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Product Description: In 1970 John Wayne won an Academy Award. for his larger-than-life performance as the drunken uncouth and totally fearless one-eyed U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn. The cantankerous Rooster is hired by a headstrong young girl (Kim Darby) to find the man who murdered her father and fled with the family savings. When Cogburn's employer insists on accompanying the old gunfighter sparks fly. And the situation goes from troubled to disastrous when an inexperienced but enthusiastic Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell) joins the party. Laughter and tears punctuate the wild action in this extraordinary Western which features performances by Robert Duvall and Strother Martin.System Requirements:Running Time: 127 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: G UPC: 097361207742 Manufacturer No: 120774Amazon.com essential video: A wonderful/rueful running gag in El Dorado involves the Edgar Allan Poe line "Ride, boldly ride" being mangled by toupee-wearer Wayne into "Ride, baldy, ride." Two years later, in True Grit, Wayne put the joke in italics by donning an eyepatch and several inches of girth to play cantankerous territorial marshal Rooster Cogburn. Critics belatedly noticed that he could be a marvelously entertaining actor, and Hollywood finally gave him the Oscar they'd failed to nominate him for in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, et al. But make no mistake: True Grit is a splendid movie, with lovingly textured storytelling and sturdy characters, Henry Hathaway's finest high-country action set-pieces, intoxicatingly ornate frontier language, and a couple of formidable bad guys (Jeff Corey's Tom Cheney and Robert Duvall's "Lucky" Ned Pepper). It's a compliment to say that, from a technical standpoint, the movie could have been made any time in Hathaway's 40-year career, yet its feeling for the reality of violence ceded no ground to The Wild Bunch, released around the same time. Still, the film's most sublime passage falls between bursts of gunplay: Rooster sitting on a hilltop at night recounting his life story, as John Wayne metamorphoses ineluctably into W.C. Fields. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews:
- I call that Bold Talk for a one-eyed fat man: True Grit DVD
True Grit is probably my favorite John Wayne western, maybe The Shootist is a close second. It stars John Wayne as an old, rough and coarse U. S. Marshall who reluctantly helps a teenager (Kim Darby) who both won academy Awards for their roles in the movie. The Marshall helps track down the killer of Darcy's Father into Indian Territory (modern day Oklahoma). The movie is based on the novel True Grit.
Glen Campbell sings and plays a Texas Ranger who tags along.
Highly recommended for fans of John Wayne, Classic Western movies, and Cowboy movies the way they used to be made.
Gunner April, 2008
- I don't remember True Grit being this good.: I just caught this on TCM. I had planned to watch for just a few minutes but I was hooked by the photography, the characters and the story. I am immediately adding this to my collection. Back in 1970, when John Wayne got the Academy Award over Dustin Hoffman, I thought an injustice had been done. I was wrong. The Oscar is awarded for accomplishment. Sometimes it's purely for acting but sometimes other elements are taken into consideration. The Academy made the right call. The history of American film would be different story if it weren't for John Wayne. You only have to watch this film to see why he is one of the greatest screen stars of all time. John Wayne is a genre all by himself.
- The Best of His Later Films : This was one of John Wayne's best films, certainly the best of his later works. I've made people angry in the past by stating that the late Mr. Wayne was playing roles that were WAY TOO YOUNG for him and that I didn't care for them. That's not the case with this work, my only real criticism is that the movie feels abbreviated.
- they don't make em like this anymore.: i have a theory or a belief or whatever.... that people i.e. actors, directors, writers, and producers in the movie business aren't as talented or as deep thinking or as visionary as they once were in this country?...for the most part people don't read and dream and express themselves and their ideas like they use to...whether it's because we are in this me/now MTV/real world/computer/ instant gratification age or whatever?...which brings me to true grit. [ kind of a weird segway uh?] what i guess I'm getting at is we just don't turn out great movies here anymore for a whole host of reasons!... i think I've said before in my prior reviews that I'm a child of the 60's and the 70's and one of the iconic figures of that time was john Wayne...the western was still a fixture at the local theater and the movies and it's stars were still for the most part bigger than life....I've seen this 1969 film maybe 20 times thru the years but never like this,...the clarity and the color and the sound are just great!...they spent a few bucks [remastering] and they did this film justice and good for them!...the way language is used and the performance of Wayne and most of the supporting cast is a real treat, and the cinematography and the whole production is first rate...as i watched this film for perhaps the 21st time i was almost like a 11 year old kid again... it's just a shame they can't write like this and have have a little artistic vision and that we don't have stars like john Wayne anymore?....I've seen glen Campbell in interviews a few times state that his acting was so bad...he made john Wayne look so good that Wayne won the Oscar in 1970 for this film!.....i think he was about half right.
- Holds up very nicely ...:
I hadn't seen this movie in a number of years, but I'm happily surprised that the film doesn't come across as dated or formulaic at all. A solid Western and a classic within the genre.
True Grit is probably John Wayne's best performance, although it wouldn't be his last, even though he did win an Oscar for it. He also felt the story strong enough to entertain the idea of doing a sequel of the character, Marshall Rooster Cogburn, which is now elementary. Listening to the commentary though, it was stated that a third film was in the works and both Wayne and Hepburn were both happy to reprise their roles whenever filming began, Rooster Cogburn (...and the Lady) being the second and final.
Kim Darby as 'Baby Sister' was also very memorable. When I saw her later in Better Off Dead years later, I not only didn't recognize her, but I was convinced that I recognized her voice from somewhere, which is probably one of those truly signature film voices of all time. It's just a shame she wasn't tapped for better roles through the years to show it off.
True Grit is a incredibly well-written story, nice cinematography and hardy villains (Bruce Dern & Dennis Hopper) which makes for a well-spent two hours and eight minutes. And if you listen to the Director's Commentary towards the end of the film, despite Gary Will's biography, which is incorrect, John Wayne DOES jump over the fence.
For the record, even though he won an Oscar for this, it always seems that The Cowboys seem to be the fan favorite.
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