WFH: True Grit

 1969, Henry Hathaway (Prince Valiant) -- Amazon

This was to be the first of many Western movies to be watched in the spurts & moments that WFH allows me. I intended to watch some Spaghetti Westerns, but the Amazon and Netflix selection is scattered at best, and my completist brain just doesn't want to start somewhere in the middle. To support that desire, a brief amount of research said the Django and Sartana movies sound like a blast, especially considering they were coopted almost immediately after they became popular, basically because a character's name could not be copyrighted in Italy. Also, Italian authorities just didn't care. With Django for example, there are only two "official" movies, and more than a dozen unofficial. Imagine that being done today, where Neo from The Matrix stars in a dozen (probably terrible) movies after the Wachowskis finish their run.

Anywayz, I had always liked the Coen Bros remake (I did not remember that) and I actually have an excuse for not reviewing it on the blog, considering it came out in 2010. But its still weird that I recall writing about it, owing it to a moment of me blathering on to Kent about the movie, the type of blathering that inspired this blog. I specifically recall really enjoying the period dialogue that comes out of Mattie Ross's mouth, a stern, educated and very intense tone of speech that is her weapon against the rough & tumbles of the Old West. I was happy to find that this was inherent to the original, and not just a Coen Bros typical quirk.

Mattie's father is shot down by a ranch hand whom he has befriended, despite everyone's misgivings. The drunken, violent man runs off with her father's money into the "Indian territory" where few of the law can follow. So Mattie is forced to enlist a US Marshal, and she wants one with "true grit", basically that legendary level of dedication and violence she believes is required to catch the dastardly fellow. The marshal she goes for is Rooster Cogburn, played expertly by an overweight, past his prime John Wayne. Rooster is known for shooting first, bringing home most of his quarry dead. But nobody doubts his ability. Interrupting her choice is LaBoeuf, a Texas Ranger played by Glen Campbell, yes the country & western singer -- he is a "dashing" rogue, making immediate advances on Mattie, despite her young age, but just as quickly comes to dislike her for rebuffing him and choosing Rooster. That said, both men end up on the hunt.

Westerns, for me, were always like a D&D Adventure set in the wilderness, something I always looked forward to, as Player and as DM. The land they travel is wide, and mostly empty of settlements, with only the occasional safe spot. And it is utterly glorious to behold. Rooster, an accomplished tracker who knows the land, and the man he is hunting, quickly picks up the trail, chasing the man & the scoundrels he rides with (including a young Robert Duvall) to a dugout (basically a logs & thatch hut dug into the side of a mud cave) where he wounds some, kills others. The outlaws escape, but Rooster gives chase. They eventually catch up, but mainly due to some folly of Mattie's.

Rooster is a drunk, falling down and foolish. LaBoeuf, who is played much straighter than Matt Damon's clownish ranger in the remake, is both loyal and consternating. He despises Mattie, probably mostly because she doesn't fall prey to his charms. He despises Rooster even more because the man is capable without even trying. He is on the hunt for his own reasons, but in the end, as Rooster puts, he saves Rooster's skin twice, once after he was already dead. In that LaBoeuf redeems himself, but at the cost of his own life, and Rooster shows his true grit, racing to save Mattie from a snake bite's doom.

I need to add this movie to my shelf, which only contains a few westerns. I might do both versions. There is a charm, in the dialogue and in the unabashed love for the wild land it is shot in, that I cannot resist. Oh, like most westerns of the late 60s/70s it is overly melodramatic in the score, and I hate the theme music, but the style is crisp & gritty, and showing true grit.