True Grit1969
True Grit (1969)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: True Grit rides along on the strength of a lived-in late-period John Wayne performance, adding its own entertaining spin to the oft-adapted source material.
True Grit Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Rooster Cogburn
as Mattie Ross
as La Boeuf
as Ned Pepper
as Emmett Quincy
as Moon
as Goudy
as Col. G. Stonehill
as Tom Chaney
as Capt. Boots Finch
as Lawyer J. Noble Daggett
as Judge Parker
as Sheriff
as Barlow
as Mrs. Floyd
as Dirty Bob
as Mrs. Bagby
as Chen Lee
as Frank Ross
as Mrs. Ross
as Yarnell Poindexter
as Harold Parmalee
as Farrell Parmalee
as A Deputy
as Farrell Parmalee
as R. Ryan
as The Hangman
as Red the Ferryman
as Bit Part
as Condemned man at hanging
as Talkative woman at hanging
News & Interviews for True Grit
Critic Reviews for True Grit
All Critics (52) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (6) | DVD (8)
By growing old disgracefully as the fat, swaggering Rooster Cogburn, Wayne proves he can act -- and solves his own senior-citizen problem in one master stroke.
Somehow it comes off like a TV celebrity roast.
It's mostly Wayne all the way. He towers over everything in the film.
Lazily directed by Hathaway, it's pleasant enough, if rather too self-consciously coy.
One of the glories of True Grit is that it recognizes Wayne's special presence.
A marvelously rambling frontier fable packed with extraordinary incidents, amazing encounters, noble characters, and virtuous rewards.
Audience Reviews for True Grit
John Wayne won his one and only Oscar for Best Actor in this exciting and riveting action-packed Western from Director Henry Hathaway that became one of the biggest boxoffice hits of 1969 in a year that was dominated with the return of the Hollywood Westerns that featured "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid",and "The Wild Bunch". "True Grit" casts the legendary John Wayne,in the prime of his career playing Rooster Cogburn,an aging,hard-drinking,foul-mouthed United States Marshal who was once one of the West's best lawman in his prime. A teenage girl(played by Kim Darby)enlists his help in finding and tracking down the men responsible for brutally murdering her father. Along for the ride and adventure is country music superstar Glen Campbell,who not only sings the movie's theme song,but also makes his theatrical debut in this picture as a devoted and dedicated Texas Ranger who joins the odd couple in finding the killers responsible for her father's death,and bringing them to justice which will be a a task to deal with going against some dangerous desperados,among them Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper,and Bruce Dern. This movie was also Oscar nominated for Best Original Song sung by Glen Campbell. This movie was so successful in 1969 that producer Hal B. Wallis brought John Wayne back in 1975 for the sequel to "True Grit" in the title role of Rooster Cogburn,but this time around screen icon Katherine Hepburn join him for the second installment. In 2010,directors Joel and Ethan Coen did the remake with Jeff Bridges in the John Wayne role that was also Oscar nominated for Best Original Adaptation Screenplay.
Super Reviewer
A fourteen-year-old girl hires and accompanies a grizzled U.S. Marshal on a mission to avenge the death her father. It's rare that a re-make is better than the original, but the Coen Brothers accomplished more with this story and the characters than its progenitors. As I watched it, I couldn't help comparing the two. Jeff Bridges's Rooster Cogburn had more character, a chatty, damaged drunkard, but John Wayne is all of these things but muted; Bridges is an actor who takes more risks, unafraid to be seen vulnerable. What we don't get with Wayne's performance is any clue about why Rooster is the way he is; he's just the force that John Wayne has always represented. I did like this iteration of True Grit because it's a fine story and the characters are inherently interesting despite how much more fleshed out they are in the Coen Brothers' version. Of all the westerns I've seen, this is one of the least racist (the portrayal of Asians leaves something to be desired), and the tale is full of class tropes of revenge and heroes. It's nothing to think too deeply about, but it's a solid three-star film. Overall, despite the strengths of the original True Grit, if you're only going to see one version of this story, you should see the latest one. Overall, despi
Super Reviewer
True Grit is a masterpiece and is one of the greatest westerns in film history. John Wayne is a amazing actor, and in this he is probably the best person in the world who could play Rooster Cogburn. Kim Darby was my one problem with this film, she was annoying and boring and a terrible actor to play Mattie Ross. The plot was fun and and a well made adaption from the book. Overall, a classic movie, and the funny thing is, this film is my fathers #1 favorite film ever made, he made me watch this, haha.
Super Reviewer
True Grit Quotes
| Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn: | If they wanted a decent burial they shouldn't had gotten themselves killed in winter. |
| Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn: | Them men wanted a decent burial, they should have got themselves killed in summer. |
| Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn: | Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch! |