A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian Territory.A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian Territory.A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian Territory.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 6 wins & 7 nominations total
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaStunt double Jim Burk performed the entire scene where Rooster Cogburn charged Ned Pepper's gang on horseback. John Wayne was only seen briefly in close-up, and he was riding on a trailer, not a horse.
- GoofsWhen Mattie receives the money from Stonehill, the money is clearly 20th century issued US currency, and it is both smaller in size and much less intricate than the currency issued by the federal government in the years following the US Civil War.
- Quotes
[Rooster confronts the four outlaws across the field]
Ned Pepper: What's your intention? Do you think one on four is a dogfall?
Rooster Cogburn: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?
Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!
- Alternate versionsWhen submitted for a rating from the MPAA in 1969, the film was given an "M". The film was edited and rerated "G". The American VHS version contains the "G" rated cut while the DVD is the uncut "M" version (which would be printed as "PG" since the symbol was changed in the 1970s).
- ConnectionsEdited into The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
In movies, the desire to please as wide an audience as possible seems always to win out, effectively robbing most westerns of the motion picture's essential gambit; the suspension of disbelief. It's very hard to lose oneself in a tale of the late 1800's when the female lead's eye-liner and coiff are pure 1950. Or 1940, 1960, whatever. In True Grit, very little of 1969 is allowed to intrude on this rather simple tale of justice and revenge. This movie is anchored by two very strong themes, shared by all the actors, across most of the scenes.
The first, is language. The dialogue is an absolute delight. Crack open anything by Mark Twain, Henry James or any other late 19th century author, and you will see that people really did speak differently 150 years ago. That the dialogue in 99% of westerns is straight from the time of their filming is a travesty, at best.
Second, is innocence. Not that of any one character however, but the innocence of the human race as a whole. It is probably almost impossible for any of us now, in this day and age, to truly imagine what it must have been like to live back when. But one thing's sure, people were much more naive. There was no such thing as mass-communication, a good percentage of the population didn't read, and newspapers, the only "organized" form of news at the time, were hard pressed to report on anything more than a day's ride from town.
This basic, shared innocence is achingly portrayed by Robert Duvall in two short sentences near the end of the movie when he's caught Mattie and he's attempting to threaten her. Study those two lines, and you'll see that "Lucky" Ned Pepper, the worst villain in the story, really has no idea of what he could possibly do to a slip of a girl. He's totally at a loss. The unspeakable, modern-day atrocities we consume every day with our coffee and bagels are so far from contemplation by Duvall's character, that all he can do is assure her, "I'll do what I have to". It's a priceless moment - frighteningly accurate commentary wrapped in two lines of simple dialogue, delivered with dead-on interpretation.
The only other western I can think of at the moment that delivers with such viscerally historic accuracy is "Unforgiven".
MjM
- mmartin677
- Sep 2, 2002
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Covek zvani hrabrost
- Filming locations
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Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $276,418
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $157,788
- May 5, 2019
- Gross worldwide
- $276,418
- Runtime2 hours 8 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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![John Wayne, Glen Campbell, and Kim Darby in True Grit (1969)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjEwNzRlMzUtODIwMS00N2IwLWE1ZTgtODYzNWY0MGJhODY3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI4MjA5MzA@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,2,90,133_.jpg)