True Grit (1969)
A Film Review by Mark O'Hara December 21, 1998 Visit Online Movie Critics Society at http://www.ofcs.org
I first saw 'True Grit' at the Westmont Theater in Westmont, New Jersey in the summer of 1969. I was ten years old. My father got caught in traffic on the way there, and we entered the theater ten minutes late, a situation the both of us hated. This was before ushers ejected you if you tried to sit through more than one showing, so we stayed for the down time and for the cartoon and finally for the first part of the film, finding out that Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), the man who killed Mattie's father Frank, worked for the family. We left during the rooming house dinner, just when La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) meets Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) and commences to flirt with her.
That's how big an impression this film left on me. I've carried the story around for nearly 30 years. Of course I have a talent for recalling rather unimportant details, such as some of the finer points of the viewing experience. Heck, the old Westmont Theater on Haddon Avenue was still much more impressive than any of the multiplexes that were beginning to pop up in the nearest malls, which were then all the way in Cherry Hill and up in Moorestown.
But now 'True Grit.' Based on a novel by a very solid American novelist, Charles Portis (also author of 'Norwood' and 'Gringoes'), the movie is a close and successful adaptation. The screenplay is by Marguerite Roberts.
La Boeuf is a Texas Ranger who, just like Mattie, has set out to catch the murderer Tom Chaney - one of several apparent aliases adopted by the powder-burned, shifty-eyed man who gunned down his boss, Frank Ross, outside a saloon. The gutsy Mattie comes into the town a few days later with another ranch hand, and they claim the body. But Mattie inquires about lawmen who might do some bounty hunting for her, and ends up walking into the life of one Federal Marshall Reuben J. Cogburn, "Rooster" (John Wayne). Even though no one in the town can say a kind word about Rooster, Mattie has heard he has 'true grit,' and pays him $25 retainer to plan the hunting down of the scoundrel Tom Chaney. Meanwhile, Mattie runs up against La Boeuf, a Ranger paid to bring Chaney back to Texas for the killing of a state senator and his dog. The Ranger doesn't care for Mattie's honest but "saucy" tongue, just like she doesn't care for his bragging and intended waylaying of her father's killer. After various complications, the unlikely trio sets out to find Chaney, who has allegedly joined up with a gang led by Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall). They enter a lawless part of the territory, where Rooster's toughness and several weapons take hold of the plot.
One strength the film has is its range of conflicts. Portis knows how to structure a conflict so that his readers don't want any part of putting down the book. In fact he builds many conflicts within the main one. Wherever Mattie goes she raises people's hackles, especially those of Gen. G. Stonehill (Strother Martin, the quintessential character actor who immortalized the line, "What we have here is a failure to communicate," in 'Cool Hand Luke'). Stonehill is the horse dealer, and he is clearly hornswaggled by the waif-like Mattie. She not only gets from him the money for the ponies purchased by her father just before his death, but she threatens him into paying restitution for her father's horse, which was stolen by Chaney out of Stonehill's very stable. Needless to say, the teenager Mattie Ross leaves many characters nonplused when she walks out of a scene, their brows knit in consternation.
So the film is driven as much by character as it is by action and conflict. We see sonething of Cogburn's personal life, his home the back room of a Chinaman's store, his companion an orange tabby named General Sterling Price. Cogburn lost an eye in a Civil War skirmish, and he is a heavy drinker. Indeed he falls from his horse once and, unable to climb to his feet, orders Mattie and La Boeuf to camp right on the spot for the night. The 60-ish Wayne plays Cogburn naturally; no one else could own the part. (He did a reprise in "Rooster Cogburn,' in which the character meets his match in an irascible female played by Katherine Hepburn.) Because of his long experience, Wayne has no trouble commanding our attention in any scene he's in. Wayne is also a master of the subtle glance, as when he furtively looks at Mattie as he tends her snakebite, to see if the incision bothered her. Always larger than life, Wayne shows here that his acting transcends Westerns and would qualify him in any genre.
I'm not sure where the casting director conceived the idea of a country singer for the part of the ornery Texan, but Glen Campbell works well in the part. His youth and attitude make him a good foil for Wayne, sort of in the same way as David Bowie was a good foil for Bing Crosby in their duet of "The Little Drummer Boy." Kim Darby looks much younger than her age, a fact that makes her perfect for Portis' strong-willed teenager. She delivers most of her lines with a flavor that mixes old-fashioned formalism with Quaker plainness. Not many contractions appear in her conversation. She occasionally comes across as very stiff, though, making it seem as if the characters around her are not reacting quite properly to her lines. In a small but key role, Robert Duvall plays a straight-talking outlaw, the gang leader Ned Pepper. "I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man," is a line of dialogue I remember every time I see characters facing off in a movie. Who hasn't Duvall worked with during his illustrious career?
A quarrel I have with the film is the soundtrack. OK - the song playing over the opening credits is sung by Campbell (who is the seventh son of a seventh son, but that's only part of my trivial memory!) and it's fine, though no Frankie Laine. Much of the background music accompanying the scenes smacks of 1960's and 1970's television schmaltz, stuff rejected by 'Gunsmoke' or 'Bonanza.' And a lot of dialogue has no doubt been cut from the novel, causing the film to seem in some places minimalistic. The ending scene, for instance, could be more fleshed out before getting anywhere near the danger line for wordiness.
If you are a John Wayne fan, you need to watch this movie again. It's not as strong as 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' or 'Stagecoach' perhaps, but I believe it better than his last film, the strong 'The Shootist.' If you are not a Wayne buff, you should still watch it and give the old man a second chance. He has aged well. As with great writers like Hemingway, actors are often regarded differently by different decades of viewers. I hope John Wayne does not go unwatched by us and our children.
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