The Killer Western Novel that Made Two Great Movies

[00:00:00]Today we're going to talk about a western. This is a novel that has been made into a movie not once but twice.

[00:00:06]Both times the man playing the male lead got the Academy nomination for best actor. One of them arguably the wrong one even one. Bonus. The novel is drop deadad hilarious. Today we're talking about True Grit.

[00:00:29]Hi, I'm Dave. Welcome to Hy Low Brow.

[00:00:33]So, today we're going to talk about True Grit, which is a western, which is very, very funny. And I'm going to talk about the novel, but also about the two movies that were made out of it. It's a reasonably good chance you might have seen at least the 2010 Cohen Brothers film starring Jeff Bridges uh as uh as the iconic character Rooster Cogburn.

[00:00:52]We'll come to the movies in time. I'm going to try at least up front to avoid spoilers. Uh I suspect at a certain point we're just I'm just going to be telling you things about the movies and and the and the book and how they differ and um so you know I'll try and warn you when that when that happens but I'm I'm sufficiently enthusiastic I may be distracted and forget. So this is a novel by Charles Poris his one of five.

[00:01:16]it's I think is most celebrated and I want to start by characterizing it sort of broadly explaining how the novel works and then and and I want to show you some of the things that are just absolutely terrific about the book. So broadly this is a book about character.

[00:01:36]It's a it's a character study in in two characters really. Okay. Um Rooster Cogburn who is uh um well who's Rooster Cogburn? He rode with Quantril uh in the you know the bloody borders of the civil war. So he was a kind of fought for the south slash kind of a a kind of an outlaw. And in fact after the war uh he he he tells his own story during the course of of the book. Um when they heard about the surrender at Appamatics, they went and turned themselves in. Um and they were given a one-day parole, i.e. come back tomorrow because uh we're going to sort of inspect the the surrendering uh Confederates to make sure none of them are are uh are are bandits. Uh and and so they left uh fearing that they'd be uh picked out and and uh and not ultimately released, but maybe hanged. and on the way they steal a union payroll. Uh he goes on and and and runs a restaurant for a while and then becomes a federal marshall. So he's a he is a federal marshall uh in the Indian territory. So he goes out and arrest outlaws. The Indian territory is what would ultimately become the state of Oklahoma. Okay. But in the year when the when the story happens which I want to say is 1870 uh so we're like five years after the civil war um it is uh it's not yet a state and and various Indian peoples have been relocated to this kind of bad land territory. Okay.

[00:03:12]So Rooster Cogburn but the other character is the narrator which is uh Maddie Ross and uh we'll talk about her uh in in in just a minute. I'm going to read some little bits out of the first chapter I think.

[00:03:25]So, it's a it's a novel about characters. It it is a novel about the setting. Um, it is uh it is a a a terrific study in voice. Um, the plot is fairly straightforward. Uh, and it's a fairly straightup kind of western. The uh bad guys are really bad guys. There's there's no question about it. There's no attempt to justify them or make them sympathetic. They're all quite bad. The uh law men are are more complicated. Uh there are two principally. Uh one is Rooster Cogburn and the other is is labe who's a Texas Ranger. Um and neither one of them is perfect. Rooster in particular is a is a man of many flaws.

[00:04:07]Um and uh um you know and and the quest is to bring a bad man to justice. So it's a pretty straightforward plot, a pretty straightforward kind of western setup. Um I I don't think it's sort of attempting to deconstruct anything. It's It's just a western novel.

[00:04:25]What is What is great about this uh partly is the setup. Okay, there's there's a frame story. Man, I guess I'm going to get into spoilers this early.

[00:04:36]All right, sorry spoilers. This is how it is. You've probably seen if you saw the Cohen brothers movie. I'm not going to say anything that you don't already know. If you saw the John Wayne one, I am. So, the story is being told by Mattie Ross, but not in the present.

[00:04:53]it she's 14 years old when the when the story happens but it is years later uh when she's telling it like like post Woodro Wilson so I think it's in the it might be in the 20s when she's telling it and um a lot of the humor comes from sort of comes from her in in two ways one as a girl she is extremely smart and also extreme extremely headstrong.

[00:05:23]There's a terrific scene, it's too long for me to read the whole thing, where she's negotiating for over horses. Her father had bought some horses from a man named Stonehill um in Fort Smith and uh and his father had been caring for or he Stonehill had been caring for her father's horse, stabling her father's horse, which was stolen when her father was killed. I'll get to that whole lot. That's the story setup. But uh so she comes to negotiate to force him to buy back the horses and uh also pay her for the stolen horse. Um and she just steamrolls him with threats of litigation from her lawyer. Uh and and and he he knows he's being steamrolled and he's commenting on is being steamrolled and it's absolutely hilarious. So, uh, and and by the way, in a in a sense, the sort of some of the foundation, the reason why Rooster Cogburn and the and Maddie Ross can have a relationship is is that she doesn't steamroll him.

[00:06:27]She she she's still that person, but he's sort of uh canankerous and sort of cussed enough um that he doesn't get steamrolled like Stonehill or like some of the other characters. So, one, it's hilarious because of that character, but two, it's being told by that same person as an older woman, okay, as as an older woman who is a Presbyterian, is a one-armed Presbyterian spinster who's been highly successful in business and is highly active in her church. So, she's sort of starchy, nononsense, very definite from from start to finish, very definite ideas about the world and society and and her rank in it. Like she opens up calling Tom Cheney trash and she closes up calling Frank James trash, right? Um, so so part of the humor is in the voice that this is the character who is telling the story. There's a moment where uh when she meets Rooster Cogburn and is first trying to pitch him. We'll get to this. Uh and uh he's fumbling with the makings of a cigarette and she takes the cigarette and neatly rolls it and says, "You know, your problem is your your makings are too dry." And there's a line that says something like he looked at the cigarette and said, open something, right? I don't think he says I think Rooster Cogburn says something. I think what the spinster 30 years later narrating the story is telling us is that he looked at the cigarette and swore, but she's too proper to to tell you that. Right. So, so it's very So, it's it's it's funny because of the voice. It's funny because of this this uh 14-year-old kind of hell on wheels, smarter than everybody else, very um aggressive kid uh trying to trying to sort of accomplish her quest. What's her quest?

[00:08:26]Well, her father's been killed. So, uh her uh father is a farmer in Arkansas who came down with his hired man to Fort Smith on the border of the Indian territory. And um and the hired man was uh hired man there killed him.

[00:08:45]Uh the hired man's named Tom Cheney, although we we learned that he has aliases and uh Cheny's drunk and is gets convinced he's being cheated at cards.

[00:08:55]And uh and his his employer, Mr. Ross, Frank Ross, uh says says, "You're not being cheated. Come on. Uh let's go sober up." And uh and Cheney takes his rifle and shoots him. and then steals uh steals his money, steals his horse, lights out for the Indian territory. Uh so she is here to now her mother think well she's she's she's come along with their help who is a um who's a who's a a black man. I don't not a tenant farmer or an employee. Um uh he's come to town with her. Uh, and it seems that her mother expects she's just come to collect her father's body and and and try to sell back the horses and that's it. Okay. Um, and uh she has bigger plans. The body is easily collected uh and uh and and she basically sends the help back with uh uh with the body and stays. Why? Because she wants justice.

[00:09:57]So um her plan is she knows who killed him. She goes and asks the sheriff uh hey uh where you know my my father is Frank Ross. He was killed by Tom Tom Cheney. What are you doing about it? The sheriff says look I don't have resources and I don't have jurisdiction. He fled into the Indian territory. Um and uh she sort of quickly uh figures out her options which are she can she can um officially she can't really hire one of the federal uh marshals but she can post a reward and tell them about it. So effectively she can she can hire one of the federal marshals who do have jurisdiction to go in uh to go in after um after Tom Cheney and arrest him. So this is her quest is to get justice for her for her father. Um, this I'm I'm not going to read the whole book. Let me let me let me just in chapter one, let me kind of set up the character or or show you how the character is set up. Maybe maybe redundantly to kind of how I've talked about her, but the the pros are so delightful. I want to read some of this. Anyway, here here's the opening paragraph actually to give you a sense of kind of what is this voice like.

[00:11:08]People do not give it credence that a 14-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood. But it did not seem so strange then. Although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just 14 years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Cheney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Here is what happened.

[00:11:36]So, this is the older woman.

[00:11:39]Uh, I don't know. I don't know. Old old I actually haven't done the math, but I think she's probably like in her 50s, maybe. Uh, maybe maybe not that old.

[00:11:47]Maybe she's 40. Um, telling the story.

[00:11:50]But here are the things she tells about herself in the first chapter. She's talking about how kindly her father is and says, um, people would use him. I did not get my mean streak from him.

[00:12:03]Right? self-identifies.

[00:12:06]Um, or here's this. She's talking about Tom Cheney. Uh, he had no handgun. So, this is this is like when they when when her father Frank and the hired man, Tom Cheney, rode off, left the farm. Tom Cheney had no handgun, but he carried his rifle slung across his back on a piece of cotton plow line. There is trash for you. He could have taken an old piece of harness and made a nice leather strap for it. That would have been too much trouble. So, right, she's sort of that class of this is just barely post civil war sort of white farmers have land see themselves as we're not white trash but man some people are and she's really judgmental generally. Okay. But in particular she's judgmental to Tom Cheney for this. The last scene is when she goes hoping to meet Rooster and she has a conversation with the reformed outlaws Cole Younger and Frank James. And um because Cole Younger stands up to talk to her and Frank James remains seated, she decides Frank is trash. He does not have good manners. And and as she walks away, the last thing she says in that conversation is keep your seat trash. Right? So, she's got real ideas about class and propriety and manners and her place in this, right? Um, she's also very uh steeped in the Bible. So, um here's her own self assessment. Uh she sort of says, "Look, I've been the accountant for the farm, right? Figures. Um I do not boast of my own gifts in uh that direction, meaning keeping the books.

[00:13:50]Figures and letters are not everything.

[00:13:52]Like Martha, I have always been agitated and troubled by the cares of the day.

[00:13:56]But my mother had a serene and loving heart. She was like Mary and had chosen that good part. Right? She's comparing herself and her mother to the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. And she's and she Maddie Ross is the one who has felt like she had to keep the the operation running, right? Um but but she but she recognizes that other people have uh She she characterizes this in her mother as choosing the good part while she was she was like Martha distracted by cares and uh and then she and then she ends up um with a comment on Tom Cheney. So when when uh Cheney killed her father, he ran, stole the horse, and rode out of town immediately. And she and she ends it with a straight up Bible quote. The wicked flee when when none pursueth.

[00:14:45]Right? So this is this is who she is.

[00:14:47]And she's come to avenge her father. Um, I want to read a couple other pieces.

[00:14:52]Uh, one is, uh, this is fantastic. She's talking to the sheriff, uh, and he's just explained to her, "Look, you're right. Tom Cheney killed your father. I can't go after him because of jurisdiction and resources.

[00:15:06]You could get a marshall." And this piece is perfect. Both the movies filmed it. Both of the movies, we'll talk about this, took their dialogue almost entirely from the novel. Okay? um including this bit verbatim. So you probably recognize this unless you've never seen the movies in which case I have to share some passages because this book is very funny.

[00:15:28]Um she asks the sheriff who is the best marshall they have.

[00:15:35]The sheriff thought on it for a minute.

[00:15:37]He said I would have to weigh that proposition. There is near about 200 of them. I reckon William Waters is the best tracker. He is a half breed Comanche. It is something to see. It is something to see watching him cut for sign. The meanest one is Rooster Cogburn. He is a pitilous man, double tough, and fear don't enter into his thinking. He loves to pull a cork. Now, LT Quinn, he brings his prisoners in alive. He may let one get by now and then, but he believes even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake. Also, the court does not pay any fees for dead men. Quinn is a good peace officer and a lay preacher to boot. He will not plant evidence or abuse a prisoner. He is straight as a string. Yes, I will say Quinn is about the best they have. I said, "Where can I find this rooster?"

[00:16:28]So fantastic because on the one hand, right, you you set up to be like, "Oh yeah, she she's she has multiple times now sort of identified herself as a Christian and as a Bible believer." And so when this third when this third sher with this third marshall is, you know, he's a late preacher, he he'll bring him in alive. Everybody's entitled to a fair shake. That's not the one she wants. She wants the one who is uh the meanest one.

[00:16:53]He is a pitile man. Fear don't enter into his thinking. Where can I find where can I find this rooster? So there so you know it's kind of this two sides of Mattie Ross, right? And part of her is the mean streak is is the ornery one is the one who wants to get the job done no matter what. And that's the one who who wants justice. She she isn't really there as the Christian, right? Um uh she's she's there for justice, which uh for her means she wants him to die. This this comes out in some of the dialogue elsewhere. She wants Tom Cheney killed.

[00:17:36]knowing he's being killed for killing her father. It is not good enough that he'd be arrested and punished. It's not good enough he taken off to elsewhere and hanged for other crimes. He is to be he is to die really knowing she killed him, right? Uh for for his crime of killing Frank um Frank Ross.

[00:18:00]So, um, so Rooster is this, uh, former Confederate border bandit. Uh, he cuts corners. Uh, uh, he does not play. We get a, we get a great courtroom scene.

[00:18:14]This is in, this is in both the movies, too. um and uh where he is being interrogated by the wi the lawyer for the defense and it's pretty clear that uh Rooster Cogburn has a very practical idea of justice. Um and uh there's there's this dialogue about he claims that um one of the well he's he's killed several several men um and and and one of them survived and they were all outlaws, right? And um and the lawyer is coming after him because he he is claiming specifically that one of them was charging him with an axe when he shot him. And and uh Cogburn says, "Well, I retreated, you know, seven or eight steps away from the fire and he was chasing me with the axe." And the lawyer the lawyer basically says, "Well, how funny enough, he was found lying in the fire, you know, with his with his uh jacket burning and his his arm burned to a crisp, right? So So how is it that uh that that you retreated and he came chasing after you away from the campfire and then he's lying in the did you move the body into the fire?" And Cogn says, "Well, I don't know. I don't remember.

[00:19:31]Maybe I did." Right. Um and uh and then at one point Cogburn says, "Well, there were hogs. There were wild hogs rooting around. Maybe the hogs dragged him into the fire, right? It's very it's very clear that sort of the the nicities of law, legal pleading don't mean very much to him, right? He he will cut corners.

[00:19:52]He's very competent to live in the wilderness. He's a he's a fierce fighter. Um he is a drunk, right? He's he's not a uh not a conventionally good man.

[00:20:03]Um, a big part of the story is basically how these two characters sort of sort of bond. And and I think um uh to to sort of summarize what I what I think the relationship is is um he impresses her by not being willing to be buffaloed. Like she runs over other characters, just knocks them flat. And and she can't do that to him. um she engages him to to you know he takes her money he's going to go get Cheney um but in fact in the first instance he he tries to leave and go without her right because he doesn't want to expose her to the dangers of being out in the Indian territory he he's not robbing her he's going to do the job but he's leaving her behind so um he doesn't let her run him over she doesn't let him abandon her she will not give up so he he becomes impressed of course they don't say these things that you impress me you no this is my read um she will not quit. So he uh with Leb, we'll talk about Lee in a minute. Um uh leaves her and they go and uh the way it works in the book is uh the three of them meet at the ferry. Uh, and then and then the two law men um tell the ferrymen that she's a runaway and there's a reward so that she will or not the ferrymen but there's two guys, one operating the ferry and one kind of on the dock, right? They tell the guy in the dock there's $50 reward for that runaway. You should take her back to uh to the courthouse and he takes her and Dulie starts leading her horse away.

[00:21:40]Right. So these two and she she's fighting and they're you know, hey, they're lying to you. You can't believe this. Um and and the ferry lights out.

[00:21:49]Um she ultimately uh beats the fairy the the the doc guy in the face with her hat until he lets go of her and then she turns around and rides her horse and swims the river with her horse, right?

[00:22:03]And gets out on the other side ahead of the lawn. So she she won't quit. And then after kind of a couple of these episodes, um, they they kind of both begrudgingly say, well, I, you know, I I reckon she's ear she's earned her place, right? So So this is kind of their relationship and and and at the heart of this is a is as a matter of character.

[00:22:24]All of this through her eyes is learning more about him and them kind of having this relationship, which I think maybe the easiest way to characterize it is is he from the beginning refers to her as little sister, right? And uh it's this relationship between this old, scarred, gruff, virtually lawless, violent man.

[00:22:44]Um and this and this this bright, hyper capable, really driven, super smart girl, right?

[00:22:52]Which is which is delightful uh throughout. Now, let me comment just a little bit about uh Lee. Um, so Leif shows up a after she has uh started to engage uh with Rooster Cogburn and sold the horses and uh and and this stuff.

[00:23:10]Um, she goes back to the boarding house and and Labifa is there and um it's spelled labou um as as he says uh uh but he but he pronounces it labe um he called it lab but spelled it something like labou. So, um I just just little bits of dialogue really. Again, this is sort of her character and kind of the relationship with him, which is very funny. Again, this is both straight up in both movies.

[00:23:42]It's so good. The script writers had to shockingly easy job. They just like put the book down on the page.

[00:23:50]That's not all they did.

[00:23:52]So, um Leif explains that under different names, he's been chasing Tom Cheney from Texas. Why? Because Cheney killed a dog, right? Cheney is a bad man. There's There's no All of the Ba the bandits. So, he's going to catch up with Lucky Ned Pepper and his his bandits, which include the the Parmaly Brothers um and the the original Greaser Bob, right? These are bad men, okay?

[00:24:20]There's no there's no redeemable lovable bandits or, you know, mistaken anti-heroes or guys with bad luck. They are villains. Cheney killed the dog.

[00:24:29]Now, that's bad. But then the owner of the dog uh objected and he killed the owner and the owner is a state senator.

[00:24:37]Okay. And so there's a there's a $1,500 bounty. I think we learn the amount later, but but there's a bounty on his head. Uh and he was he was there going under the name Theren Chelmsford. So we hear like I think three different names for Cheney before the book's over.

[00:24:52]And uh um and so uh and Leef is a sergeant of the Texas Rangers um and and has been pursuing him since. Uh he says he dedied, this is Lee, he dedied in Monroe, Louisiana and Pineluff, Arkansas before turning up at your father's place. I have been on his trail the best part of four months.

[00:25:14]I said, why did you not catch him in Monroe, Louisiana or Pineluff, Arkansas?

[00:25:19]He is a crafty one. I thought him slowwitted myself. That was his act. It was a good one. Are you some kind of law? He identifies himself uh as uh as a Texas Ranger. He's very He's very proud of this. Uh Matt Damon does a great job with this role. Um a little more kind of detail uh in which she's sort of rebuffing him and saying, "I've I've already got a man. This is none of your business. You go away. We're going to catch him. We don't want you involved."

[00:25:50]conversation kind of winds up like this.

[00:25:53]He says, "I think your mother would not approve of you getting mixed up in this kind of enterprise. She thinks you're seeing about a horse. Criminal investigation is sorted and dangerous and is best left in the hands of men who know the work." Now, by the way, just remember as you're listening to this dialogue and the way it's all a little bit starchy and stilted, it's being told by the older woman 20 or 30 years later, right? Um, this is her putting putting the words she sort of remembers in Leb's mouth. Criminal investigation is sorted and dangerous and is best left in the hands of men who know the work. I suppose that is you.

[00:26:30]Well, if in four months I could not find Tom Cheney with a mark on his face like banished Kane. Cheney has a big black It's not a birth mark. He It's like a permanent powder burn. Like he had a gun misfire near his face and there and there there's powder under the skin. So he has like a black blot. If in four months I could not find Tom Cheney with a mark on his face like banished cane, I would not undertake to advise others how to do it. A saucy manner does not go down with me. I will not be bullied. He stood up and said, "Earlier tonight, I gave some thought to stealing a kiss from you, though you were very young and sick and unattractive to boot. But now I am of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt. One would be as unpleasant as the other, I replied.

[00:27:19]So, so um they end up the story is is the three of them going uh going into the Indian territory uh and in sort of two or three kind of stages uh uh uh tracking down and and and catching um and catching Tom Cheney. Then the way the story ends. So man, look, I'm really going to say some spoilers now, okay?

[00:27:45]So, um, the the book ends like this. Uh, there's a the iconic scene there a lot of great scenes in both the movies, but the iconic scene in both is really the the gunfight that looks like jousting, okay?

[00:28:01]Where there are four bandits lined up at one side of the clearing and Rooster Cogburn at the other and Rooster Cogburn shouts, "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch," to the outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper.

[00:28:13]And then he takes the the reinss in his teeth and uh and then two firearms. So So the in the book and in the the Jeff Bridges version, it's it's two six shooters, captain ball, Colt draons or something. And uh uh John Wayne, this is kind of cool. This is one of the fun things about the 1969 movie. Uh John Wayne's got a six shooter and then he's got a leveraction rifle and he's he's shooting and then he's spinning it in his hand to to work the action, right?

[00:28:43]So he's but it's a it's a it's nights, right? It's a joust is what it is. He's galloping towards these four guys who are galloping at him and shooting. So we have that great scene. Um and uh um and LeB kind of intervenes to save uh um Cogburn basically wins, but it's trapped under his fallen horse and Leif Lee has a sharps carbine um which which the Cogburn's joke is something like that will come in uh exceedingly in handy if we ever attacked by buffalo. Right? This is like a large caliber long range, right? It's like a sniper weapon, right?

[00:29:25]And and so uh when Cogburn is down and Ned Pepper is injured but is coming to kill him, Leif from far away shoots Ned Pepper. So uh but then Leif is knocked down uh and uh Maddie uh falls in a well bitten by Rattlesnake. So um Cogburn saves her. Uh the sort of heroic um kills a horse to do it. He totally exhausts himself. Uh rides gets back many miles across the Indian territory until he gets to like um I think it might be in the book. It's might might be the Chalkaw uh nation's sheriff, the the law the lawman of the um of the Chalkaw uh tribe. Um and uh who whoever it is, right, gets into someone who's got a wagon, rides the wagon um and and she doesn't see him again. Uh she's sick. She they have to amputate her arm. Um and uh um and and that's sort of the end of her interaction with Rooster Cogburn. It's sort of the end of the story. Um except it it isn't. So there is um it's not really a postcript.

[00:30:39]It's it's the final chapter. Uh she talks about what she knows about the two men Cogburn and Leif afterwards, right?

[00:30:48]And uh Leif goes down uh and uh uh Cheny's Cheney is dead, but but he goes down and collects the reward that there was for him, a couple different rewards in in Texas. Um including I think the family of the senator offered $1,500 dead or alive. So he goes down and claims that award. Uh and and that's the last we hear of LeB. She winds up the story saying, "I'd be happy to talk to him. He must be nearer 80 than 70 by now, right?

[00:31:20]Um, and she talks about Cogburn who uh after this sort of adventure, he she never saw him again. He didn't straighten out. He didn't miraculously become right uh uh uh a better man. Um he he goes down and sort of tries ranching for a while. Doesn't really work out. He goes up to Wyoming where he's something of a an enforcer for other ranchers. It sounds like rusting people off the land and being kind of something like a thug, right? Something maybe not too different from what he was riding with Quantrell in in the Civil War. Um, and then she gets, and this is sort of, this is sort of the impetus for all of this, is she gets a telegram from him saying he's in a Wild West show, or not, maybe it's a letter. It encloses like a like a bill from a Wild West show, which uh the the main uh acts are Cole Younger and Frank James, Frank James, the brother of Jesse James, right? are are kind of this uh um the empressarios the main attractions but he's part of it and they're going to be in I think it's Memphis and and he he'd love to see her right and so she talks about going down there uh and and when she gets to the show um he's uh he's he's died again Cole Younger stands up Frank James stays in his seat and Cole Younger says uh um you know I'm really Sorry. Uh um Rooster had an affliction he called nighthos and uh and it killed him uh 8 days ago and uh you know they they say uh there's a phrase you know we we certainly rooster we and Rooster certainly had some lively times and she says um she says yes we also had lively times and um she takes his body and uh brings it back and and there's the there's the family plot, you know, with her parents. Um, and she's never married. So, effectively she she has him buried in the family plot uh effectively where where her husband, if she'd had one, would have been uh would have been buried. And uh and the the the her last comment is uh well here I'll read this paragraph that includes like the thing on on Leb.

[00:34:00]Um I heard nothing this is the last paragraph of the book. I heard nothing more of the Texas officer LeB. If he is yet alive and should happen to read these pages, I will be pleased to hear from him. I judge he is in his 70s now and nearer 80 than 70. I expect some of the starch has gone out of the cowick.

[00:34:17]He has a big cowlick in his hair. Time just gets away from us.

[00:34:23]This ends my true account of how I avenged Frank Ross' blood over in the Chakon nation when snow was on the ground.

[00:34:34]So this book moving terrific study in these kind of two characters. Leaf is the sort of third most important character, but it's really about Rooster Cogburn and Maddie Ross um and how they can sort of become kind of a um how they can develop a bond, you know.

[00:34:59]Um and uh the language is the language is wonderful uh in the voice but also in in the language itself. and it is drop deadad hilarious on pretty much um every single page. Now, let me just say a little bit about the movies. About the movies. This has been filmed twice. John Wayne won an Academy Award for playing Rooster Cogburn. Although I think it was Orson Scott Card who wrote a review of the 2010 film and said watching Jeff Bridges play the role of Rooster Cogburn makes it clear to me that I'm paraphrasing from memory. Okay. But I think he said it makes it clear to me that the reason John Wayne won an Oscar Oscar was for being John Wayne, right?

[00:35:45]Like John Wayne just had done a lot of movies and people felt like it was time and this is a pretty good role. But Jeff Bridges was nominated, did not win this.

[00:35:54]This I think it I think the 2010 uh film uh was nominated for like 10 Academy Awards and didn't win any. It was huge commercially successful film. Didn't win any of the awards. So arguably though, Jeff Bridges should have won. His Rooster Cogburn is absolutely terrific.

[00:36:11]The 1969 movie is interesting. So the script, I've not seen the script, but you know, you can infer the script from watching what's going on on the screen.

[00:36:19]I mean, the script is wonderful. I don't know who did it. Um, but clearly they uh were trying to be extremely faithful to the book, taking the dialogue wholesale, cutting out sort of bits that they could to, you know, to to get the thing into a two-hour movie. Both films cut out the the Chalkaw Nation law men for example uh just just to make an adaptation you have to cut some stuff but faithfully keeping the dialogue and the spirit of the the film.

[00:36:51]Then something terrible happened.

[00:36:55]I have a theory about what. But but somehow holding in their hand a script that was drop deadad hilarious, the filmmakers decided not to try to make a funny movie.

[00:37:08]So first of all, they cast people with no comic timing. John Wayne, of the three main actors, John Wayne is the best. He is the best at realizing his roles are meant to be funny and delivering them that way. Okay? And he's not very good. He's just not a comic actor. That's not him. He's got a lot of kind of Johnny Cash charisma and swagger, right? He's not a comic actor.

[00:37:32]And um the others are worse. So, uh uh Glenn Campbell, okay, Glenn, who is Glenn Campbell? Glenn Campbell uh had been a session was was a session guitar player who then launched his own very successful country music career. He's a terrific singer. He's a charismatic performer. He uh he's a lightning fast guitar player. Um, you may know him for rhinestone cowboy, but earlier you might know him for for mega hits with John Hartford's Gentle on My Mind or a whole string of songs by Jimmy Webb, including uh Witchah, Lineman, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Galveastston. Okay. And uh just absolutely terrific performer, not an actor and not a not a comedian, not a funny actor. Okay. He plays LeB. So, so unfortunately this means you got kind of a good-looking guy walking around saying the roles, but he's not funny, right?

[00:38:29]John Wayne's not funny. Uh Glenn Campbell's not funny. I forget her name.

[00:38:34]They cast an actress. First of all, she's 21 years old. She's way too old for the part, which by the way is super awkward in the scene where Lefiv spanks her and she's like 21. You're like, So, they cast the wrong people. I hesitate to say this about the Duke, but like it should not have been him. Um, then uh and then they they direct it as if not recognizing it's a comedy.

[00:39:01]And I don't know I don't know the background of this. I don't know if this was like the director was like a Robert Alman type coming out of TV or if they just said maybe here's my here's my theory that or the feeling I have is they had this hilarious script but they said this is a John Wayne movie, not a comedy. So, we're not going to direct the actors to to to do little things to sort of be funny to to to accentuate the the humor of their lines, right? We're just going to have a march as quickly as possible through the script in every scene. And so, that's how they do it.

[00:39:36]And if and if you're listening and thinking through it, you go you go, "This is funny. This is this is really funny." But they don't they don't they don't direct it like a comedy. They're like directing it like it's a straight western. So, it's it's very it's very strange. It's very strange. Um there there's another change they make. Um and and and I I think again I I feel like I don't know this. It feels like in both cases they said we have this comedic script that's about these two characters, but what we want to come out of the end is a John Wayne movie.

[00:40:14]And John Wayne, we can't really make him look bad like this. Rooster Rooster Cogburn doesn't really he doesn't recover. He doesn't really grow, right?

[00:40:23]He has this moment of great heroism and he's and and he and he he does right by this young woman and then he goes back to his kind of borderline outlaw ways, right? That's not John Wayne. So they take away the frame story, okay? And it's just happening. it's just happening in uh you know sort of real time which by the way takes away the idea that these characters are mouththing dialogue being put into their mouths by a 30 you know by by by a much older Presbyterian spinster right and so instead it's just these are things that we have to assume that Leif and Cogburn actually said um so you lose that kind of level of humor but also after she recovers again in the book, Maddie doesn't see him again. Doesn't see either one of them.

[00:41:15]Doesn't seem again. And uh in in the John Wayne movie, she does. And he's looking cleaned up and healthy and happy. And they and and she hasn't lost an arm. And they uh and he takes her back to her family farm. Uh and and there she basically invites him to be buried in their they kind of it's a little nod to the way the book really ends. She she invites him to be buried in her family plot next to her and he says, "Well, that's where your husband's going to be, right?" So, so they like like they kind of bring the the the real end of the book forward and then and then there's this bit at the end where um she kind of teases him about being a fat man and and shouldn't be jumping over four post fences anymore. And he ends the movie by jumping his horse over the four post fence and riding away waving his hat. Right. and and it's kind of this John Wayne ending. Oh, he cleaned up. He looks great. He is a hero. He is fit and mighty, right?

[00:42:14]That's not the way the book ends. So, um, so again, it feels like they wanted to make this a John Wayne vehicle. And to do that, they drained a lot of the humor out of it and they sort of drained the character of Rooster Cogburn a bit.

[00:42:29]Um, having said that, it's an entertaining movie. And if you listen to the dialogue and you just kind of think about it, you go, "Oh, this is actually a lot funnier than it's allowing itself to seem."

[00:42:44]Right? That's the 1969 film. Um, by the way, fun I don't know fact f interesting observation to okay about both the films and I'll talk about the 2010 just briefly. Um, there's a character in the books that I think both film sets of filmmakers found slightly awkward and that character is the original greaser Bob. The original Greaser Bob is a Mexican gambler. He is part of Lucky Ned Pepper's outlaw gang.

[00:43:15]Tom Cheney goes and and hangs out with them in the Indian territory. Okay.

[00:43:21]And um in the book he the sort of uh the the sort of recurring comment about him is he gets wounded but then he seems to kind of be fine, right? He's like he's got this some some kind of ability that makes him recover his wounds really well or something. Well, in the fight at the end when it's fouron-one, Ned and the two Parmealy brothers who they're hilarious. The Paralle brothers are both idiot. We see two of them, but there's like two others that are referred to.

[00:43:50]They're apparently all idiots. Uh, one of them is literally making animal noises the whole time, right? Um, oh, do the calf. Do the calf sound, right? Um, and their names all rhyme, sort of like Harold and Frell and Carol and Gerald or something. Okay, so it's it's the two idiot Paralle brothers, Lucky Ned Pepper and the original Greaser Bob, and they charge uh uh they charge Cogburn, and Greaser Bob just turns and runs. And you go, "Oh, he has he's not some magical guy who recovers from his wounds. He runs away from violence. That's why he survives. Of all the outlaws, he is the only one who gets away with his share.

[00:44:30]They they rob a male train in the meantime. He's the only one who survives to get away with his share of the mail train robbery, right? So again, the there's no romanticizing or trying like the bad guys are bad, including the original Greaser Bob, who is I mean maybe he's a coward. I don't know. He's out for himself. So um both filmmakers find this character uncomfortable, I think, because in the 1969 film, they call him, by the way, why is he the original Greaser Bob? Because somebody else has taken to being called Greaser Bob. And so they call him the original greaser Bob because he was the first.

[00:45:06]Okay. So, um, uh, in the 1969 film, he's just called Mexican Bob. He's the same character, all the same stuff, but they just call him Mex. By the way, I think the novel's published only like a few years before the film. It's not like they came out in radically different time periods. Hold on, let me check. 1968. Okay. So, this was like a hot this was this is a this was a recent bestseller when John Wayne uh made it into when it became a John Wayne movie, right? But what in the novel was was the original Greaser Bob.

[00:45:41]Nevertheless, they felt uncomfortable Mexican Bob. Um the the Cohen brothers uh did something a little more complicated and and and a little bit odd. So, um, they changed the character in the outlaw band to someone called the doctor.

[00:45:59]I think we only hear him referred to once. Ned Pepper says, you know, the doctor will be riding a horse or something like that. I don't think he has any dialogue. I don't remember whether he runs away or just gets shot down in the last fight, right? They just call him the doctor. Uh, but then they repurpose the name. So, there's a there's a a sort of two shootout scenes at a um at a dugout, right? Like a a cabin that is partially dug into the side of a hill. Um and in the Cohen Brothers film, although not in the book and not in the other film, that is referred to as the original Greaser Bob's dugout. So, I don't know, they kept the name, but they didn't feel comfortable showing on screen a person called the original Greaser Bob. Weird.

[00:46:43]I I don't know why they did any of that.

[00:46:45]um except that I think they're all slightly uncomfortable uh wi-i with the name which just an observation I guess.

[00:46:52]So the Cohen brothers film um knows it is a comedy. The direction is way better. They actually make it it's so here here's my my my overall judgment.

[00:47:04]The Cohen brothers version makes more changes to the script. So it it tinkers with the plotline with Leif uh has him kind of leave the party and then come back which doesn't happen in the book. Um and it it inserts a couple of episodes that are not in the book.

[00:47:23]There's an encounter with this bare skinwearing uh Indian territory dentist and the an encounter with a with a sort of a hanged man. Okay. And that are not in the book. So, it's actually it actually differs more in that sense, but um it retains the frame story. It retains the ending at the Wild West show. Uh and um and Maddie Ross commandeering the body and bringing it back um putting it in her plot. Um uh and it knows it's a comedy, so it's directed like it's a comedy. So, where in the John Wayne film, the actors are all just marching through their lines, you know, Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges, um, and I forget the the name of the of the woman cast to play, boy, in both cases, I forget the name of the actress playing Mattie Roth. Shame on me. Um, uh, they are directed as if they're in a comedy.

[00:48:22]And, uh, man, you see that especially, uh, I mean, Mattie Ross is a little bit of a of a pile driver anyway, right?

[00:48:30]like she's not uh um she's sort of always pushing ahead. There's there's no pausing to let someone hear her punchlines. But but Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges are really given direction and time uh the scene where as as are all the secondary characters to to sort of realize the humor and the lines. Um in the 1969 film, the guy who plays of all of the actors, the one who I think comes close to really nailing the spirit of the part is the guy who plays Stonehill.

[00:48:59]the the the stableman, the stock dealer, right? Who who gets buffaloed in this negotiation, buys back the horses, pays for the stolen horse, you know, in exchange for a promise not to be sued uh by her lawyer, Jay Noble Daget. He he he again, you watch that scene and you're like, that actor knows it's funny. He's trying really hard to play it like humor. The director is pushing him to be faster, right? Um the the a the same scene with the actor in 2010 is just hilarious the whole time because because the actor is allowed to like make faces and and and and sort of work with the material other than just saying the lines. And that's that's also true for for Damon and for Jeff Bridges who are very both of them very very good and very very funny um uh in these roles.

[00:49:48]Actually, by the way, let me jump back to 1969.

[00:49:55]Here's here's another thing that the 1969 film did that's different from the book and different from the 2010 film.

[00:50:04]Spoiler, but I'm way over the waterfall on that. Right. They kill Lee.

[00:50:09]So, in the 1969 film, uh, in the sort of last showdown with the sort of jousting scene and the and, uh, uh, Maddie shoots, um, Tom Cheney, but then falls into a pit and is bitten by snakes, right? Um, in all three of them, Lee gets hit on the head. Cheney ambushes him because Cheney is a bad guy. Hits him on the head with a butt of his rifle. Um, in 1969 movie that kills him, he dies.

[00:50:39]Why? Again, I think it's to make more room for movie star John Wayne because in the final scene when John Wayne and you know Rooster and Maddie are going to Mattiey's farm, he explains how while she was recovering, he took the body down and he collected the bounty, right?

[00:50:55]Like they kill Glenn Campbell's character so that John Wayne can be the one who collects the bounty and gets all the money, right? it like you see it all in context and it just feels like that movie is being turned and I don't know if John Wayne or John Wayne's agent or the director or the producer who's making these changes. It feels like the 1969 movie is has been sort of pushed into being this like monument to the great actor John Wayne, right? I say this as a guy who likes John Wayne, right? Those changes all make the movie uh all make the movie worse. Um, but uh, Bridges and Damon and the and also even the girl playing Maddie Ross, who is a more appropriate age. Uh, I think that was the hardest casting. I I read that they they uh they looked at 15,000 people to possibly play the Matty Matty Ross role. They are funny. They are allowed to act. The minor character, the the actors playing the minor characters are allowed to to to to play their roles. Um, the movie makes more changes from the script, but keeping the frame story and and recognizing itself as a comedy makes it ironically truer, I think, to the novel. Now, what should you do?

[00:52:13]Well, how much time do you have? I like both movies. I uh I I rewatched both movies this last weekend after having uh re reread the book to sort of get all this fresh in mind to talk about, man.

[00:52:27]I I'd uh uh I invite you to do the same.

[00:52:31]Now, if you have uh if you say, ' Dave, I can't I didn't have time to read that book. Look, by the way, it's short. It's 60,000 or it's a little book. I would say read the book. Um if you're only going to watch one of the movies, watch the 2010 one. Uh Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are absolutely terrific. Uh but if you have time, watch all three. Watch all three. It's fun to see the differences. Uh and all three of them are of all three of them are entertaining. But the the thing the one that is the masterpiece to be honest is not either the movies. It is the novel.

[00:52:59]This is beautifully written. Uh it's a wonderful character study. It is absolutely hilarious.

[00:53:07]So that's it for me. Uh this has been uh Dave Butler for Hy Low Brow because culture matters and it's good to have fun.