True Grit - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of True Grit or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to True Grit

[tammy]

As of 2018, features Hailee Steinfeld's only Oscar nominated performance.

[kristen]

Jeff Bridges is the third actor in movies and television to play Rooster Cogburn. John Wayne was the first in True Grit (1969) and its sequel Rooster Cogburn (1975) whilst Warren Oates was the second actor to do so in True Grit: A Further Adventure (1978), the character being called Reuben J. Rooster.

[riley]

Michael Biehn auditioned for the role of 'Lucky' Ned Pepper but lost out to Barry Pepper.

[wallace]

Firearms used in the film: - Rooster Cogburn utilizes a Cavalry model of the Colt Single Action Army as his sidearm, and a Winchester Model 1873 as his long arm. He also carries a pair of Colt Dragoon revolvers in holsters on his saddle, and uses them in his confrontation with Ned Pepper's gang. Mattie's father leaves her a Colt Dragoon.La Boeuf carries a Colt Single Action Army as well has his trademark Sharps 1874 Cavalry carbine.Tom Chaney carries the Henry Model 1860 rifle he took from Frank Ross.Ned Pepper is seen with a Remington 1875 revolver as well as a Winchester 1866 "Yellow Boy" rifle.

[ronnie]

In order to get the most effective voice after biting his tongue, Matt Damon tied a hair tie around it to talk as if he had no tongue.

[terry]

No computer-generated special effects were used in the creation of the town of Fort Smith. The town of Granger, Texas, was used as a double in the movie, due to several sections of the city still displaying the period's city planning with wide streets. The art department did painstaking efforts to add details: fake buildings were built between existing ones, and existing buildings were painted or redressed with facades to give them the correct period appearance; sand was put onto the cobblestone streets to get the appearance of dirt roads; 20th century telephone poles were either removed or redressed as trees. Since the movie takes place in the winter, the leaves of one tree that came into frame during the hanging scene had to be picked-off by hand. Finally, a small stretch of railroad was built for a period train that was brought in from a museum.

[michele]

Mattie says the title of the film to Rooster when she meets him outside of the courtroom. She says, "They tell me you're a man with true grit."

[michele]

According to the dates on his tombstone (1825-1903), Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn was 78 at the time if his death.

[toni]

Despite Mattie Ross having the most screen time and being considered the protagonist, Hailee Steinfeld was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in many award shows, including the Academy Awards.

[tom]

In the original True Grit (1969), Rooster's horse is sorrel with white socks, La Beouf's horse is bay, and Mattie's horse is black with a white blaze and four white socks. In this film, Rooster's horse is sorrel with only one white sock, La Beouf's horse is a red roan Appaloosa, and Mattie's horse is black with no white.

[albert]

The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and J.K. Simmons; and two Oscar nominees: Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Brolin.

[bessie]

Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld ride horses respectively named Apollo, Cowboy and Cimarron, animals that were carefully chosen and trained by veteran wranglers Rusty Hendrickson and son Scout Schoenfeld Hendrickson.

[leo]

In the epilogue Mattie ponders that LaBoeuf, if still alive, would be "nearer 80 than 70" Since the epilogue takes place 25 years after the main events of the movie, it follows that the character of LaBoeuf is supposed to be in his mid fifties at the beginning of the film, considerably older than actor Matt Damon, who was just 39 when the movie was shot.

[stephanie]

Judge Parker (referred to several times during the movie) was an actual judge in Fort Smith, AR. He was known as "Hanging Judge" Parker.

[sylvia]

First Coen brothers film to get a PG-13 rating in the USA since Intolerable Cruelty (2003).

[veronica]

Fifteen thousand girls applied for the role of the young Mattie Ross, the part going to Hailee Steinfeld. She was 13 years old when cast. It was her theatrical feature-film debut.

[cassandra]

When La Boeuf first meets Mattie, he tells her that one of the aliases of Chaney is J. Todd Anderson, a frequent Coen Brothers storyboard artist.

[ken]

Although Cogburn refers to his "Navy Sixes," there is never an appearance of a Colt 1851 Navy revolver in the movie. The 2 pistols Cogburn carries in his saddle holsters, holds in the cornbread scene, and fires in the charge scene, are 2nd model Colt Dragoon revolvers according to Keith Walters the movie's property master. Cogburn's mention of "Navy Sixes" was part of his account charging and scattering a posse following him after a bank robbery years ago and before he was a US Marshal. It's possible that he has swapped the Colt 1851 Navy revolvers for Dragoons.

[jessie]

Matt Damon and Barry Pepper both played the same character, Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley, in separate movies: Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Pepper in Ripley Under Ground (2005).