True Grit problem

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AbitNutz

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My wife hates it when I pick apart a movie for its historical inaccuracies. I did not do this with True Grit. It was a great movie.

However, I don't think this criticism is picking apart the movie. Rooster was shooing his rifle with his right hand....when his right eye was patched.

As a cross eyed shooter...I can tell you that is one tough shot.

No wonder he shot Matt Damon.

It was still a great movie.
 
Can you have double vision with one eye? It's as good an excuse as any....I'll take it.
 
I like the bits of accuracy with the movie shot of the girl's gun with the bullet mold and other items of shooting need. Now that I think of it the original movie had the girl owning her father's Walker Colt. If I remember the shot in the new movie the gun is a dragoon.
The other part I liked was when Rooster pulled two 36 cal.c&b revolvers in the "fill your hands you sons-a-b---hes.".
 
My late wife was right handed and left eye dominant. She was not a shooter; but occasionally she would go to the range with me. She shot a rifle surprisingly well using "her" technique.
 
I like the bits of accuracy with the movie shot of the girl's gun with the bullet mold and other items of shooting need. Now that I think of it the original movie had the girl owning her father's Walker Colt. If I remember the shot in the new movie the gun is a dragoon.
The other part I liked was when Rooster pulled two 36 cal.c&b revolvers in the "fill your hands you sons-a-b---hes.".
Click to expand...

Finished re-reading the book yesterday. The gun is a Dragoon the John Wayne version of the movie is inaccurate in this way and in many others. I urge you to read the book. It is one of the best first person narratives of the American West. It's dry humor an whit are genius.

The Cohen Bros version is much closer to the original first person narrative.

People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. . - Charles Portis

You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God. -Charles Portis
 
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Not sure what the issue is.

Yes, it's a tough shot. But with practice, it can be done. And I suppose if you have only one eye, you learn how to do it. I don't see a problem with it.
 
One very obscure (and maybe not even) mistake I may have seen is the one villain tied a rope around the stock and barrel of his Henry to make a sling. I may be wrong but I think that would make it pretty hard to reload a Henry. Of course he was meant to be regarded as a simpleton so maybe that's not even a mistake.
 
What I noticed, well at least not until after I got home after the movie, was the absent of great puffs of billowy black power smoke when all the guns were fired.

In the cabin when Marshall Cogburn shoots that guy in the head the cabin should have been filled with so much salt peter tasting smoke that everyone would have had to go outside to breathe! :evil:
 
I'll say this first; I liked the movie very much, as for inaccuracies I think I saw a big one. If I am correct, as I will have to view the movie again when it is released on DVD, anyway at the very begining where you see the train crossing the tracks, it looks like concete between the tracks like you would find on a modern railroad crossing. Otherwise the rest of the movie looked good, although I would agree that the gunfire should have produced more smoke. LM
 
Maybe my head is too big but there is no way I can line up the sights of my 444 Marlin holding it right handed and using my left eye. I can't get low enough on the stock to get line of site with the wrong eye. I had to switch to left handed.

Pistols, no problem. I shoot right handed left eyed.

Ok, it's true....the engineers that work for me call me BGH. The Big Giant Head. I never thought it may be a literal description...
 
Maybe my head is too big too. Only my left eye works and there is no way I can shoot a rifle right handed. I do shoot a handgun right handed with no problem. I was born blind in my right eye so I never had to get used to it.
 
I like many other have picked apart some of the best entertainment ever to hit the screen. Just learned that these are movies and not historical documents. Don't remember the movie but once in a western you could see way in the back ground contrails in the sky, and another a quick shot where power lines were visible. Another that I myself never saw but read about was during a battle with Romans or such an extra had a wrist watch on. Just have to over look the oops and enjoy the show.
 
My grandmother was married at 13 and bore my mother at 15. Teenage girls can be tough. I found the characters to be believable. The movie was an absolute delight.
 
robhof

Walker; that extra was actually Charleston Heston and his gold Rolex was spotted during a chariot race, that picture was floating around on the internet 4 or 5 years ago. I've forgot the name of the movie.
 
AbitNutz,

IIRC, Rooster had the rifle pointed in their "direction" firing off rounds, never did see him shoulder it. Just blowing holes in the sky, maybe he'd get lucky and hit one of them.
 
Quote: "I'll say this first; I liked the movie very much, as for inaccuracies I think I saw a big one. If I am correct, as I will have to view the movie again when it is released on DVD, anyway at the very begining where you see the train crossing the tracks, it looks like concete between the tracks like you would find on a modern railroad crossing. Otherwise the rest of the movie looked good, although I would agree that the gunfire should have produced more smoke. LM"

Seeing as how concrete has been around since Roman times, you could very well have seen it in the film. No doubt it is an inaccuracy for the period, but it is certainly not impossible.
 
I can overlook some mistakes in movies, but I hate to see things like a '92 Winchester or a Colt SAA in a movie that is supposed to take place before the mid 1870's.
 
Finished re-reading the book yesterday. The gun is a Dragoon the John Wayne version of the movie is inaccurate in this way and in many others. I urge you to read the book. It is one of the best first person narratives of the American West. It's dry humor an whit are genius.
Click to expand...

Just to point out, one line in the John Wayne version calls the pistol a "Colts Dragoon". I don't know if they used a walker and called it a dragoon or not, but I do remember JW calling it a Dragoon. The quote from the movie goes:

"Why, by God, girl, that's a Colt's Dragoon! You're no bigger than a corn nubbin, what're you doing with all this pistol?"
 
There were so many makes of revolvers in the olden days that they were referred to as "Colt's revolvers" as opposed to our modern language of calling them a Colt Revolver. I think the inventor was given more credit in those days.
 
The only problem I had with it was that I had a hard time understanding jeff bridges. My hearing ain't so great and I realize he was portraying a drunk, but it irritated the hell outta me. I saw another movie with him recently in which he was a drunk also and had the same problem. I enjoyed the movie otherwise :)
 
the duke

Duke refers to the girls papas shooting iron as a horse pistol,and this is a walker,all dragoons are horse pistol variants,also this movie is pure fiction a feel good cowboy tale,of a rough n tumble lawman tougher than all except the little lady future lawyer,why would any one care about historical accuracy,also instinctive shooters know that you don't have to line up eye to sight to hit your target,i instinctively shoot a pistol from the hip as i do a shotgun and bow, at bass pro one year the bow range guy asked if i wanted him to pop up the animals in sequence,i said sure and i shot each target in the neck instinctively as they rose with no sights,the guy said wow you dont need to practice,i said how do you think i got this good? a guy with true grit could probobly shoot yer tootles off with a blind fold on drunk or sober.:D
 
Just to point out, one line in the John Wayne version calls the pistol a "Colts Dragoon". I don't know if they used a walker and called it a dragoon or not, but I do remember JW calling it a Dragoon. The quote from the movie goes:
"Why, by God, girl, that's a Colt's Dragoon! You're no bigger than a corn nubbin, what're you doing with all this pistol?"
Click to expand...

The quote is straight from the book but the original film does not show a Dragoon.

Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) inherits her father's civil war handgun when he dies, which is a Colt Walker 1847 revolver with a cartridge conversion (although it is said to be a percussion gun to stay true to the novel). ....When Mattie first shows the gun to Rooster, he calls it a Colt's Dragoon but it is clearly too large and lacks a loading lever latch that the Dragoon models had.

Cohen bros version:

600px-Tg-dragoon-2.jpg

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/True_Grit_(2010)

Original:

600px-TrueGritWalkercoltcartridge-1.jpg

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/True_Grit_(1969)#Colt_Walker_1847_.28cartridge_conversion.29
 
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