Rooster Cogburn

Rooster Cogburn is a 1975 American Western film directed by Stuart Millar, and starring John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. Written by Martha Hyer (who is credited as Martin Julien), based on the character Rooster Cogburn from Charles Portis' 1968 Western novel True Grit, the film is a sequel to the 1969 film True Grit, which also starred Wayne as Cogburn. The plot details the continuing adventures of Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, an aging one-eyed lawman, whose badge is suspended due his record of routine arrests that end in bloodshed. He is offered a chance to redeem himself by bringing in a group of bank robbers who have hijacked a wagon shipment of nitroglycerin, and finds himself aided in his quest by a spinster whose father was killed by the criminals. Plot In Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the late 19th century, aging one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn is stripped of his badge by Judge Parker due to his drunkenness and questionable use of firearms. When a shipment of highly explosive nitroglycerin is stolen from a transporting troop of United States Army cavalry by the ruthless bank robber Hawk and his gang of nine other outlaws, Cogburn is given a chance to redeem himself. Alone, he enters the Indian Territory and tracks the bandits, who include Cogburn's former scout Breed, to the remote settlement of Fort Ruby, which is now a Christian mission. He comes upon the village the day after it has been overrun by the gang, who killed the elderly Reverend George Goodnight and a number of the local Indians. The only surviving inhabitants that have not fled are the Reverend's spinster daughter, Miss Eula Goodnight, and one of her Native students, a teenage boy named Wolf, whose family died in the attack. Cogburn tries to leave the pair at a nearby trading post, but they insist on coming with him to capture the bandits. Because the nitro has to be transported slowly so it does not explode, Hawk goes ahead with Breed and an injured man to prepare for the bank robbery. Cogburn, Eula, and Wolf overtake the rest of the gang and barricade the path through a gully with logs. When the bandits stop, Cogburn says he is the leader of a posse and threatens to blow up the nitro unless the criminals let him arrest them. One outlaw sneaks away and attempts to shoot Cogburn in the back, but Eula, proving herself an excellent sharpshooter, kills the man from across the gully.