recommended

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Those who watched African Queen will understand from where this movie came from,this sequel of True Grit,they tried explore the chemistry of those greatest actors Duke and Kate and they got it,no doubt about that,the movie is funny and every characters are engaged in their roles,especially John McIntire as judge and Strother Martin as McCoy the wise balsa man...they are superb...Rooster and Eula are on fight every time,both have a own way to think about the right and wrong and they are completely opposite each other....about the movie??? doesn't matter at all!!We must point out the amazing western landscape,in particular way Rogue river in the Oregon!!!Resume:First watch: 1989 / How many: 2 /Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5

"I ain't had a drink since breakfast!". So says John Wayne, repeating his "True Grit" role as "Rooster Cogburn". "I do not fear a skunk. I simply do not care for its odor". So says Katharine Hepburn, playing basically the same part she had essayed 25 years earlier in "The African Queen". With those two lines, the personalities of these two characters are put into perspective. I could spend my entire review quoting this movie, a witty comedy western with romance, plenty of action and two stars that totally compliment each other. This is a reminder of how much fun movies USED to be.The basic storyline, an official sequel to "True Grit", is a re-tread of "The African Queen" with Wayne back as Rooster, taking over what Humphrey Bogart did in John Huston's 1951 masterpiece. Instead of taking on Nazis like Bogart and Hepburn did in Africa, Wayne and Hepburn are pursuing the brutes who killed Hepburn's missionary father in cold blood. Along the way, the prim and proper Hepburn opens her eyes a bit and begins to enjoy life a little more, sparkling as she breaks many of her own rules as she shoots a rifle at the villains. You have to watch everything she does because Hepburn pulls out all the stops in her characterization. It is obvious that she was having a blast making this film.Wayne, in his second to last western ("The Shootist", a wonderful film, was his last movie, released the following year), is not simply repeating his Oscar Winning role or making him a buffoon. He simply allows Hepburn's prim and proper spinster to bring out the best in him, enjoying every fight they have. This gives many more dimensions to a character that audiences had already come to love. Richard Romancito is truly memorable as the Native American boy taken in by Hepburn's father. His curiosity over Wayne's adventures is a touching bit of plot thrown in for good measure.This is a film that deserves regular repeat viewings to pick up on all the comic tidbits that Wayne and Hepburn have to deliver. More clever than just simple entertainment and high ranking on Wayne's gallery of already classic portrayals, "Rooster Cogburn" is an extraordinary delight that younger audiences today should see as an example that sometimes "less" ends up being "so much more".

It never ceases to amaze me the chemistry that these two have together. It is genuinely obvious that they really LIKE each other. Both stars insisted on doing all of their own stunts when possible. Duke was known to say that Kate slowed him down a bit, but since he was on oxygen almost completely when off camera, perhaps that was a good thing.Duke had fully developed his character of Rooster by this time, and Kate played off it incredibly well. She even went so far as to compare Duke to Spencer Tracy, a tremendous accolade to him on her part.This is a must for all Kate and Duke fans besides any Western fans with a heart.

Looking at some of the other reviews on here I am prone to thinking that I must have watched a different film!Others have criticised the plot but I thought that this was actually one of the best parts of the film! It is no worse than many other Westerns made in the previous 40 years and certainly feasible and not BADLY written(although no "High Noon", or "Destry").The sad thing for me however was watching the two main stars who appeared to be both well past their prime. Although in the case of Wayne the script eludes to this with the Cogburn character being described as "having let himself" and being "old" in no way am I saying that we should not have "old" actors on screen. Indeed I would welcome it. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Clint Eastwood to name but three have all improved with age but both Wayne and Hepburn did not with this one.For large parts of the film it looked like they were simply reading the script and both of them were clearly having difficulty in merely getting up and walking. (Yet miraculously could ride their horses at break-neck speed and operate a raft with amazing dexterity). On top of this there were some really gaping holes in credulity: Hepburn was 68 when this film was made but one of the main elements of the storyline is that her father is killed (played by Jon Lormer who was actually only a year older than she was)! The average life expectancy for white males in the 1880s in America was under 40! (Even less in "The West") and whilst people did live into old-age, they certainly would not have been as "nimble" as Lormer was (in comparison to the leads).I thought that both of the main stars were wooden and overall film was rather "clunky". Anthony Zerbe played his part well but even here was let down but the fact that every time I looked at him I just thought of Clint Eastwood due to the laziness of the costume department!Do yourself a favour and give this one a miss. If you do want to see these stars at their best, watch Wayne in "True Grit" and Hepburn in the "African Queen" instead.