Posted on 10/09/2019 6:40:08 PM PDT by rintintin
A lot of people were involved in filming True Grit in 1968 and 69. Now a lot of people are involved in celebrating the 50th anniversary of that occasion. Ridgway will be busting at the seams throughout this coming weekend, Oct. 11, 12 and 13.
Bob Dejulio for the past 50 years has been remembered as the artist who transformed Ridgway into an 1873 Fort Smith, Arkansas.
That whole Main Street (South Lena), I lettered, said DeJulio. The biggest share of the buildings were originals with false fronts and signage. The courthouse was made especially for the production. I was working on the courthouse the day the hanging scene was being filmed. I was way up in the air in a boom truck and could look over the entire area. I could hear Henry Hathaway cussin over that megaphone. Oh boy! He could make a trooper blush.
DeJulio will be on hand to tell his interesting and amusing stories this coming weekend. One of the things he will tell about is going 30 miles to the Dallas Divide area in order to paint the McAlester Store that appears in the movie.
That building was built with the original farm, says DeJulio. The other two were built new.
(Excerpt) Read more at montrosepress.com ...
When will there be a “Josey Wales” anniversary?
Cool!
Very cool!
A number of scenes from True Grit were shot in the Eastern Sierra of California too, including Hot Creek near Mammoth were the shootout at the dugout was filmed and along the Owens River in the Owens Valley.
Yes Ive visited there. North to Alaska also shot there.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
It sure does not look like Yell County Arkan-saw or even the Chocktaw-Chikasaw nation of Oklahoma!
But it IS pretty.
Whupped em again, eh Jose?
I lived just north of there in Montrose.
Ping
Wayne did a fine job on the original, but I preferred the Jeff Bridges/Coen Bros. version. You can dig a 2-disk blu ray out of the K-mart bins that has both....both are keepers IMHO!
The scenery in the original is to die for, though its obviously not Arkansas. ( its why tourists flock to Colo from Arkansas every summer and not the other way around)
I love hot Creek Valley we swim in there all the time even after the federales closed it off
Then we drive 4 miles down the road into the desert in camp at Little hot Creek
Then theres the crab cooker, pulkys pool. and wild Willys - right now is the most incredible of all they build a nice boardwalk out there expanded the ball and made a hot pool run the side even better so thats really the spot now
There is an excellent YouTube video doing a movie vs town scene shots set to TRUE GRIT music.
We used to kick Ridgeways butt in high school basketball.
Buzzards gotta eat! same as worms!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I6TrGedUn8
Both are good. I think the John Wayne version could have been his best ever if he had gotten a real actor rather than musician Glen Campbell as his co-star. I loved and respected Glen as a musician but he just couldn't act (he was awful) and really brought the movie down a notch. In both versions, though, it was the young girl who stole the show. Since Kim Hunter had to create the character on screen first I'll give her the nod but both actresses did great jobs. This is important because the lesson of the movie is that, in the end, the person who really had "True Grit" was Mattie more than Rooster.
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