It may be hard to believe, but Hollywood legend John Wayne only won one Oscar in his career. However, it was deserved. In 1969 he played the lead role in The Marshal, which today may be better known by its original title: True Grit. The film adaptation of a novel by Charles Portis tells one unusual revenge story. It’s not Wayne’s marshal who is thirsting for revenge, but a girl.
John Wayne plays one of his best adult roles in The Marshal
Mattie Ross’ (Kim Darby) father is shot dead in the street. She wants to bring the perpetrator to justice and turns to the roughneck “Rooster” Cogburn (Wayne), who spends the last years of his life drinking. He has reached the end of his western journey, if it weren’t for Mattie, who gives him a new milestone and thus a meaning in life. Tracker Rooster is supposed to find the murderer.
The unlikely duo is supported by the young Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glenn Campbell in a role intended for Elvis Presley), although the three of them don’t exactly get along smoothly.
Paramount
The Marshal
Director Henry Hathaway had previously filmed The Four Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne and knew how to bring out the sensitive sides of his tough Western characters without drowning them in sentimentality. The Marshal is at the top of their collective work and is a swan song to a bygone era. At the same time, Mattie is presented as the embodiment of a future that leaves men like Rooster behind but does not forget them.
Considering that one of John Wayne’s greatest roles (The Black Hawk) was about a young girl’s destructive protective instinct, Mattie in The Marshal represents an optimistic counterpart, updated for the societal shifts of the 1960s. But you shouldn’t expect a western experiment. The Marshal breathes the aura of classic Hollywood cinema and is therefore part of a vanished world.
John Wayne played the role again in 1975’s Dynamite and Pious Sayings, this time alongside Katharine Hepburn. In 2010, the remake True Grit by the Coen brothers was released in theaters, with Jeff Bridges as Rooster, Matt Damon in the role of the young ranger and Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie. The Coen film is more brutal and funnier than the original. But both versions are (to this day) more than worth seeing.
This is how you can watch The Marshal
The The first film adaptation of True Grit will be shown today, December 29th, at 9:55 p.m. on 3Sat. The public broadcaster is showing a double feature with John Wayne. If you’re more in the mood for western entertainment with the “Duke”, John Ford’s classic Rio Grande is also worth watching, which will be shown from 8:15 p.m.
The marshal will not be repeated. But you can catch up if you have a WOW or Paramount+ subscription.