Strong and Moving!

Just what I expected

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

John Wayne's bulldozing performance as eye patch-wearing Marshall Reuben J. Cogburn (a.k.a. "Rooster") is the centerpiece of the old-fashioned western "True Grit"; without Wayne, it would have been utterly unremarkable. Based on Charles Portis' novel, story involves the crusty Marshall being hired by a feisty juvenile to track down the band of killers responsible for her father's death. Though the movie is spirited and fairly enjoyable, and the Duke does some fun overplaying, the script is thin and director Henry Hathaway goes heavy on the corn. As the impertinent Mattie Ross, Kim Darby's impatient manner and bossy voice are fun qualities at first, but there's too much of her (there's also too much of Glen Campbell and Jeff Corey in support). Wayne's Oscar win for Best Actor was seen as a sentimental pick in 1970, and time has done little to change that perception. He reprised his role for the 1975 sequel, "Rooster Cogburn". Warren Oates took the lead in a later TV series. **1/2 from ****

People's memories are short, and too many people have seen only Hailee Steinfeld's portrayal of Mattie. Let me cast my vote for the screen's first Mattie Ross, Kim Darby, who turned in the superior performance. (And I don't blame Steinfeld herself; for all their brilliance as filmmakers, the Coens are hit-or-miss with actors.) Darby looks a bit older than Steinfeld, more womanly (despite the hat and the shorter hair), and her voice is softer and more feminine -- yet her line readings are paradoxically steelier and more intense. When Steinfeld recites Portis's deliberately stiff, formal, old-fashioned, nearly contraction-free dialogue, her delivery sounds odd, like an immigrant imitating English; Darby speaks the same formal lines more naturally and makes Mattie a more believable figure, and a far more appealing one.

There's a lot to love about this film. Yes, love. And there aren't many actors I can say that about...even though other Westerns are more favorites for me.Let's start with John Wayne's performance. I think he deserved the Oscar...and not just as a nod to his career, but for this film in and of itself. It isn't just that Wayne was getting old, it was that here he wasn't playing typical Wayne. More than most of his films, here he played a character...and the performance is simply iconic.The next best thing about the film is the scenery and photography. Most of it was filmed in western Colorado, and the photography does the scenery justice. The one exception is the scene in the aspen trees fairly early in the film; the camera wasn't level, and I found it quite distracting.And then there's the music. Another bold and brilliant score by Elmer Bernstein.Kim Darby's darned good here. Rooster had grit, but Mattie had spunk. Those qualities work together well, even if -- as it is said -- she and Wayne didn't like each other much.So what's not to like? The performance by Glen Campbell. Don't get me wrong, as a singer, I liked Glen Campbell. But as an actor -- PU! John Wayne made almost a dozen films after this one (and I did enjoy the sequel with Katherine Hepburn), but when I think of John Wayne riding off into the sunset...this is the film that comes to mind.

The character of Mattie Ross played by Kim Darby is horrendous. Kim looks way too old / too tall to be a teenager, and too old to be wearing a shorter skirt (for the time period). Her hair is too short and the clothes she wears seem so "wrong". It's unbelievable that a female teenager would be so "forward" for the time period. I can't understand why Kim Darby was cast in the role. She ruins the movie. The wardrobe department gets zero stars for how they dressed her.Glen Campbell better suited to singing than acting. The starting song before the movie also doesn't fit the movie either.All in all these two characters/actors were so wrong/didn't work. Made the movie a pain to watch.John Wayne was fine, but in my mind, not worthy of an Oscar for this movie.