I can't help it, but when I see a character played by John Wayne I always keep seeing John Wayne. That is not necessarily a bad thing; I keep seeing Julia Roberts in her performances, but some of her versions do the job quite good. I have to say, after his performance in 'The Searchers' I think this is his best. Maybe not Oscar-worthy, although he did win, but good enough.
Here he is a marshal who teams up with the girl who hired him and a Texas ranger (Glen Campbell) to find Tom Chaney, a man who killed the girl's father and a Senator. The girl, named Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), insists on coming along on the road which leads us to many pretty sights. The story itself is western in its purest form, with the law against the outlaw and a woman to keep things interesting.
'True Grit' is beautifully shot and it does almost everything right on other aspects, puts in some minor surprises at the right times, is well acted (Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper also turn up), but for some reason I thought of it as "just another western". Maybe by now, which could be considered 1969 as well, we have seen too many of these classic westerns. I love most of them starring Wayne, from 'Stagecoach' to 'The Searchers' and from 'Red River' to 'El Dorado', but most of the time they are directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks. (I could go on with 'Fort Apache', 'Rio Bravo', 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' and even 'Rio Lobo'.) Director Henry Hathaway's contributions to The Duke's oeuvre are nice, 'True Grit' being the best, but for me it ends there.
Here he is a marshal who teams up with the girl who hired him and a Texas ranger (Glen Campbell) to find Tom Chaney, a man who killed the girl's father and a Senator. The girl, named Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), insists on coming along on the road which leads us to many pretty sights. The story itself is western in its purest form, with the law against the outlaw and a woman to keep things interesting.
'True Grit' is beautifully shot and it does almost everything right on other aspects, puts in some minor surprises at the right times, is well acted (Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper also turn up), but for some reason I thought of it as "just another western". Maybe by now, which could be considered 1969 as well, we have seen too many of these classic westerns. I love most of them starring Wayne, from 'Stagecoach' to 'The Searchers' and from 'Red River' to 'El Dorado', but most of the time they are directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks. (I could go on with 'Fort Apache', 'Rio Bravo', 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' and even 'Rio Lobo'.) Director Henry Hathaway's contributions to The Duke's oeuvre are nice, 'True Grit' being the best, but for me it ends there.