Customer Reviews

Rooster Cogburn

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sometimes a multitude of wrongs can come out right. Hollywood has a penchant for making sequels to successful films, so when John Wayne finally won an Oscar for his performance in "True Grit." Wayne played Rooster Cogburn, a fearless, one-eyed U.S. marshal who never knew a dry day in his life. Fortunately Hollywood waited six years before making this 1975 sequel. However, at that point they not only hired a novice screenwriter, actress Martha Hyer ("First Men in the Moon"), they let her rip off "The African Queen" and turn it into a western. Fortunately, they hired Katharine Hepburn to play opposite the Duke.

That is what "Rooster Cogburn" comes down to, the chance for John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn to do scenes together; it also explains why the film is also known as "Rooster Cogburn and the Lady." Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, no, wait, I mean Eula Goodnight, who is the daughter of a minister (Jon Lormer) instead of the brother of a missionary. The gospel is still being brought to the natives, except this time we are set in the Cascades of Oregon rather than the jungles of Africa. The bad guys are now a gang of thieves led by Breed (Anthony Zerbe) and Hawk (Richard Jordan), instead of Nazis, and this time they gun down the minister. So when Rooster comes along to track them down and bring them to his brand of justice, Eula insists on going along.

The plot is predictable in terms of the outcome and familiar when Kate and the Duke end up on the water. But there is fun to be had in these two standing toe to toe, but not jaw to jaw, and going at it. "To whom do you think you are speaking," she intones frostily. "You is to whom I think I am speaking, sister," he shoots back. She allows that he is bigger than she is, but only physically. He observes in this situation that should be enough and they continue to have great fun with the dialogue. Wayne has great fun hamming it up and Hepburn enjoys having an actor big enough to stand up to her assault.

The stories from the set were that the two great stars had great fun making this movie. Their politics were at opposite ends of the spectrum so they just avoid the topics and enjoyed being in each other's company. Wayne was playing a character he had done before in a movie, but then Hepburn's character is instantly recognizable as well, even if the name is different. The names do not matter. They can call them "Rooster Cogburn and the Lady," but it is the Duke and Kate, and their fans will not be disappointed by their time together.

I actually prefer this movie to the first appearance of Wayne as Cogburn, "True Grit," even though he got the Oscar for that while this one seems to have sunk with hardly a critical trace. A sort of Western remake of "The African Queen" (complete with Katie Hepburn as a strait-laced spinster), with murderous outlaws taking the place of the Nazis, it finds Rooster unwillingly joining up with missionary's daughter Eula Goodnight ("Sister," as he calls her) to catch her father's murderers, who happen to be the same gang of ordnance-hijackers he was sent out from Fort Smith to apprehend. Though played much more for laughs than its predecessor (here, as in "McLintock" and "Donovan's Reef," Wayne clearly displays an unmistakeable gift for comedy), it's not without either headlong action, taut suspense, or sexual tension. Admittedly I'm not sure there are any river gorges like these in the *real* (former) Indian Territory, but who cares when the scenery is so breathtaking? And there's a definite advantage to starting a script from scratch rather than trying to translate Charles Portis's probably-authentic but somehow not-quite-flavorful-enough dialogue to film. While I never bothered to add "True Grit" to my permanent collection, this sequel is definitely a part of it.

Rooster Cogburn is the absolute best western ever made. I personally think it is Wayne's greatest work. It moves along much more quickly than its predecessor, True Grit, and I have found Rooster to be a movie I can watch over and over again.

Storyline is incredible, and the scenery is magnificent. I do agree, however, that mature audiences will like it better... But the "official" reviewer above is clearly one of those who is not a Wayne fan. Watch the film for yourself, you will NOT be disappointed!!!

I have long liked this film and had it on VHS and wanted the DVD.

One would think that the second DVD release would be of a better quality than this one is. Whatever equipment was used to transfer the film to DVD was not good. There scenes in the movie that go in and out of focus, and the entire film has a grainy look. I wish I had waited until a better copy was released.

How were John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn wasted superstars in this movie? How is an old Marshall trying to prove his worth a dull plot? What an absurd review. Watch the movie. It is a touching story with an excellent supporting female character!

"Rooster Cogburn" is one of the best westerns ever made. It has a lot of funny parts, and a lot of action. However, Maltin says that this is a dull western. He's wrong. If he'd only concentrated on the movie. Well, wether he thinks this is a bad movie or not, I HIGHLY reccomend this to any Wayne fan.

The story is only so-so but the exchanges between John Wayne and Kathryn Hepburn are wonderful and make the movie worth seeing. This had the potential to be really good.

Call me a sap. It was my one and only brush with stardom so of course I loved the movie. I was there for the river sequences shot at Hellgate Canyon and Indian Mary Park. My grandparents owned the property used at Hellgate, so I got to miss the first day of Jr High to have lunch at Indian Mary with Mr. Wayne, Ms Hepburn, his kids and extras. I tripped over Wayne's stunt double who was relaxing under a tree and talked briefly with the man himself in his trailer. Local people were selling the poop from his horse at $10 a bag - probably more than MJ was going for at the time! My grandmother, always the gadfly, got to talking with the cook in his trailer and discovered he had known her brother before his untimely death, so everyone flew pretty high on the emotions of the day. Ms Hepburn defied the studios to take a trip down the river - something many do every year for the Rogue River is one of only a few CAT 5 rivers in the US.

Sheriff Reuben Cogburn got the epithet "Rooster" as a result of his swaggering disposition. So effective has he been in nailing outlaws that an "enlightened" judge from the east, ignorant of the realities of the Wild West, took away his badge, for a time, for "being too successful".

Rooster Cogburn has to contend not only with outlaws and the judge, but also with the super-religious Eula Goodnight (Katherine Hepburn), who shows her mettle by going along with him for the chase against outlaw Hawk. Eula's father had been murdered by Hawk. An Indian boy who survived the massacre, Wolf, who wants to grow up to be a sheriff himself, also comes along.

The movie is full of dramatic scenes. Wolf falls asleep at his sentry post, and is kidnapped by the outlaws. So Cogburn's original "posse of three" is surrounded by the band of outlaws. At one point, the "posse of three" is traveling slowly down a stream---a sitting duck for the outlaws in wait behind the rocks above. Cogburn uses a primitive machine gun (a Gatling gun) very effectively on a number of occasions. But the raft with the "posse of three" runs into a series of dangerous rapids, and that with boxes of nitroglycerin on board. The Gatling gun falls and sinks the bottom of the river. And so it goes...

The natural scenery of this western is beautiful. It has been filmed in Oregon.

Rooster Cogburn DVD

John Wayne reprises his role in True Grit as a crusty, over-the hill, U. S. Marshall, this time he is teamed up with Katharine Hepburn who plays the feisty daughter of a minister to the savage Indians. The Minister has been killed by a group of rather incompetent outlaw's and Rooster has promised to "bring them to justice". This movie shows Wayne at his comedic best. Highly recommended for fans of John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn and fans of the comedy Western.

Gunner July, 2008