MovieChat Forums > Rooster Cogburn Discussion > Weak Villains... and Strother, oh Boy.

Weak Villains... and Strother, oh Boy.

posted 14 years ago by bastasch8647
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I liked this film just fine, it's no classic like True Grit, but still it tells an entertaining and touching story. Having said that, though:

"Rooster Cogburn" sadly, egregiously, lacks a strong villain. Richard Jordan, of TV miniseries fame, just can't cut it. Not all his fault, though, as he was given some rather lackluster lines. But there's something just too... not wimpy... but maybe recessive, bland, and a little dull, about his performance.

Jordan doesn't dazzle, flash, fascinate and scare like Bruce Dern's "Long Hair" from The Cowboys, or Bob Duvall's "Lucky Ned Pepper" (and his exotic assortment of scumbags) from True Grit. Anthony Zerbe comes closest to being the film's one and only true Villain of Interest, but (like Jordan) we've already seen far too much of him on TV and/or lesser productions to take him really seriously... not to mention he was not quite as villainous as he might have been since he did, sort of, warn Rooster that the bad boys were waiting for him downriver. (He gives a wonderful, sympathetic Western performance as "Dutch" in Heston's "Will Penney" - I'm only critiquing his "Cogburn" role here.)

Rooster, it goes without saying, is a strong character, and he needs foes to match his wildness and ferocity. This movie, unfortunately, only delivers made-for-TV stereotypical, superficial, run-of-the-mill bad guys. If it wasn't for plot contrivances, we could easily picture Rooster eating these guys for breakfast with one hand tied behind his back.

And, oh yes... why Strother Martin AGAIN? Yes, if we (again) shake off his long TV career and try to look at Strother with fresh eyes, he CAN be a noticeable actor/character, as he was in The Ballad of Cable Hogue, and more pertinently, in True Grit. But what is the idea of bringing him back for True Grit's sequel as an entirely different character from the original? This is nearly as jarring as would be bringing back Ron Soble or John Fiedler in completely different roles from those they played in "Grit". Martin's presence in the sequel is unnecessary and only serves to remind us that we're watching not True Grit, but a derivative product.

[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 11 years ago

Perhaps we should view Jordan's character Hawke as an example of the mediocrity of evil. He's a bad man who does bad things, but he's not really very good at it. Most so-called bad guys are bad because they lack the talent/ambition/skills to compete with talented ambitious hard-working good people. Hawke is no Professor Moriarty- no "Napoleon of Crime". He's a bungling, angry/confused bully, who's only "skill" is a total lack of hesitation and scruples about killing people. This is actually very typical of the outlaw scum who sought refuge in the Indian Nations during Judge Parker's time on the bench.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

[–] phillipsdan83 10 years ago

Judge Parker and Chen Lee were played by different actors here than in "True Grit" (H.W. Gim, the original Chen Lee having died in the meantime), so Martin's prescence in a different role doesn't bother me. But Hawk needed a Lee Marvin or a Richard Boone to play him and/or better writing behind him. Hawk never comes off as a character that can match Rooster with Jordan overplaying him.