True Grit (1969)

True Grit is a 1969 American western film directed by Henry Hathaway. It is the first adaption of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. John Wayne stars as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn and won his only Academy Award for his performance in this film. Wayne reprised his role as Cogburn in the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn.

After her father is killed, Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas looking for a marshal or deputy marshal who will help her search for Chaney. She soon learns about a deputy marshal called Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and upon hearing about Cogburn's legendary grit, Ross decides that he may be the man to help her. Unable to meet with Cogburn straight away she goes to the Monarch boardinghouse, where she meets Texas Ranger Le Boeuf. Le Boeuf has recently come from Mattie's home in Dardanelle, Arkansas, in Yell County, and advises Mattie that he too is searching for Chaney who killed a Texas Senator on his porch some time past. Mattie refuses Le Boeuf's assistance. The following day she meets Cogburn and his roommates; a tiny Chinese man, Chen Lee (H.W. Gim), and the ginger-colored cat, General Sterling Price. Agreeing to a price of $100, Ross and Cogburn set out to capture and return Chaney, who has taken up with a known criminal "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) (whom Rooster shot in the lip in a gunfight) and his gang. Ross goes to see a local horse dealer (Strother Martin), from whom her father had bought four ponies, uncollected at the time of his death. After finally getting the horse dealer to return the money paid for the horses (at $25 per head), along with her father's saddle amongst other things, Mattie leaves with $300 in cash. She returns to Rooster and gives him $25 as a down payment, promising another $25 when they leave Fort Smith and the remaining $50 upon completion of the job. She then leaves to buy a horse, from the same horse-dealer for $12 (including shoeing as she "will not ride a barefoot pony"). Returning the following day to Cogburn, she is less than thrilled to see Le Boeuf also there, discussing the search for Chaney. She attempts to convince Cogburn to ignore Le Boeuf's offers of a share of $1,500 but ends up asking for her down payment to be returned. Cogburn admits to having spent it. Mattie leaves. Cogburn and Le Boeuf arrive at a river ferry crossing, to find Mattie Ross and her horse waiting to cross the river. They refuse to let her travel, claiming to a nearby Marshal that she is a runaway and that there is a $50 reward for her capture. She escapes the Marshal and makes her horse swim over the river, wherein she beats the two men to the other side. The two men ride away quickly, but she follows. After they lay a trap for her and catch her, they realize she is determined to go along and she joins the posse. After a couple of days, the posse come across a cabin in a valley, which Cogburn had claimed would be empty, so they could stay the night. However, the place is not empty and is the hideout of Emmet Quincy (Jeremy Slate) and Moon (Dennis Hopper), two horse thieves, they find out, are waiting for Ned Pepper. After an argument between the two, Quincy fatally stabs Moon twice with a knife, forcing Rooster to draw his gun on Quincy and shoot him dead. However, before he dies from his wounds, Moon tells them that Ned and his band are due at the hideout that night, so they lay a trap. After dark, Rooster tells Mattie about his former life and his former wife and son (who "never liked [him] anyway"). Whether the past is the reason for his constant drinking is only hinted at, but is never confirmed. The following morning, Ned Pepper and his band arrive at the hideout, but realise that something is wrong when their signals go unanswered. A shootout ensues with Rooster and Le Boeuf killing two of Ned's posse and one horse. But Pepper survives (despite having his horse shot from under him by Le Beouf) and he and the remaining members of his group escape. Rooster, Le Boeuf and Mattie make their way to a small outpost known as McAlester's store. There Rooster arranges for the four dead to be buried and, after prompting from Mattie, keeps an earlier promise to the stabbed horse thief to send money to his brother, a circuit-riding Methodist preacher in Austin, Texas. The three continue their pursuit of Chaney & Pepper. After a few days on the trail, Mattie wakes up one morning and makes her way down a steep hill to a river to wash. She slips down the hill and finds herself face-to-face with Tom Chaney. She gets up and raises her pistol. Chaney goads her and much to his surprise, she shoots him, injuring him in the ribs. She calls out to Le Boeuf and Cogburn, but Ned Pepper and his gang get there first and capture Mattie. Using her as a bargaining tool, they make Cogburn and Le Boeuf leave. Then Ned's gang abandon Mattie and Chaney and prepare to ride off to "business elsewhere". Cogburn has doubled back, however, and meets the four members of Pepper's gang in a large clearing. They ride towards one another. Cogburn takes the reins in his teeth, a rifle in one hand and handgun in the other, and manages to dispose of three members of Pepper's group, and shoot and wound Ned. However, in the process Cogburn's horse Bo is shot and lands on Rooster's leg, pinning him underneath with his rifle out of reach. Meanwhile, Le Boeuf has made his way to Chaney and Mattie and moves Chaney to an area he thinks is secure. Then he and Mattie move to an outcropping and watch Rooster's four-on-one fight with Ned and his gang. A wounded Pepper, who took a hit to the shoulder, advances on Rooster, who still can't reach his gun. Just as he prepares to shoot Rooster, Le Boeuf shoots Pepper from a great distance, killing him. Le Boeuf and Mattie return to Chaney, only to find him missing. Chaney appears from behind a large boulder and smashes a rock over Le Boeuf's head, knocking him unconscious and apparently killing him. Mattie shoots and wounds Chaney once again in the arm, but the recoil makes her fly backwards and she falls into a pit, breaking her arm. Cogburn arrives and manages to shoot and kill Chaney before Chaney can draw his gun. Mattie screams for help as there is a rattlesnake in the pit. While waiting for rescue, Mattie starts swiping at the snake with a branch from the pit, angering the snake, which ultimately bites her on the hand. Cogburn then shoots the snake dead. The two are unable to get out, but Le Boeuf comes to the rescue as he announces that he "ain't dead yet", climbs a horse, with a rope attached, and pulls the two from the pit. This action takes the last bit of life from Le Boeuf who collapses and dies moments later. Cogburn is forced to leave Le Boeuf, telling Mattie that if he doesn't get her to a doctor quickly then she'll be "deader than he is". He and Mattie climb on Mattie's horse, despite her protestations that the horse can't carry them both, and they ride away at speed. After a while, the exertion becomes too much for the horse, which dies. Cogburn lifts an unconscious Mattie and carries her. He comes across - and "borrows" - a wagon and drives to McAlester's, where an Indian doctor treats her snakebite and splints her broken arm. Days later, Cogburn and Chen Lee are playing cards when Mattie's attorney, J. Noble Daggett (John Fiedler) arrives and pays Cogburn the remaining $75 of the fee for the capture of Chaney, plus an additional $200 for saving Mattie's life. He informs them, though, that Mattie is gravely ill. After absorbing the news, Rooster asks Daggett if he is a betting man, to which Daggett responds "on occasion". Rooster offers to bet the $275 and his cat, General Sterling Price, that Mattie will make it back to Yell County; but with a laugh, the prudent Daggett declines to bet against Mattie. Weeks later, Mattie and Cogburn are at Mattie's home, and Mattie shows him her family plot. She tells Rooster that she wants him to be buried beside her in the family plot, which surprises him, but he accepts, so long as she doesn't mind if he doesn't "...try to move in too soon!". He then rides away, jumping a four-rail fence as the film ends....