TRUE GRIT

US, 1969, 128 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate, Jeff Corey, Robert Duvall.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.

True Grit is a most enjoyable western. It is the engaging story of a strong minded girl, with a forceful will, who hires the toughest, scruffiest marshal ever seen to track down her father's murderer. They are joined by a Texas lawman, played by Glen Campbell, on the same man's trail. Perhaps there is nothing new, but what is important is old marshal Rooster, played by John Wayne. He gives us the tough west plus a humanity missing from the average western. He was so successful in this role that he won an Oscar for it. The people are real, they live in a small remote town in the frontier. When the need arises, they can do smart, spectacular things, but usually they use their wits, their friendship and their humour to get along. Kim Darby is excellent in the role of the determined young girl. True Grit is a western for all.

1. Why is this considered a special kind of western? How did it use the ordinary conventions of the Western?

2. The importance of the beautiful photography, the song of True Grit, the musical theme of the film?

3. What was the meaning of True Grit in the film? How did it highlight the meaning of the film?

4. How important were the themes of 'justice' and 'law' in the film? Frontier and Western law? The official upholders of the law? The need for taking the law into one's own hands in the West? Did individuals have the right to administer the law, even in cases of murder? The question of revenge?

5. Death as a theme in the film: the murder of Mattie's father? The viewing of the hanging, the people's reactions?

6. Mattie as a person: in her family, as a strong willed girl, in her efforts to help the family after her father's death, in her revenge, in her relationships to Cogburn, in going on the expedition, in confronting the villains? How much of the success of the film was due to Kim Darby's performance?

7. Did you like Rooster Cogburn? Why was this one of John Wayne's best roles? What kind of a person was Rooster, as a cowboy, his skills and boasting, as a drinker, as a marshall and his sense of justice? As a shrewd man, tracking criminals etc.? How humorous a character was he? In his relationship to Mattie? What they shared and the final scene at the graveside at the end?

8. Why did the two match so well? Rooster said she reminded him of him. What did they achieve?

9. What did Le Boeuf add to the film? As a Texan, as a lawman, the Glen Campbell personality? His lack of trust of Mattie, his changing attitudes, his finally giving his life for her?

10. Tom Cheyney: As a villain. as a frightened man who murdered? Who was responsible for bringing him to justice? Dramatic impact of the confrontations between him and Mattie, his treatening her with the snakes? Her shooting him?

11. Ned Pepper: His gang, as typical western criminals? Why was he being pursued by Rooster?

12. Comment on the significance of the sequences you liked best ? e.g. the selling of the ponies, the meals at the boarding house, the shoot?out at the house, the snake?pit sequence, Rooster shooting with the reins in his mouth?

13. How violent was the film? The amount of shooting in the film? Mattie's father, Moon shooting his fellow, Ned Pepper, Cheyney, the shootout, Le Boeuf?

14. The atmosphere of the ending and the conversation between Rooster and Mattie?

15. How good an adventure was this? How entertaining? How much insight into the West and into human attitudes?