True Grit (1969)

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  • I guess most folks have heard they are in the process of remaking True Grit. This time more through the eyes of Mattie. The same folks that made Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy and many others (Coen brothers I believe are their names). A release date in 2011 I think it said. I can only imagine who will be cast in this. Just have to wait and see I reckon. Hope they don't totally ruin it!


    oldmose,


    WELCOME to the Original John Wayne Message Board! Glad to see you get your feet wet making your first post here.


    There has been some discussion around here about the remake of True Grit, some of which you can pick up beginning on page 6 of this thread (just scroll to the top or the bottom and you should see a link to the different pages). More recently, we have discussed it here.


    We look forward to hearing more from you!


    Again - welcome!


    Chester :newyear: and the Mrs. :angel1:

  • As idiotic as the idea of remaking True Grit is, I love Jeff Bridges. He is a great actor, very underrated.

    Jeff Bridges is in serious negotiations to take the role made famous by John Wayne in the Coen brothers' new version of True Grit.

    It could be the Big Lebowski reunion we've been waiting for folded into the Coens' idea to take the novel that inspired the 1969 original and make a more faithful adaptation.

    The pair have been considering the idea for a while now, with the Daily Mail first reporting word that they were seriously interested back in February 2008.

    Now, with A Serious Man playing festivals, it looks like they're truly saddling up at last.

    The 1969 film - for which Wayne won an Oscar - followed a 14-year=old girl who tags along with US Marshal Rooster Cogburn to find the outlaw who slaughtered her father - focuses on Cogburn's point of view.

    But the Coens' idea will stick closer to the Charles Portis book, which is geared towards the girl's recollections.

    We'd say they needed luck to pull off something as memorable as the original grit - but this is the Coens, and they already have No Country For Old Men under their belt to reassure everyone

    http://www.totalfilm.com/news/…yne?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=news

  • I have to say that I enjoyed the casting, and the memorable bad guy, but No Country For Old Men left me cold. Based on that, I'd probably wait and see the new TG when it hits cable.

  • While I think that the Coen Brothers are more into tongue and cheek screenplays, I can't fathom why anyone would want to remake this film without that slant. Bridges is an astute actor, and plays roles that fit him, so I trust that there must be some nuanced script that compels these talented people to remake this classic.
    But who the hell is going to score this? They might be better of just reusing Bernstein's music.
    When some misguided fools remade The Alamo in 2004, the biggest disgrace was Cater Burwell's dirge-like score. It killed what little attributes were in it (of course, I'm excepting the fiddle/bugle sequence).
    If they opt for a mock heroic music theme, it will bury the movie.



    We deal in lead, friend.

  • Here's an interesting variation in the original book story.

    Quote

    In Charles Portis's 1968 novel, True Grit, the U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn describes fighting with Cole Younger and Frank James for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Long after his adventure with Mattie Ross, Cogburn ends his days in a traveling road show with the aged Cole Younger and Frank James.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • I know that Hathaway wanted Duke to sport a mustache and he refused on grounds that moviegoers came to see his face. Did Rooster have a mustache in the book?



    We deal in lead, friend.

  • I know that Hathaway wanted Duke to sport a mustache and he refused on grounds that moviegoers came to see his face.


    Suprised to hear that Duke said this, particually when you consider
    She Wore A Yellow Ribbon was Duke's favourite film,
    and in that movie isn't he wearing a moustache??
    Didn't seem to do his popularity much harm then!!!


    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Yeah, but he also had a mustache in "The Conqueror" which I imagine didn't generate warm and (ahem) fuzzy memories. At any rate, he semed adjusted to it when he got around to "The Shootist".



    We deal in lead, friend.

  • I don't know why, but somehow I find this hilarious. . .


    [extendedmedia]

    [/extendedmedia]


    If you go to youtube, you can see that the same guy has done the same thing to memorable moments from other movies (Spartacus, Planet of the Apes, ect.). Cracks me up, every time.


    Quote

    "I am not intoxicated - yet." McLintock!

  • Just about 40 years ago I saw for the first time what was to become my most favorite movie of all time...... "True Grit". I didn't think that John Wayne could possibly have done a better acting job than he did in the "Searchers" but I was wrong. His performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit was absolutely flawless.

    To begin with, nobody, and I mean nobody......could ever ride a quarter horse the way the 'Duke' could. He never "sat" in the saddle......he "stood" in the stirrups and absorbed the shock of the gallup with his legs and let the flexing of his knees control his upper-body movement. When he rode a horse it was as if there were gyroscopic stabilizers hidden under his saddle to smooth out his every movement. With few exceptions, not many on-screen western actors could even handle a slow "trot" without looking like a bouncing 'bobble-headed' toy.

    Wonder how many experienced "horse people" there are on here.? Ever actually try and shoot a Model 94 "modified" Winchester lever action rifle at a full gallup - with one hand - or even two hands for that matter? That rifle was modified for the sole purpose of being able to "cock" it with one hand. If you're lucky you might get off one shot without hitting your own horse in the leg like I once saw happen on the set of the TV version of "Hondo". Ralph Taeger played the part of Hondo Lane in that short lived 1967 series and never rode a horse in his life before "Hondo", unless of course you count the number of times he 'practiced' trying not to fall off of one at the Robert Taylor ranch in Mandeville Canyon near Brentwood, California.

    Thank God, the round that went off accidently in one of the first on location scenes was a blank but the 'wad' that hit the horse in its upper front quarter scared the hell out of it and that gelding almost threw Taeger ass-over-tea kettle at a full gallup. And that was only just the first day of shooting on location near Lancaster, Calif.

    That ".....Fill your hands you son of a bitch...." scene where Rooster takes the reins in his teeth and 'cocks' the Winchester with his right hand while also holding a "navy revolver" in his left hand ..... was nothing short of shear 'Hollywood' genius.

    In the original story, Portis only makes reference to Rooster's rifle at the dugout when he shoots Moon in the leg. However, he did write that Rooster had more than one "saddle revolver" . In that now famous scene, Portis writes: 'Rooster had one of the navy revolvers in his left hand and he held the reins in his right hand'. Then, as the assault begins, Portis further writes: '.....and he took the reins in his teeth and pulled the other saddle revolver and drove his spurs into the flanks of his strong horse Bo and charged directly at the bandits'. Portis then writes: 'He held the revolvers wide on either side of the head of his plunging steed.'

    There aren't too many (even good) movies that really stand out as a true classic unless something as unique as a brilliantly written short piece of dialogue such as: "......Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." or, "STELLA!!", or the cocking of a Winchester rifle with one hand and the now famous dialogue: "Fill your hands you son of a bitch".

    Without the cocking of that "rifle" with one hand, the 'visual' of that precise moment would not have been nearly as dramatic as it ultimately turned out to be nor would have all of the future promotional post-production advertising looked quite as "artistic" as that one-eyed fat man sitting on top of a horse with a lever action rifle in his right hand - instead of just another navy revolver.

    Sometimes, it's just the 'little things' that are the hardest to forget.

  • Hi Sterling Price,
    thanks for your great post,
    great post on the greatest of films.
    I have welcomed you in the appropriate thread.


    I have also taken this opportunity to update
    the movie review's Trivia and Goofs sections

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Hello and welcome tpo the board, Sterling Price. You nailed that scene with your description. It was a thing of beauty and Duke brought that scene home. I remember reading somewhere that right after filming that scene, the Director told Duke that this could win him an Oscar. I'm glad the film got him that much deserved statue.

    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "

  • About four and a half years ago on the first page of this thread someone had asked if anyone knew where the filming location was for the "dugout" scene. There were some attempts to try and nail it down but no one ever did quite hit the mark. I've been there several times over the past 35 years and have photographed it myself as part of a photo assignment I had back then. It is in an area known as Hot Creek, California and it is but a mere stone's throw from the Mammoth Lakes Airport. The airfield has only one N/S runway and is bordered on the West by Hwy 395 (split 4 lane).

    Just past the airport (travelling north) is a small 2 lane ashphalt road called: "Hot Creek Hatchery Rd". In about less than 2 miles and travelling east there will be several choices along hot creek to park your vehicle and walk down into the creek. The steam vents are most spectacular during late autumn when the early morning air is cold and crisp.

    I'm going to take the liberty of posting some screen shots from 3 of the most well known movies that were shot there and also one of my own shots at the end to show how different one location can look depending upon one's point of view......



    Jenny's honeymoon cabin - North to Alaska 1959/60




    North to Alaska




    North to Alaska




    JW in North to Alaska - Mt peak on the right is Mt. Whitney, Calif.




    North to Alaska




    Nevada Smith 1965/66 - Steve McQueen and Brian Keith




    Brian Keith in Nevada Smith




    True Grit 1968/69 - Dugout shown in lower left - Ned Pepper's gang riding up in center of frame.




    This is how I photographed the same scene in 1984. Late Autumn and slightly further downstream and "leaning" further out toward the creek in order to include the mountain shown in upper left of the frame. I used a slightly longer than normal lens in order to "compress" the image somewhat and lend more 'drama' to the mountains in the background.




    Ten years ago I had this same image printed on a 28X40 inch stretched canvas and it has hung in my den ever since. I never get tired of looking at it....great memories.

  • thanks for the great photo's of hot creek in mammoth lakes.still tooks the same 15 years after true grit.i wounder does it still look's like that today.also a scene from from hell to texas where don murray comes across chill wills and diane varsi,as they were making camp.