Movie of the Week: True Grit (1969)

   

 

    Movie of the Week (4/7/13-4/13/13): At the 1970 Academy Awards John Wayne won his first, and only, Oscar for his portrayal as Rooster Cogburn in the Western classic True Grit. The film focuses on a U.S. Marshal hired by a girl to hunt down the man who killed her father, but the man has teamed up with a band of outlaws that Cogburn has been chasing for a while. So, they go out in Indian Territory looking for the men as a team, along with the help of somebody else.
    Now, this is not the best Western of all time and in all honesty it is hard to pick one because there are so many good ones. But, John Wayne has starred in many of those good ones himself and even though he was only nominated for one Oscar in all the Westerns he did, this was the one to be nominated for. John Wayne gives us a great performance and this one may not be his best, but it is the one that the Academy recognized him in. He plays a rude, drunk, and self-centered Marshal and does a great job because he embraced this role more than his others and you can see it because his character develops a lot by the end. He begins to care for the young girl in a way that he didn't in the beginning.
    Yes, we have John Wayne in a great performance here, but we also have a few other actors that were just getting started when they starred in this film. There is Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. Glen Campbell gives a good, not great, performance as a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf who tags along with Cogburn and the girl because he wants the man they are chasing, Tom Chaney, for other reasons. Robert Duvall plays Ned Pepper, who Cogburn is really after, and plays the part well by looking rugged and as a man who will not give up, an entertaining role to see Duvall in. Then we have Dennis Hopper, who plays a man simply named Moon, and he is only in one scene, but it was a good and intense scene, which Hopper also does a good job in.
    Finally, we have Kim Darby as Mattie Ross, the girl who hires Cogburn. Darby probably gives us the worst performance in the movie. She is suppose to be a girl in charge and won't take 'no' for an answer. She does those things quite well at times, but as we sit and watch the movie we begin to grow tired of her complaining and whining because we just simply don't believe it. She was young at the time and that can contribute to bad acting. Even though she is probably the worst part of the movie there is enough help from the other actors and aspects of the film that make this a good film.
    The movie is beautiful to look at, of course most Westerns are, because of the brilliant cinematography, and for 1969 it was very good. We have a great score here to accompany the traveling scenes and breathtaking climax near the end. While watching a Western we all wait for the shootout to occur, well when it occurs in this movie it occurs on horseback in a valley. It might be a short climax, but it is exciting to watch with the score, great camera angles, and John Wayne holding the horses reins in his mouth as he is firing his pistols. This Western might not be John Wayne's best, I could name a few others, but it is one where we are captivated by his character that is brought out best in the climax. 3.5/4 Stars.