True Grit is a 1969 Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. The film is adapted from the 1968 novel, True Grit, by Charles Portis.
Production
Filming took place mainly in Ouray County, Colorado, in the vicinity of Ridgway (now the home of the True Grit Cafe), and the town of Ouray. (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 Court house in Ouray.
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 told her about director Henry Hathaway being rude to actresses. When producer Hal B. Wallis wouldn’t replace Hathaway, Farrow quit the role which was given to Kim Darby.[1]
Wayne called Marguerite Roberts’ script “the best [he’d] ever read.” He particularly liked the scene with Darby where Rooster tells Mattie about his wife in Illinois, calling it the best scene he ever did.
In the last scene, Mattie gives Rooster her father’s gun. She comments that he got 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 “Well, come see a fat old man sometime” and jumps his new horse over a fence. Despite popular belief, Wayne did not jump over the fence himself. In fact, according to biographer Garry Wills in his book on Wayne, Wayne was not healthy enough to do such stunts. It should be remembered that Wayne had an entire lung removed four years prior to making the film and actually had trouble walking more than 30 feet without breathing heavily. But Wayne fell in love with the horse, which would carry him through several more Westerns, including his final movie, The Shootist. A chestnut Quarter horse gelding, Dollor (‘Ole Dollor), had been Wayne’s favorite horse for ten years, through several Westerns. The horse shown during the final scene of True Grit was Dollor, a two-year-old in 1969. 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. Robert Wagner was a rare exception, who rode the horse in a segment of the Hart to Hart television show, after Wayne’s death.
Reception
Awards and nominations
John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe. Upon accepting his Oscar, Wayne said, “If I’d known this, I’d have put that eyepatch on 40 years ago.” The song “True Grit”, by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Glen Campbell who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe.
John Wayne’s performance
Garry Wills notes in his book John Wayne’s America that Wayne’s performance as Rooster Cogburn bears close similarities to the way Wallace Beery portrayed characters in the 1930s and 1940s, an inspired if surprising choice on Wayne’s part. Wills comments that it’s difficult for one actor to imitate another for the entire length of a movie and that the Beery mannerisms temporarily recede during the scene in which Cogburn discusses his wife and child.
Cast
- John Wayne as Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn
- Kim Darby as Mattie Ross
- Glen Campbell as La Boeuf
- Jeremy Slate as Emmett Quincy
- Robert Duvall as Lucky Ned Pepper
- Dennis Hopper as Moon
- Strother Martin as Col. G. Stonehill
- Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney
- Donald Woods as Barlow
- James Westerfield as Judge Parker
