With "True Grit" one of my favorite westerns of the sixties, I had avoided its 1975 sequel ROOSTER COGBURN since it hit theatres many years ago. What a pleasant surprise the film was catching up with it this year.
John Wayne returns as the hard drinking, set-in -his-ways Marshall Cogburn. As the film opens, he is forcibly retired when the west begins to change and his methods become passe.
Rooster is soon recruited when a violent gang of drunken thieves led by Hawk (Richard Jordan in an over-the-top madman performance) terrorize and murder many of the folks in a settlement.
When Cogburn gets to the village, he meets Eula Goodnight, whose father and many friends were murdered. She and her young native American friend Wolf join Rooster on the trail of the gang, seeking justice.
Katharine Hepburn plays Eula in a perfect mix of gumption, religious indignation and charm. Her scenes with Wayne are classic and bring a smile to your face again and again.
Wayne is in fine form as well, playing a character he loved to its hilt, showing as much skill with the humor as he does in the rousing action scenes.
This is, in many ways, a classic Western story and there aren't a lot of surprises, yet I found myself pretty surprised how much I enjoyed the cast, including Anthony Zerbe as Breed, a former partner of Rooster's who now finds himself running with the wrong pack, and Strother Martin as the owner of a river raft that Cogburn and Eula must commandeer and load up with boxes of Nitro in an exciting climax to the film.
This is a fun, fast moving film, with beautiful photography by Harry Stradling, Jr. (Little Big Man, The Way We Were) and a big, beautiful music score by Laurence Rosenthal.
The posters for the film featured the tag line "For Your pleasure..."
I enjoyed this a LOT more than I thought I would and give Rooster (and the Lady) a solid B.
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