True Grit (1969)

VERDICT:
6/10 Dead-Eye Dukes

Not quite the badass manhunt I thought it would be, but a decent Western all the same.

True Grit is about a feisty teenage girl who hires an alcoholic, one-eyed marshal to help her track down the low-down, dirty sonofabitch who killed her father in cold blood. After scrounging up the necessary fee and adding a second marshal to the hunt who’s also eyeing that reward money for the said daddy killer, the unlikely trio sets off into the countryside with rifles loaded and justice on their mind.

Not gonna lie, my experience with John Wayne’s body of work is pretty limited. Big fan of The Searchers, seen bits and pieces of Stagecoach, and I’m pretty sure I saw The Quiet Man when I was a kid…pretty sure it put me to sleep, too. Truth be told, even being the Western fan I am, if it weren’t for the Coen Brothers remake, I don’t know when I would have gotten around to this. And while it ain’t bad for what it is, I’m still stickin’ with Eastwood.

So with an awesome title like True Grit to work with, one would expect a cinematic experience filled with the meanest, mangiest, morally warped mother effers this side of the border just raising hell and killing chumps left and right. Gritty stuff, that’s what I’m looking for. Seems like a legitimate expectation, right? Anyway, with the exception of an unfortunate guy who gets his fingers chopped by his best friend, this ended up being as gritty as yogurt.

It’s a pretty standard Western with pretty standard characters on a pretty standard mission. The double-edged sword of this situation is that the standard Western formula is a pretty effective formula to begin with, but when there’s not much else to make it stand out from the herd, it makes for a pretty forgettable ride. The exception here is Kim Darby’s character, Matty, our headstrong little girl with a serious thirst for vengeance.  Darby’s performance didn’t do a whole lot for me, but it’s pretty unusual to see a tough gal like her in a Western like this and I dig the way she continually holds her own against the likes of professional killers. Everyone else though? You’ve seen ’em before.

But the biggest problem here isn’t the performances or the plot, it really boils down to the ho-hum dialogue and strangely cheery score that plays throughout. Maybe I’ve been playing too much Red Dead Redemption as of late, but no one here is talking like they’re from the old West, they’re all talking like they drink their tea with their pinky out. It’s way too formal, way too prim and proper, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes every time John Wayne called Kim Darby his “Baby Sister”. I mean, this is a movie about dudes killing dudes, why are they talking like honorary members of The Babysitter’s Club? And like I said, the “Yee-haw!” score playing throughout doesn’t do much to take away from this upbeat and unwanted tone either.

So this is the part of the review where I’m supposed to turn things around and say, “But John Wayne, man…dude blew my knickers clear off with this performance. The role of a lifetime, singlehandedly redeems everything else that holds this movie back.” But alas, it ain’t gonna happen. Wayne plays our renegade marshal, “Rooster” Cogburn, and I hadn’t even gotten to Act two when I realized that what they gave him was a Lifetime Achievement Oscar. He’s not much of a drunk, he’s not much of an asshole, he’s got a pretty weak character arc to boot, and I couldn’t help but be disappointed since the biggest reason folks remember this movie is because of the Oscar that Wayne nabbed for it. My knowledge of Wayne might be limited, but he was unreal in The Searchers and this is a far cry from what he brought to the table in that movie. Cogburn ultimately works because it’s John Wayne being John Wayne, but for a guy that’s proven he can do better, I expected more.

Cool name though.

As for the rest of ’em, Glen Campbell isn’t all too memorable as the other pretty boy marshal tagging along for the bounty, La Boeuf; Dennis Hopper makes a really good cameo as the said bandit who loses his knuckles; and Robert Duvall ain’t too shabby as gang leader Ned Pepper, either.

Word on the street is that the Coen Brothers are using the novel rather than this as their source material, and even though I haven’t read it, I’m glad that’s the road they’re taking. I feel like this has been a pretty harsh review, but True Grit isn’t a bad movie, it’s just surprisingly underwhelming considering the Oscar-winning reputation around it. Worth seeing as a comparison piece, it’s still a fine Western and John Wayne is still pretty legit even if this isn’t the best he’s ever been, but if I were you, I think I’d hit up the book instead.