Robber's Cave is a just a few hours drive north of me! Here's a few pictures I took from my last trip up that way!
Posts from ZS_Maverick in thread „True Grit (1969)“
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Some pictures from the "Real True Grit Trail!"
I got a last minute vacation that I didn't have time to plan for, so I traveled some place that's not too far from me...the area that the story of "True Grit" took place.
These places, not where the movies were filmed, but the actual setting of the stories, are not that far from me...not more than a three to four hour drive from where I am in North Texas. So, that's where I headed.
First I drove to Fort Smith and toured Judge Parker's Courthouse. The first pictures are of the courthouse, the jail and the gallows! Now when Parker's court moved down the street, the original courthouse was gutted and the gallows were torn down, but for historic reasons, the courthouse was rebuilt to be as close to the historic courthouse as possible; including furniture and personal belongings from Parker. The gallows were rebuilt in the exact location.
The last pictures are of the Winding Stair Mountains, where I stayed last night! This is where much of the story takes place.
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I found something interesting on line while doing some research; it's an article from May of 2000 and includes an interview with Charles Portis talking about "True Grit" and John Wayne! I copied and pasted the interview here, and included the link at the bottom if you want to read the entire short article....
An Interview with Charles Portis
In the summer of 2000, Charles Portis, the author of True Grit corresponded with park staff regarding the background of his novel and the famous film based on it. Below are excerpts of his comments:
What was your inspiration for the story?
“I was reading some frontier memoirs at the time…. I liked the form and tone – a first-person narrative, simple, direct and innocent. So, I thought I would try my hand at a fictional version. I settled on a revenge plot, common enough in such accounts.”
Using a woman as the main character in a Western was unusual at the time True Grit was written. Tell us more about the character of Mattie Ross.
“An old lady is telling the story. She relates these rather squalid events in what she takes to be a proper, formal way. And she shows herself , unconsciously, perhaps, to be just as hard in her own way as these hard customers she disapproves of, and has to deal with. For some reason I just liked the idea of having a starchy old lady as a narrator.”
Are any of the events in the novel based on actual incidents?
“Yes, I did take the snake pit episode from an actual event. Some other things too, from written accounts… “
What type of research did you do for your story?
“As for my research methods, they were alternately intense and slapdash. I did read newspaper accounts of the trials on microfilm from the Fort Smith Elevator and other papers. I read whatever books and pamphlets came my way, and I did walk the ground where the events in the story take place. If I couldn’t confirm something, or locate a fact I needed, I would just make something up. Still, you like to get things right.”
How did you feel about the screen adaptation of your novel?
“The screenplay stayed pretty close to the book. I noticed that the movie director, Henry Hathaway, used the book itself, with the pages much underlined, when he was setting up the scenes. I also noticed that some of the actors had trouble speaking the intentionally stiff dialogue. I didn’t write the screenplay. It was sent to me and I made a few changes, not many. I did write the last scene, in the graveyard, which didn’t appear in the book.”
What can you tell us about the choice of locations for the filming of the movie?
“Hal Wallis, the producer, had considered making the movie in Arkansas, and sent an advance man here. I drove this man around northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. He did like the town of Van Buren, saying it would do nicely for 1870s Fort Smith. Later, Hal Wallis called to tell me that there were logistical problems with shooting the picture in Arkansas. I have the idea that Hathaway (the director) persuaded Wallis to make it in Colorado.”
What impressions do you have of John Wayne from the film?
“Wayne was a bigger man than I expected. He was actually bigger than his image on screen, both in stature and presence. One icy morning, very early, before sunrise, we were all having breakfast in a motel…. A tourist came over to speak. Wayne rose to greet her. He stood there, not fidgeting and just hearing her out, but actively listening, and chatting with her in an easy way, as his fried eggs congealed on the plate. I took this to be no more than his nature. A gentleman at four o’clock on a cold morning is indeed a gentleman.” -
Just watched this again....it has to be my all time favorite movie. (Rio Bravo and El Dorado are a close second and third, but because of Duke's portrayal of Rooster, this has to be my favorite)
What's interesting for me is that I'm not that far from where the stories of "True Grit" and "Rooster Cogburn" take place; so, I know all these places! I'm just about two to three hours away from McAlaster, OK (back in the 1870's and 1880's called "McAlaster's Trading Post" or "McAlster's Store" in the movie), the Winding Stair Mountains (Part of the Ouchita Mountain chain in Western Arkansas and Easter Oklahoma) where the famous shoot-out takes place in the movie and the novel, and I'm just about three hours away from Fort Smith Arkansas, where the real Judge Parker's court is now a museum. Of course the area looks nothing like Colorado or Oregon, where the movies were filmed, but still the Ouchita Mountains are pretty and rugged country in thier own right and it's an interesting area with lots of history there. Charles Portis did a lot of research when he wrote that novel.
