True Grit (1969)

So I won't lie, the only reason this movie is on my list is because I want to eventually watch the Coen Brothers remake made in 2010. I wanted to watch this first because while I have an appreciation for older movies, I just get a feeling that I am going to like the Coen Brothers version better and if I watched that first, I probably wouldn't go back and watch this one.

But I haven't seen a lot of John Wayne's filmography, I thought it was also a good opportunity to see the legend in action.

True Grit takes place in the Old West and begins with a man by the name of Frank Ross being murdered by a man he hired by the name of Tom Chaney (played by Jeff Corey). Chaney is on the run and Frank's daughter, Mattie (played by Kim Darby is looking to get revenge and bring her father's killer to justice.

While she's in town collecting her father's body, Mattie begins making a plan to go and track down Tom Chaney and plans to hire a US Marshall by the name of Rooster Cogburn (played by John Wayne) who is known as one of the most ruthless Marshals in the territory. Cogburn is a bit of an alcoholic and we soon discover he's a bit of a lone wolf, but Mattie describes him as having "true grit" and worthy of going after her father's killer.

On the other side of things, a man by the name of La Boeuf (played by Glen Campbell) also wants to track down Tom Chaney for a price on his head in the state of Texas. Eventually the three of them decide to work together to track down Chaney as well as the band of criminals he runs with like "Lucky" Ned Pepper (played by Robert Duvall). Together they try and take down the criminals and bring justice to young Mattie and her family.

That's a quick synopsis and of course films are going to take a little bit of time to build up that story and make it something interesting...

But Holy Crap! This movie takes so long to get moving! The first hour of the movie is them figuring out how they're going to go on this man hunt and negotiating the prices and gathering supplies and a lot of pointless stuff. When it first starts off it is a little bit interesting, especially building up the character of Mattie as a self reliant woman who has to prove herself in a man's world but eventually it just gets boring as hell! Based on what I know of the story, I know that eventually these three start working together so why does it take so long for them to finally start working together? Another part of it is the fact that Mattie is a young girl and Cogburn and La Boeuf don't think she can handle herself. And yeah I understand that too, but there's a whole scene of Mattie negotiating with a horse trader even though it really has nothing to do with the rest of the film!

They could have streamlined a lot of the first hour and made the movie more focused on these three very polarizing personalities going on this adventure together, instead they spend so much time talking about stuff that barely comes up later in the film!

Let's talk about John Wayne.

I understand the appeal of the man. He starred in a crap ton of movies and people definitely went out to go see him because he was and probably still is a staunch sign of masculinity.

But let's be honest, John Wayne doesn't really delve into his characters. While I may not be a huge connoisseur of Wayne's filmography, I know that it's a lot of the same shtick and it's to be expected.

I do think that Rooster Cogburn is a complex character, being both a lawman and an incredible drunk and when he finally shows off that masculine John Wayne shootout at the end, it's what you want at th end of the film. And yeah, its hokey, but I think they were making exactly what audiences wanted to see at the time. We wanted to see the hero fight the bad guys and while Rooster Cogburn is a little bit more of a complex character, hence the black hat and the eye patch, he's still the white hat fighting the black hats. The important part with John Wayne's performance was that it's not Shakespeare but I don't think that's what he's going for and I don't think that's what audiences wanted. They wanted to see John Wayne kick some ass as a cowboy!

Something that actually kind of surprised me was the performance of Kim Darby as Mattie. I originally thought I was going to be really annoyed with this character just with her high pitched voice and how much she whines. But I ended up kind of enjoying her in this film because of her wits and her resolve to solve any problem in front of her.

The relationship with her and Rooster is done pretty well and you see her melt ice block that is Rooster when he does care about her safety.

Funny piece of trivia, apparently John Wayne couldn't stand Kim Darby and they barely spoke off camera. It's kind of fun to look back at these old movies and figure out the stories behind the camera.

But I liked these two and despite any behind the scenes drama, they work well together and make for an interesting story.

Kim Darby gives a pretty human performance of a girl going out of her depths and willing to do whatever it takes to get her father's killer. I think it's kind of annoying but that's also how Cogburn and La Boeuf feel as well with a girl who they obviously see as out of her league here.

And then there's La Boeuf and... I wasn't a fan of him.

Now there's a little bit working against Campbell here because unlike John Wayne, he's not really a name I recognize and therefore I need to depend on his character and performance to really pull something I enjoyed from it like I did with Kim Darby.

The thing is, La Boeuf is kind of the white milk toast of the movie. He's kind of boring and a little bit of a nuisance if I'm being honest.

I'm glad they had that character in it because he does bring a very sharp clash of personalities with not only Cogburn but also Mattie. But there wasn't a lot to go off of and at the end of the day, I remember this movie more for the performances of Darby and Wayne more than I do Campbell.

The overall story was pretty interesting to me when it actually moved towards the goal of finding Mattie's father's killer. I didn't go into this thinking there was going to be a lot of action as it was made in 1969 and the movie is rated G. I was surprised by the amount of violence I did see and there were a couple of scenes that actually made this a bit of a gritty movie.

I think the rest of the cast was pretty good. It's actually kind of funny watching this movie now and seeing all the familiar faces beyond John Wayne. Robert Duvall is in this film (this is the second film in a short time where it's been an old film and shown a younger Robert Duvall). Even Dennis Hopper has a small role in the film that I did not recognize the first time around.

I'm trying to give a fair analysis of this film, especially for the audience that watches movies today.

The truth is, people don't really watch Westerns anymore unless they are populated by sentient robots in Westworld, or if they are directed by Quintin Tarantino. On top of that, I don't know a lot of people who go out and watch old John Wayne Western films anymore. I'm interested to see the Coen Brothers reboot because I think I had the wrong impression of it back when it came out in 2010 but I still have yet to judge.

I think True Grit is a good call back to a bygone era and how cowboy films used to be made. I'm not going to sit here and say that this movie is better made than Western films I've seen in recent years because that's just not true. Budgets are larger, Rating systems allow for more graphic and realistic to the times content, and performances are just better.

But True Grit perfectly exemplifies a simpler time when you just needed an adventure and an iconic face to go off and ride off into the sunset at the end. I'm not totally sure I can answer if the movie still remains relevant to this day, but if you have two hours free and want to jump back in time to that simpler way of making film, True Grit is a good vehicle for that journey.

But what do you think of the 1969 True Grit? Is it definitely worth checking out the remake? How do they compare? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I was looking for the trailer for the 2010 version to wet your appetite for when I finally get to that review... but instead I found this trailer... which might be a little bit more awesome. Here's the link to the true trailer but in the meantime, Enjoy!