True Grit (1969 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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True Grit is a 1969 American Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Kim Darby as Mattie Ross and John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. It is the first film adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Marguerite Roberts. Wayne won his only Academy Award for his performance in the film and reprised his role for the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn.
Historians believe Cogburn was based on Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas, who brought in some of the toughest outlaws. The cast also features Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Corey, and Strother Martin. The title song, sung by Campbell, was also Oscar-nominated.
True Grit was adapted again in 2010, starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld.
Plot
Frank Ross is murdered by his hired hand, Tom Chaney. Ross's young daughter, Mattie, travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she hires aging U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn to bring Chaney in, raising his fee by shrewdly horse trading with Colonel Stonehill. Mattie has heard that Cogburn has "true grit". She gives him a payment to track and capture Chaney, who has taken up with outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).
A young Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, is also pursuing Chaney and joins forces with Cogburn, despite Mattie's protest. The two try to ditch Mattie, but she catches up and is permitted to ride along.
After several days, the three discover horse thieves Emmett Quincy and Moon, who are waiting for Ned Pepper at a remote dugout cabin. Cogburn captures and interrogates the two men. Moon's leg is injured and Cogburn uses the injury as leverage to get information about Lucky Ned. In terrible pain and about to talk, Moon is stabbed by Quincy, who is then killed by Cogburn. In the remaining minute before Moon dies, he reveals that Pepper and his gang are due at the cabin that night to get fresh mounts.
Rooster and La Boeuf lay a trap. Upon arriving, Pepper is suspicious and succeeds in drawing La Boeuf's fire, who blows their planned ambush by shooting and killing Pepper's horse. A firefight ensues, during which Cogburn and La Boeuf kill two of the gang, but Pepper and the rest of his men escape unharmed. Cogburn, La Boeuf, and Mattie make their way to McAlester's store with the dead bodies. Cogburn tries to persuade Mattie to stay at McAlester's, but she refuses.
The three resume their pursuit. Fetching water one morning, Mattie finds herself face-to-face with Chaney in a stream. When he comes toward her menacingly, she shoots Chaney with her father's Colt Dragoon, injuring him and calling out to her partners. Pepper and his gang get there first, capturing her. Lucky Ned then forces Cogburn and La Boeuf to abandon the girl and ride away. Pepper decides to leave Mattie in the care of Chaney, who has lost his horse. He promises he will send a horse back for Chaney, vowing to kill him if any harm comes to the girl.
Cogburn doubles back and attacks Pepper and his gang single-handedly. La Boeuf, meantime, finds Mattie. They watch from a high bluff as a mounted Cogburn confronts Pepper's gang. Cogburn gives Pepper a choice between being killed right there or surrendering and being hanged in Fort Smith. Calling this "bold talk for a one-eyed fat man," Pepper enrages Cogburn, who charges the four outlaws, guns blazing. He kills two of the gang and hits Pepper repeatedly. In the fight, Ned shoots Rooster's horse, trapping Rooster's leg under him as he goes down. As a last act, the mortally wounded Pepper prepares to kill Rooster, until La Boeuf makes a long shot with his Sharps rifle, blowing Ned out of the saddle and killing him.
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, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious. Mattie is able to shoot Chaney and wound him, but driven back by the recoil, falls into a snake pit and breaks her arm. Chaney begins to taunt Mattie about the snakes; Cogburn appears and shoots and kills Chaney, who falls into the pit, as well. With great difficulty, Cogburn descends into the pit on a rope to retrieve Mattie, who is bitten by a rattlesnake before Cogburn can kill it. The mortally injured La Boeuf helps them out of the pit, saving their lives. La Boeuf dies from the effort.
Cogburn is forced to leave La Boeuf's body behind as they race to get help for Mattie at McAlester's on Mattie's pony, which dies while carrying them. After stealing a buckboard, they arrive at their destination. There, an Indian doctor treats Mattie's snakebite and broken arm.
Some time later, Mattie's attorney, J. Noble Daggett, meets Cogburn in Fort Smith. On Mattie's behalf, Daggett pays Cogburn for his part in Chaney's capture, plus a 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 reluctantly 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, and rides off into the valley below.