The real Rooster. A couple of years ago, shortly after the release of the second film - the film adaptation of the novel "Iron Arm" by Charles Portis by the Coen brothers, films with the participation of American screen legend John "Duke" Wayne were shown on the AMC channel all day, and the first True Grit (1969) by Henry Hathaway, whose name is translated as "True Courage", was one of them. The role of one-eyed Ruben "Ruster" Cogburn, a bailiff at Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1877, reluctant to help 14-year-old Matty Ross find her father's killer, earned John Wayne his first and only Oscar for Best Actor. The week before, I watched a movie by the Coen Brothers in a theater. I really wanted to see the first film adaptation, which went down in history as a Western classic and one of Wayne’s best roles, and not just compare the two films (I had no doubt they would be completely different), but have my own idea of both. After watching both films, both are very good, each is a product of its time, and both tell the same story from different perspectives. The Coen film is the story of Matty, she is at the center of all events and the viewer is identified with her. In this regard, the ending of the film, which dramatically differs from the ending of the Wayne version, but truthfully follows the novel, is absolutely justified and the only possible.
Hathaway's film puts Rouster Cogburn in the center - Wayne and "Duke" rises above everything and everyone in the role of an explosive judicial executor with an iron grip, a drinker, a bully, well, a rooster whom a 14-year-old girl hired to find and punish her father's killer. The ending of an old movie is wonderful for him, and would look fake in a Coen movie. Personally, I like the Coen film better - it's compressed, dynamic, atmospheric, and its visual solution seems perfect to me, and the scene in which Rooster rides day and night with a fainting Matty, just brilliantly shot by Roger Deakins. Hathaway's film is very beautiful, but it's too bright and sunny for the cruel story it tells. Also, I don’t like the typical Western music that accompanies the old movie. On a positive note, it was great to see young Robert Duvall (Ned Pepper) and recently sadly deceased Dennis Hopper (Moon) in small but important roles. As for the central image, Cogburn’s Rouster, I prefer John Wayne. The first film entered the history of cinema thanks to him.
7 out of 10