Rooster Cogburn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stuart Millar
Written by	Martha Hyer
Based on	Rooster Cogburn by Charles McColl Portis
Produced by	Paul Nathan Hal B. Wallis
Starring	John Wayne Katharine Hepburn Richard Jordan Anthony Zerbe John McIntire Paul Koslo Richard Romancito Tommy Lee Strother Martin
Cinematography	Harry Stradling, Jr.
Edited by	Robert Swink
Music by	Laurence Rosenthal
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Hal Wallis Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	November 1975
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$17.6 million

Rooster Cogburn is a 1975 American Western film directed by Stuart Millar and starring John Wayne reprising his role as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, and Katharine Hepburn. Written by Martha Hyer, based on the character Rooster Cogburn created by Charles McColl Portis in his 1968 Western novel True Grit, the film is about an aging one-eyed lawman whose badge was recently suspended for a string of routine arrests that ended in bloodshed. To earn back his badge, he is tasked with bringing down bank robbers who have hijacked a wagon shipment of nitroglycerin. He is helped by a spinster searching for her father’s killer. Rooster Cogburn is a sequel to the 1969 film True Grit.

Production

The screenplay was written by actress Martha Hyer, the wife of producer Hal B. Wallis, under the pen name Martin Julien. Director Stuart Millar, a longtime Hollywood producer, had directed only one film, When Legends Die based on the classic novel by Hal Borland, prior to helming Rooster Cogburn.

Although True Grit was released by Paramount Pictures, Wallis made a deal with Universal Pictures to finance this film.

The film was shot in Oregon in autumn 1974, in Deschutes County west of Bend, Oregon (for the mountain scenes), on the Deschutes River for the whitewater rapids, and on the Rogue River in the counties of Josephine and Curry in Oregon, west of Grants Pass, Oregon (for the river scenes). Smith Rock State Park, northeast of Redmond, Oregon, was a setting, as well; the Rockhard/Smith Rock Climbing Guides building at the park entrance was originally built as a set for the movie, where it was portrayed as Kate’s Saloon.

John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn were both born in May 1907 (Hepburn the elder by two weeks), and their careers paralleled each other, yet this marked the only time the Hollywood veterans appeared together in a film. Although it was promoted as Rooster Cogburn (…and the Lady), the opening credits of the film give the title as simply Rooster Cogburn. During filming, both 67-year-old stars stayed in Sunriver, Oregon; Governor Tom McCall flew in for a brief visit with them in early October.

Noted character actor Strother Martin portrayed Shanghai McCoy; he also appeared in True Grit, but as the horse trader Colonel G. Stonehill.

It was the final film from producer Wallis, and the cinematography was by Harry Stradling Jr.

Reception

Critical response

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film “a high-class example of the low Hollywood art of recycling” and praised the performances by the two leads—Wayne for his continuation of his Oscar-winning role as Cogburn, and Hepburn for a performance that recalls her “marvelous characterization opposite Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen“. Canby concluded that the film is “a cheerful, throwaway Western, featuring two stars of the grand tradition who respond to each other with verve that makes the years disappear.” Roger Ebert gave the film 1 star out of 4, and wrote, “the chemistry’s there at times. But when it does work, it’s largely because of the sheer acting craft of [Wayne and Hepburn]. The dialog they’re given is so consciously arch, so filled with subtle little recognitions of who the two actors are, that we never care about the story and it never gets told. And without a narrative to help us along, we finally have to wonder why the movie was made.” Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote, “It’s a stupid story riddled with plot-holes. All that it cares about is providing Hepburn and Wayne with a half-dozen ‘big scenes’ together … What few pleasures are contained in ‘Rooster Cogburn’ occur when Hepburn and Wayne simply and silently look at each other with affection. We sense they like each other from the beginning, so their put-down material comes across as phony theatricality.” Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote that the film had “an embarrassingly prefab script, along with much forced and strident acting, all badly coordinated by the numb and ragged direction of Stuart Miller.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film a “slow and rattletrap” star vehicle for Wayne and Hepburn, whose pairing was “not so much a relationship as a very good-natured contest in scene larceny. Despite some of the most tongue-numbing dialogue in a long while, Hepburn wins every time with her sweetly devastating underplaying.” Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it “a patchwork conception that might have worked if the script had been considerably more ingenious and the direction considerably more adroit … Screenwriter Martin Julien hasn’t discovered how to develop a relationship between hero and heroine that runs on the same track with the chase story, and Stuart Millar’s direction is as heavy as lead and slow as molasses.”

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 44% “Rotten” rating based on 9 critics, with four being positive and five being negative.

Box office

The film grossed $17,594,566 at the box office, earning $4.5 million in North American rentals. It was the 25th-highest grossing film of 1975.

True Grit
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Screenplay by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Based on	True Grit by Charles Portis
Produced by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen Scott Rudin
Starring	Jeff Bridges Matt Damon Josh Brolin Hailee Steinfeld Barry Pepper
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Edited by	Roderick Jaynes
Music by	Carter Burwell
Production companies	Skydance Productions Mike Zoss Productions Scott Rudin Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	December 22, 2010 (United States)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35–38 million
Box office	$252.3 million

True Grit is a 2010 American Western film directed, written, produced, and edited by the Coen brothers. It is an adaptation of Charles Portis‘ 1968 novel of the same name, starring Jeff Bridges as Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. The film also stars Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. A previous film adaptation in 1969 starred John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell.

Fourteen-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross hires Cogburn, a boozy, trigger-happy lawman to go after an outlaw named Tom Chaney who has murdered her father. The bickering duo are accompanied on their quest by a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf who has been tracking Chaney for killing a State Senator. As the three embark on a dangerous adventure, they each have their “grit” tested in various ways.

Filming began in March 2010, and the film was officially released in the United States on December 22, 2010 after advance screenings earlier that month. The film opened the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011.^[5] It was well received by critics, garnering a “Certified Fresh” 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards (but did not win any): Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7, 2011.

Cast

Hailee Steinfeld was cast as Mattie Ross from among 15,000 other applicants.

• Jeff Bridges as Deputy U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn
• Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross
• Matt Damon as Texas Ranger LaBoeuf
• Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney
• Barry Pepper as “Lucky” Ned Pepper
• Domhnall Gleeson as Moon (the Kid)
• Bruce Green as Harold Parmalee
• Ed Lee Corbin as Bear Man (Dr. Forrester)
• Roy Lee Jones as Yarnell Poindexter
• Paul Rae as Emmett Quincy
• Nicholas Sadler as Sullivan
• Dakin Matthews as Colonel Stonehill
• Elizabeth Marvel and Ruth Morris as 40-year-old Mattie
• Leon Russom as Sheriff
• Jake Walker as Judge Isaac Charles Parker
• Don Pirl as Cole Younger
• Jarlath Conroy as the Undertaker
• J. K. Simmons as J. Noble Daggett, Mattie’s lawyer (voice only)

Adaptation and production

The project was confirmed in March 2009.

Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version.

It’s partly a question of point-of-view. The book is entirely in the voice of the 14-year-old girl. That sort of tips the feeling of it over a certain way. I think [the book is] much funnier than the movie was so I think, unfortunately, they lost a lot of humor in both the situations and in her voice. It also ends differently than the movie did. You see the main character – the little girl – 25 years later when she’s an adult. Another way in which it’s a little bit different from the movie – and maybe this is just because of the time the movie was made – is that it’s a lot tougher and more violent than the movie reflects. Which is part of what’s interesting about it.

Mattie Ross “is a pill”, said Ethan Coen in a December 2010 interview, “but there is something deeply admirable about her in the book that we were drawn to”, including the Presbyterian–Protestant ethic so strongly imbued in a 14-year-old girl. Joel Coen said that the brothers did not want to “mess around with what we thought was a very compelling story and character”. The film’s producer, Scott Rudin, said that the Coens had taken a “formal, reverent approach” to the Western genre, with its emphasis on adventure and quest. “The patois of the characters, the love of language that permeates the whole film, makes it very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards”.

Nevertheless, there are subtle ways in which the film adaptation differs from the original novel. This is particularly evident in the negotiation scene between Mattie and her father’s undertaker. In the film, Mattie bargains over her father’s casket and proceeds to spend the night among the corpses to avoid paying for the boardinghouse. This scene is, in fact, nonexistent in the novel, where Mattie is depicted as refusing to bargain over her father’s body, and never entertains the thought of sleeping among the corpses. Open casting sessions were held in Texas in November 2009 for the role of Mattie Ross. The following month, Paramount Pictures announced a casting search for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, describing the character as a “simple, tough as nails young woman” whose “unusually steely nerves and straightforward manner are often surprising”. Steinfeld, then age 13, was selected for the role from a pool of 15,000 applicants. “It was, as you can probably imagine, the source of a lot of anxiety”, Ethan Coen told The New York Times. “We were aware if the kid doesn’t work, there’s no movie”.

The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area in March and April 2010, as well as in Bartlett, Granger and Austin, Texas. The first trailer was released in September; a second trailer premiered with The Social Network.

For the final segment of the film, a one-armed body double was needed for Elizabeth Marvel (who played the adult Mattie). After a nationwide call, the Coen brothers cast Ruth Morris – a 29-year-old social worker and student who was born without a left forearm.

Reception

Box office

In the holiday weekend following its December 22 North American debut, True Grit took in $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections. By its second weekend ending January 2, the film had earned $87.1 million domestically, becoming the Coen brothers’ highest-grossing film, surpassing No Country for Old Men, which earned $74.3 million. True Grit was the only mainstream movie of the 2010 holiday season to exceed the revenue expectations of its producers. Based on that performance, The Los Angeles Times predicted that the film would likely become the second-highest grossing western of all time when inflation is discounted, exceeded only by Dances with Wolves. On Thursday, December 23, 2010, it opened to No. 3 behind Little Fockers and Tron: Legacy. On Friday, December 24, 2010, it went up to No. 2 behind Little Fockers. On Friday, December 31, 2010, it went up to No. 1 and then on January 1, 2011, it went back to No. 2 until January 3, 2011. It stayed No. 1 until January 14 and then went down to No. 3 behind The Green Hornet and The Dilemma. On February 11, 2011, it went down to No. 9 behind Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Just Go With It, Gnomeo and Juliet, The Eagle, The Roommate, The King’s Speech, No Strings Attached, and Sanctum. It closed in theaters on April 28, 2011. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million. According to Box Office Mojo, True Grit has grossed over $170 million domestically and $250 million worldwide as of July 2011.

Both the brothers and Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore attributed the film’s success partly to its “soft” PG-13 rating, atypical for a Coen brothers film, which helped broaden audience appeal. Paramount anticipated that the film would be popular with the adults who often constitute the Coen brothers’ core audience, as well as fans of the Western genre. But True Grit also drew extended families: parents, grandparents, and teenagers. Geographically, the film played strongest in Los Angeles and New York, but its top 20 markets also included Oklahoma City; Plano, Texas; and Olathe, Kansas.

Critical reception

True Grit received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, “What strikes me is that I’m describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That’s a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It’s a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder”, and also remarking, “The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western.”

Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld‘s performances garnered critical acclaim and they both received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor & Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing, “The Coens, not known for softening anything, have restored the original’s bleak, elegiac conclusion and as writer-directors have come up with a version that shares events with the first film but is much closer in tone to the book … Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, they worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio.”

In his review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert wrote: “the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful.” Richard Corliss of Time named Hailee Steinfeld’s performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010, saying “She delivers the orotund dialogue as if it were the easiest vernacular, stares down bad guys, wins hearts. That’s a true gift”.

Rex Reed of the New York Observer criticized the film’s pacing, referring to plot points as “mere distractions … to divert attention from the fact that nothing is going on elsewhere”. Reed considers Damon “hopelessly miscast” and finds Bridges’ performance mumbly, lumbering, and self-indulgent. Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a B+: “Truer than the John Wayne showpiece and less gritty than the book, this True Grit is just tasty enough to leave movie lovers hungry for a missing spice.”

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops review called the film “exceptionally fine” and said “[a]mid its archetypical characters, mythic atmosphere and amusingly idiosyncratic dialogue, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen’s captivating drama uses its heroine’s sensitive perspective – as well as a fair number of biblical and religious references – to reflect seriously on the violent undertow of frontier life”.

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 95% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 275 reviews, with an average score of 8.32/10 and with its consensus stating: “Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens’ most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book.” Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Total Film gave the film a five-star review (denoting ‘outstanding’): “This isn’t so much a remake as a masterly re-creation. Not only does it have the drop on the 1969 version, it’s the first great movie of 2011”.

Accolades

The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (Hailee Steinfeld) and received ten additional nominations in the following categories: Best Film, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The ceremony took place on January 14, 2011.

It was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld). The ceremony took place on January 30, 2011.

It was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography.

It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, but won none: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. When told of all the nominations, the Coen brothers stated, “Ten seems like an awful lot. We don’t want to take anyone else’s.”