery]] portrayed similar characters in the 1930s and 1940s, an inspired if surprising choice on Wayne's part. Wills comments that it is difficult for one actor to imitate another for the entire length of a movie and that the Beery mannerisms temporarily recede during the aforementioned scene in which Cogburn discusses his wife and child.{{sfn|Wills|1997|p=286}}

Veteran John Wayne stunt-double Tom Gosnell does the stunt in the meadow, where "Bo" goes down, on his longtime horse Twinkle Toes.<ref name=SRWF>{{cite news |title=Stuntman Recalls Wayne Friendship |newspaper=[[Kingman Daily Miner]] |agency=Associated Press |date=June 15, 1979 |page=A5 }}</ref> In the last scene, Mattie gives Rooster her father's gun. She comments that he has gotten a tall horse, as she expected he would. He notes that his new horse can jump a four-rail fence. Then she admonishes him, "You're too old and fat to be jumping horses." Rooster responds with a smile, saying, "Well, come see a fat old man sometime," and jumps his new horse over a four-rail fence. Although many of Wayne's stunts over the years were done by [[Chuck Hayward]] and [[Chuck Roberson]], it is Wayne on Twinkle Toes going over the fence.<ref name=SRWF/> This stunt had been left to the last shot as Wayne wanted to do it himself and following his lung surgery in 1965, neither Hathaway nor Wayne was sure he could make the jump. Darby's stunts were done by Polly Burson.<ref>{{cite news |last=De Witt |first=Barbara |title=How the West was won: fearless women on horseback |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Daily News]] |date=March 11, 1995 }}</ref>

The horse shown during the final scene of ''True Grit'' (before he jumps the fence on Twinkle Toes) was Dollor, a two-year-old (in 1969) chestnut Quarter Horse gelding. Dollor ('Ol Dollor) was Wayne's favorite horse for 10 years. Wayne fell in love with the horse, which carried him through several more Westerns, including his final movie, ''[[The Shootist]]''. Wayne had Dollor written into the script of ''The Shootist'' because of his love for the horse; it was a condition for him working on the project. Wayne would not let anyone else ride the horse, the lone exception being [[Robert Wagner]], who rode the horse in a segment of the ''[[Hart to Hart]]'' television show, after Wayne's death.<ref>{{cite news |last=Whiteside |first=John |date=January 19, 1985 |title=The Duke's Horse Keeps Special Bond |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun Times]] }}</ref>

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Hathaway says Campbell "was so damn lazy" and had troubles with Darby ("I had to stop her from acting funny".)<ref name="hen"/>

The film was initially given an M rating{{efn|Due to confusion over whether or not "M"-rated films were suitable for children, the M rating was renamed to GP in 1970 and then to PG in 1972.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Krämer |title=The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars |year=2005 |series=Short Cuts Series |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-85005-6 |oclc=952779968|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=29Y3BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 49]}}</ref>}} when it was submitted to the [[Motion Picture Association|Motion Picture Association of America]]'s rating board. The filmmakers subsequently edited "four-letter words" out of some scenes to accommodate a G rating.<ref>{{Cite web |title=True Grit |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/23723 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=[[American Film Institute]]}}</ref>

==Reception==

===Box office===

The film premiered in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]] on June 12, 1969, and opened at the [[TCL Chinese Theatre|Chinese theatre]] in Los Angeles on June 13, 1969<ref name=AFI/> where it grossed $38,000 in its first week.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=L.A. Rebounds; 'Grit' Robust $38,000|date=June 18, 1969|page=10}}</ref> After 11 weeks, it reached [[List of 1969 box office number-one films in the United States|number one]] at the US box office and returned to the top three weeks later.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=50 Top-Grossing Films|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1969-09-03_256_3/page/13|date=September 3, 1969|page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=50 Top-Grossing Films|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1969-09-24_256_6/page/11|date=September 24, 1969|page=11}}</ref>

The film earned an estimated $11.5 million in rentals at the United States and Canada box office during its first year of release.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Big Rental Films of 1969|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 7, 1970 |page=15|access-date=July 18, 2018|url=https://ameblo.jp/ayumi-niwano/entry-12249691199.html}}</ref>

===Critical reception===

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|88|7.90|56|''True Grit'' rides along on the strength of a lived-in late-period John Wayne performance, adding its own entertaining spin to the oft-adapted source material.|ref=yes|access-date=August 5, 2023}} [[John Simon (critic)|John Simon]] wrote, "Worthy of succinct notice is ''True Grit''', an amusing, unassuming western, antiheroic with a vengeance."<ref>{{cite book |title=Movies into Film Film Criticism 1967-1970|last1=Simon|first1=John |publisher=The Dial Press |year=1971 |page=177}}</ref>

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| "[[True Grit (song)|True Grit]]" <br> Music by [[Elmer Bernstein]]; <br> Lyrics by [[Don Black (lyricist)|Don Black]]

| {{nom}}

|-

| [[American Cinema Editors Awards]]

| [[American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic|Best Edited Feature Film]]

| [[Warren Low]] (tied with [[William Reynolds (film editor)|William H. Reynolds]]'s edited film ''[[Hello, Dolly! (film)|Hello, Dolly!]]'').<ref name=1964to1970>{{cite book |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Fredrick Y. |title=ACE Second Decade Anniversary Book |date=1971 |publisher=American Cinema Editors, Inc |pages=65–67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZ8EAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Film Editors Given Eddies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-film-editors-given/143781485/ |access-date=March 20, 2024 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=March 17, 1970 |pages=75 |language=en}}</ref>

| {{won}}

|-

| [[23rd British Academy Film Awards|British Academy Film Awards]]<ref>{{cite web |title=BAFTA Awards (1970) |publisher=[[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]] |url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1970/film |access-date=November 23, 2013}}</ref>

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* [[John Wayne filmography]]

* [[True Grit (1969 soundtrack)|''True Grit'' (1969 soundtrack)]]

==Notes==

{{Notelist}}

==References==

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* {{Official website|https://www.paramountmovies.com/movies/true-grit-1969}}

* {{IMDb title|0065126|True Grit}}

* {{tcmdbTCMDb title|16483|True Grit}}

* {{AllmovieAllMovie title|51143|True Grit}}

* {{AFI film|id=23723|title=True Grit}}

* {{mojo title|truegrit|True Grit}}

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[[Category:Films set in Oklahoma]]

[[Category:Films set in 1880]]

[[Category:Films set in the American frontier]]

[[Category:Films shot in Colorado]]

[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]

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[[Category:1960s American films]]

[[Category:Films about capital punishment]]

[[Category:English-language Western (genre) films]]