Actors - True Grit

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	Actors - True Grit

True Grit is a 1968 novel by Charles Portis, and an American feature film adapted from the book.

Story

Portis’ novel tells the story of 69-year-old Mattie Ross, a pious, spinster banker who seems to love money, quoting scripture, and going to church. Now in 1928, she tells the story of what happened to her in her life 55 years earlier, in 1873.

As a fourteen-year-old girl, Mattie Ross is out for revenge for her father’s death, at the hands of vagabond hired hand named Tom Chaney. Chaney had worked on the Ross’ family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Frank Ross and Chaney had gone to Fort Smith to buy some horses, for which Ross took along some silver dollars. Chaney then got drunk and lost his wages gambling, so he killed Ross to get the silver dollars. After Chaney murdered Frank Ross and stole his silver dollars, he fled through Fort Smith into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). Learning that Chaney had hooked up with Ned Pepper and his gang, most of the marshals, especially those with families, didn’t want to risk going after the gang. Mattie aims to track him down, and when she arrives in Fort Smith she asks around for the toughest deputy United States Marshal in the district. That man is Deputy Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, and although he is unkempt, overweight, middle-aged, has only one eye, is likely to shoot first and ask questions later, and never seems to miss a drink of whiskey, he also has “grit.” Mattie learns he has a reputation of getting his man, no matter what the odds, and no matter how hard it appears to be.

Mattie finally persuades Cogburn to take on the job, by baiting his thirst for more whiskey, by giving him money to buy drink. Also as part of the bargain she must go along. During the negotiations a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf appears on the scene, who is also tracking Chaney for killing a senator in Texas. La Boeuf is chasing Chaney for a big reward and the glory of self-promotion. After some haggling Cogburn and La Boeuf agree to join in the hunt. Unbeknownst to Mattie, Cogburn plans to ditch her at the crossing of the Arkansas River before crossing into Indian Territory.

When they get to the ferry, Rooster tells the ferry master that she is a runaway, and that there is a reward for her. After Rooster and La Boeuf head across the river, Mattie, whose reins are being held by the ferry master, says that she must adjust her hat. She takes the hat and slaps him across the face, then fords the river on horseback. Rooster admires this show of grit in Mattie (“she reminds me of me”), but they still plan to ditch her. Rooster and La Boeuf try to outrun her on horseback, but that doesn’t work either, so they decide to ambush her. La Boeuf grabs her and says he’s going to spank her. Rooster has seen enough, so he relents and orders La Boeuf to stop.

The three head west to a trading post run by Mr. and Mrs. McAlester (at the place that would become McAlester, Oklahoma). There are only about five buildings in the little post, a store, a barber shop (where the barber also acts as the local doctor), a barn, and a couple of houses.

The story is a moral lesson and very biblical in nature, and the two main themes of the story are the greed of money, and retribution and justice—“an-eye-for-an-eye.” The story also deals with the contradiction of Mattie’s strict sobriety and abstention from profanity, and Rooster’s use of both alcohol and swear words to excess, but that they can still work together and get along to reach a common goal.

The story is also one of transitions, mainly that of the parallel transition of Mattie. First, and most obvious, is the physical transition of a girl becoming a woman. Second, there is the transition of her thinking that everything can be solved by words, via the Bible and law, to the realization that there are people in the world who can be controlled only by stronger means. This transition goes from her quoting scripture and the sayings of family attorney, J. Noble Daggett (who “she draws like a gun”), to being forced to deal with men like Chaney, Col. G. Stonehill, Rooster, La Boeuf, Emmett Quincy, and Moon, realizing things are not as black-and-white as she had thought they were.

Rooster and La Boeuf also go through transitions. Rooster has transitioned from the man he was in Illinois to the hard man he has become. Now, meeting Mattie is causing him to think about things differently. Rooster goes from thinking only about himself, to a hero for Mattie, first in the one-on-four shootout, then in rescuing Mattie from a well into which she had been thrown and racing to the doctor. La Boeuf also moves from being completely obsessed with pride, the money and glory catching Chaney, and the pride with which he seems to take in everything connected with Texas, to realizing that there may be more to life. Unfortunately for him, it comes to late to make it back to Texas.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for True Grit ]

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Actors - True Grit

Story

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