With 1969’s True Grit being a success, it was perhaps inevitable that they’d want to crap out a sequel. So six years later came the blandly titled Rooster Cogburn wherein John Wayne reprises his Oscar winning role (itself something that feels worthy of incredulity) at the now eponymous character. True Grit’s based on a novel however, one which does not have any sequels (nor do I believe does it leave much room for one), so this thing is a story they whipped up fresh… apart from the fresh bit. It’s really nothing particularly inspiring. Wayne’s about the only major character tying it to its predecessor, though this is perhaps somewhat of a mercy rather than shoehorning in the return of Mattie Ross (Kim Darby). On that note, while researching to write this, I was reminded that there is in fact a third film in the series which does bring Mattie back against all logic. (Both her and Cogburn are recast.)

Anyway, the original True Grit (the film, at any rate) struck me as feeling a bit out of place, like it can’t quite decide if it wants to be a classical Western of yore or one of them new fangled revisionist ones (not actually all that new even by 1969), so it decides to hedge its bets and try and do both. As such, you end up with a meditation on revenge and morality of the latter mixed with the heroics and supposed honour and nobility of the old west, together with rousing adventure-type music. I guess in that sense, Rooster Cogburn is perhaps a more consistent film, opting to only be one kind of western. Unfortunately, the one it opts to be is the classic variety and so by 1975 the whole thing feels incredibly dated. Instead of trying to marry two types of western, it instead tries to marry True Grit with The African Queen. Really. They even got in Katharine Hepburn. This sure was something the world was crying out for.

Stop me, if you’ve heard this before: Hepburn plays the [RELATIVE] of a missionary in the [CONTINENT] frontier, proselytising to the indigenous peoples, when [VILLAINOUS GROUP] show up and give her [RELATIVE] the killing of a lifetime. Fortunately, a rugged individualist, played by [AGING ACTOR], turns up to help, but she insists on travelling with him for revenge on the [VILLAINOUS GROUP]. They have many adventures along the way and discover new found respect for one another.

To be fair, while the premise is outright recycled, the fact that it’s a western kind of prevents it from just being a straight rehash as it’s got to play into at least some tropes of the genre. That is to say, there are some gunfights and the romantic angle is downplayed, but the bones and the bulk of plot beats are all there (really, them hooking up is about all that’s missing). You get the tweeness of African Queen except without the satisfaction of the romantic relationship. Not indeed that one particularly roots for it here; the defanging of Cogburn is in full effect and it really runs with the fact that Hepburn’s character is a supposed to be a missionary far more than the earlier film does with Miss Eula Goodnight (no really) being a quite insufferable god-botherer whose desire for vengeance feels rather at odds. Or perhaps not, given how some people act, but god knows the film doesn’t examine this hypocrisy, nor does it ever really comment on the fact that her self-righteous priggishness played a major part in the destruction for which she’s seeking revenge. 

Incidentally, in real life, Hepburn was quite openly an atheist.

So, yeah, what’s the point really? It’s The African Queen with a weaker leading man, a weaker director and a weaker script, with everyone just giving the most perfunctory of efforts. It’s not incompetent; hell, it’s quite aggressively competent, but in a way that makes it even worse. There just doesn’t seem to be much reason for it to exist much less watch it, unless you just really needed to see Hepburn and Wayne share the screen for some reason.