Rooster Cogburn

A Marshall helps a bible-toating spinster find the men who killed her father.

Rooster Cogburn is surprising. As a pseudo-sequel to True Grit my expectations were high, yet Rooster Cogburn exceeded them due in large part to the sheer charisma of stars John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.

Wayne and Hepburn both play seemingly unlikeable characters, and yet by the end of the movie you’re sad to see them go. While part of the credit has to go to the script, which subtly and gradually humanizes both characters over the course of the story; the majority of the credit has to go to the undeniable star power of Wayne and Hepburn.

Director Stuart Millar gives both legends ample time to shine and yet never allows the film to feel self indulgent, an impressive feat made all the more impressive when you realize that the film manages to strike the perfect balance between action, comedy, and even romance, early in it’s running time and walks that fine line all the way through to the credits.

If I had to nit-pick, I’d say the bad-guys were rather under-developed, but in the end they were nothing more than a plot device to explore the relationship between Wayne and Hepburn’s characters—easily the better story to tell.