Grit… In Spades
In addition to The Duke, True Grit stars Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. Darby plays Mattie Ross, daughter of a successful family man who gets gunned down by Tom Chaney. Mattie wants nothing more than to bring Chaney to justice, but she can’t do it alone. She leaves the comfort of her hometown to seek out Cogburn and hire him to track and capture Chaney. Cogburn, fresh off a court hearing for his brute methods, isn’t so interested in taking the job, but he does take Mattie’s money at first to feed his drinking and gambling habit. But he soon comes around and decides to team up with Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Campbell). La Boeuf has an interest in capturing Chaney as well for other charges against him. Cogburn and La Boeuf decide to team up, intending to leave Mattie behind, but she is determined to join them.
And so this unlikely trio will have to square off against Chaney and his cohorts, including “Lucky” Ned Pepper’s (Duvall) gang of outlaws. Expect plenty of gun fights, including an all time classic scene in which Cogburn charges his horse head on into a battle against four other horsemen — and wins.
True Grit is just one of those stories (a novel, originally penned by Charles Portis but adapted to screen by Marguerite Roberts) that is powerful and timeless. It’s a superb American tale that is inspiring and moving and, frankly, just a lot of fun to watch. I love a lot of the Duke’s movies, but this one is definitely in my top five.
On Blu-ray
I was a little disappointed in the extra features on this release as they are all from the 2007 Special Edition DVD. I’ll get to the extras soon, but first, the presentation…
It starts with the packaging. I love the box art from its gruff picture of Wayne in character to its huge, in your face font. The menu nicely done too; I actually like that it is just a gorgeous still image of art representing the movie. More importantly, the image quality of the actual movie is quite good. You know, maybe the colors could have had a little more pop and at times there is a very faint grain, but overall the image quality is great. The 5.1 DTS-HD audio is also great, but viewers have other options should they choose. These include English Restored Mono as well as French/Spanish/Portuguese Mono. Subtitles in English/French/Spanish/Portuguese are also available.
As for extra features, let’s take a look:
-Audio Commentary with Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Boze Bell, and J. Stuart Rosebrook.
-True Writing (SD, 4m27s) – Several western historians as well as a few cast members including the late Jeremy Slate and Kim Darby talk about Marguerite Roberts’ screenplay that she wrote based on the original novel. Some scenes and still images from the movie are shown as well as a few images of the original script.
-Working With The Duke (SD, 10m15s) – Kim Dary, Glen Campbell, and others reminisce about working with John Wayne. Scenes from the film as well as production footage and still images are shown.
-Aspen Gold: Locations of True Grit (SD, 10m18s) – Several residents of the Colorado town talk about when True Grit came in 1969 to film. Video comparisons of then and now are shown as are some vintage images.
-The Law And The Lawless (SD, 5m45s) – A brief look at some of the legendary lawless and lawmen of the old west as presented by a couple of historians.
-Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3m40s) – A HD-ified original trailer.
With that, lets get to the summary…