True Grit
Starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate, Robert Duvall, and Strother Martin
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Screenplay written by Marguerite Roberts
From the Novel "True Grit" written by Charles Portis.
The title song was song by Glen Campbell
Music scored by Elmer Bernstein
Produced by Hal Wallis.
True Grit
This is a classic American Western made in '1969 and was remade in '2010. I was looking for a film to write about and I came across this old classic at a truck stop in Massachusetts and said there it is one of the greats. We will dive into the making of this film and take a look at how they made it where they filmed it. The film may be older but it was great work by the director and cast.It starts out showing a scene that was not in the book the screenwriter Marguerite Roberts, has added it to introduce us to the family of Mattie Ross played by Kim Darby in the film a young girl that seemed more of a tomboy. The film was shot in Colorado, and California as the director want it shot there instead of Arkansas where the story takes place. The scene showed us her family and the man that would end up killing her Father Frank Ross. As it unfolds we meet her father who is going into Fort Smith to buy some horses, for their farm to breed as they get ready to ride out that morning. It shows her Mother, brother and baby sister as they say goodbye to them. The camera angles as the show us Mattie Ross it is fixed on her for an extended amount of time then it swings inside where her father asks how much he has to work with to buy the horses he is going to purchase in Fort Smith. They have a short conversation about the type of horses he should buy and he asks her for his two lucky gold pieces. This was interesting I think it was done to bring the viewer's attention to her and it worked. You were focused on her through the rest of the scene.
It would be a direct cut to the next scene where her father gets shot by Tom Chaney played by Jeff Corey in Fort Smith. This scene shows Tom playing cards and thinks he has been cheated when Frank Ross Mattie's Father played by Jeff Corey pulls him out of the salon and then tom shoots him and steals all his money and runs. The low-key lighting in this scene was dark and subdued as the scene unfolds outside the salon. The camera cuts back and forth between the two as they exchange words then the shot it goes wide to show the people coming out of the salon and tom running off.
The actors in the film did a great job depicting their roles and the dialog through the film and stayed true to form. After watching the commentary True Writing (2007) on the DVD, I found out that the screenwriter Marguerite Roberts was blacklisted as a communist and was afraid that John Wayne would turn it down due to that but instead he loved it and said it was the best western written in years and would do the film. Jeremy Slate states that Kim Darby stayed true to the Novel as it was written and that she kept the movie on track with the way she spoke true to the book through the film as she spoke proper and confidently. She stated that it was easy due to the way that Charles Portis wrote the book.
Many of the ones who went to see the film was surprised by John Wayne's performance in the film in the part he played as the Deputy U.S. Marshal Roster Gogburn, which was a rude and rough drunk with a bad reputation. He played the part very well and as the film went on you could see the transformation he makes through the film as he interacts with the young Mattie.
The part of the outlaws played by Robert Duvall (Ned Pepper), and Jeff Corey (Tom Chaney) their acting was good you could see that Duvall would become a great actor. Duvall plays the leader of the outlaws and he portrays his part very well in the film. Jeff Corey also dose a good job with his part he plays in the film as his part it seems that his role was of the outlaw that seem to get himself into trouble without trying too, he has a habit of missing up it seems through the film.
Then you have the Taxes Ranger played by Glen Campbell (La Boeuf) which is after Tom Chaney for shooting a Taxes State Senator. He is a young inexperienced Ranger that invites his himself along for the hunt for Chaney. He plays that role expertly as an arrogant and cocky Ranger as he talks himself up in the film to the Marshal to get to tag along with him. He and Mattie do not get along at first but they finally warms up to each other there is a kind of a love hate relationship between the two of them that grows between them. It is very subtle but there and you could really see it at the end of the film in the exchange between Mattie and Cogburn.
Through the film you see varying camera angles from the long shots of them traveling through the mountains and valleys, and close ups. The cinematography in the film for that era I felt made the movie they did an excellent job. Henry Hathaway the director set each scene expertly throughout the film. He did not choose to film in Arkansas where the story was based but in Colorado and California, he never really gave a reason why that I could find. This is the one thing that I would disagree with, in filming the film. In the comments of the film, it was said that back then that most people from Arkansas never traveled more than twenty-five miles from their home and would never know it was not Arkansas.
The sound through the film had the authentic western sounds of the old west from the gunfire to the horses walking. The sound effects added to the film made to the film postproduction that were paced by the Foley artists seamlessly in the film. It gave it the feel and true aspect of the old west. The score of the film had a great selection of music for the film to go along with the great dialog throughout the film.
I find "True Grit" (1969) will be watch by us for a very long time to come it was a very well made movie and one that was out of the norm for John Wayne to star in it was very well written and directed and had a very good moral stand compared to the other westerns that where coming out at that time.
True Grit 1969 Paramount Pictures, Hal Wallis
Productions.
Jones, M. (2010). True Lit.(Culture)(True Grit ). Newsweek, (25).
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