True Grit (1969) on Netflix
In Fort Smith, Arkansas, teenager Mattie Ross hires Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed U.S. Marshal, to hunt Tom Chaney. Chaney, her father's hired hand, killed him and fled into Indian Territory.
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Plot summary
Mattie Ross, a teenager, arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1880 after her father is killed there by his hired hand, Tom Chaney. She hires Rooster Cogburn, an aging, one-eyed U.S. Marshal, to track Chaney, who has taken refuge in Indian Territory with the gang of "Lucky" Ned Pepper. A young Texas Ranger named La Boeuf is hunting Chaney too, because the outlaw killed a senator in Texas, and he proposes that Cogburn share the reward for bringing Chaney back to Texas, though Mattie wants him hanged in Fort Smith. Cogburn and La Boeuf ride off without her, but she crosses a deep river on her horse and follows, and the two men let her join them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about True Grit (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
John Wayne insisted on doing the final fence jump himself, riding his horse Twinkle Toes over the four-rail fence. The stunt was left to the last shot because, after Wayne's lung surgery in 1965, neither he nor director Henry Hathaway was sure he could make the jump.- Elvis Presley was the original choice to play Texas Ranger La Boeuf, but producers turned him down when his agent demanded top billing over both John Wayne and Kim Darby. Glen Campbell was cast instead.
- Mia Farrow was originally cast as Mattie Ross and quit before filming: Robert Mitchum, her co-star in Secret Ceremony, advised her against working with director Henry Hathaway, and producer Hal B. Wallis refused her request to replace Hathaway with Roman Polanski.
- John Wayne met singer Karen Carpenter at a talent show he was hosting and recommended her to play Mattie Ross, but the producers rejected her because she had no acting experience. He had also lobbied for his daughter Aissa to win the part.
- John Wayne helped get Marguerite Roberts' screenplay approved and credited to her own name after she had been blacklisted years earlier for alleged leftist affiliations, despite his own conservative ideals. He called her script the best he had ever read.
- Both director Henry Hathaway and John Wayne had trouble with supporting actor Robert Duvall: Hathaway had constant shouting matches with him, and Duvall and Wayne nearly came to blows.
- True Grit was initially given an M rating by the Motion Picture Association of America's rating board. The filmmakers then cut four-letter words out of some scenes so the film could carry a G rating.
- Historians believe John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn was based on a real lawman, Deputy U.S. Marshal Henry "Heck" Thomas, who brought in some of the toughest outlaws.
