True Grit

Mattie Ross:
Trust you to buy another tall horse.

Rooster Cogburn:
Yeah. He's not as game as Beau, but Stonehill says he can jump a four rail fence.

Mattie Ross:
You are too old and fat to be jumping horses.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, come see a fat old man some time!

Rooster Cogburn:
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?

Mattie Ross:
It belonged to my father, he carried it bravely in the war, and I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, this'll sure get the job done if you can find a fence post to rest it on while you take aim.

Ned Pepper:
What's your intention? Do you think one on four is a dogfall?

Rooster Cogburn:
I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

Ned Pepper:
I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.

Rooster Cogburn:
Fill your hands, you son of a b*tch.

Rooster Cogburn:
Give me your cup.

Mattie Ross:
I don't drink coffee, thank you.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, now, what do you drink?

Mattie Ross:
I'm partial to cold buttermilk.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, we ain't got none of that. We ain't got no lemonade neither!

Mattie Ross:
I hope you don't think I'm going to keep you in whiskey?

Rooster Cogburn:
I don't buy that, I confiscate it. And a touch of it wouldn't do you any harm against the night air!

Mattie Ross:
I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains!

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, it's the real article! Genuine, double-rectified bust head. Aged in the keg.

Mattie Ross:
Who's the best Marshall they have?

Sheriff:
Bill Waters is the best tracker. The meanest one is Rooster Cogburn, a pitiless man, double tough, fear don't enter into his thinking. I'd have to say L.T. Quinn is the straightest, he brings his prisoners in alive.

Mattie Ross:
Where would I find this Rooster?

Sheriff:
He'll be at the federal court this afternoon, he's bringing in a load of prisoners from the territories.

Mattie Ross:
I won't rest until Tom Chaney's barking in hell.

Mattie Ross:
There's an old song that says: One white foot buy 'em, two white feet try 'em, three white feet be on the sly, four white feet pass 'em by.

Rooster Cogburn:
When's the last time you saw Ned Pepper?

Emmett Quincy:
I don't remember any Ned Pepper.

Rooster Cogburn:
Short feisty fella, nervous and quick, got a messed-up lower lip.

Emmett Quincy:
That don't bring nobody to mind. A funny lip?

Rooster Cogburn:
Wasn't always like that, I shot him in it.

Emmett Quincy:
In the lower lip? What was you aiming at?

Rooster Cogburn:
His upper lip.

LaBoeuf:
What are you doing?

Rooster Cogburn:
Lookin' for sign.

LaBoeuf:
You couldn't see it if you saw it.

Mattie Ross:
I'm here to take you back to Fort Smith and hang you.

Tom Chaney:
And I think I will not go, now how do you like that?

Tom Chaney:
Everything happens to me. Now I'm shot by a child.

Tom Chaney:
What are you doin'?

Mattie Ross:
I'm getting some water so I can wash my hands.

Tom Chaney:
A liitle smut won't hurt you.

Mattie Ross:
That's true - or else you and your chums would surely be dead.

Tom Chaney:
Don't provoke me. There's rattlesnakes down there in that pit and I'm gonna throw you in it.

Rooster Cogburn:
Damn that Texan - when you need him, he's dead.

LaBoeuf:
I ain't dead yet, you bushwhacker. Hang on.

Mattie Ross:
Do you need a good lawyer?

Ned Pepper:
I need a good judge!

Rooster Cogburn:
You can't serve papers on a rat, baby sister. You gotta kill him or let him be.

Rooster Cogburn:
They don't call him "Lucky" Ned Pepper for nothing.

Mattie Ross:
That man gave his life for him and he didn't even look back.

Rooster Cogburn:
Looking back is a bad habit.

Rooster Cogburn:
Boots, I got Hayes and some youngster outside with Moon and Quincy. I want you to bury 'em for me. I'm in a hurry.

Capt. Boots Finch:
They're dead?

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, I wouldn't want you to bury 'em if they wasn't.

Mattie Ross:
Now I know you can drink whiskey and I saw you kill a rat, but all the rest has been talk. I'm not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need at the Monarch Boarding House.

Rooster Cogburn:
I ought to paddle your rump!

Mattie Ross:
I don't know how you propose to do that from that hog wallow you're sunk into. If I smelled as bad as you I wouldn't live near people.

LaBoeuf:
How's that?

LaBoeuf:
You squirrel-headed bastard!

Goudy:
I believe you testified that you backed away from old man Wharton?

Rooster Cogburn:
Yes, sir.

Goudy:
Which direction were you going?

Rooster Cogburn:
Backward. I always go backward when I'm backin' away.

Mattie Ross:
I'll walk over there by myself.

Rooster Cogburn:
You scared of the dark?

Mattie Ross:
I've never been scared of the dark.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well if I had a big horse pistol like that I wouldn't be scared of no "boogerman".

Mattie Ross:
I'm not scared of no "boogerman".

LaBoeuf:
A little earlier I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss from you, although you are very young... and you're unattractive to boot. But now I'm of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.

Mattie Ross:
Well, one would be as unpleasant as the other.

Col. G. Stonehill:
I'll take it up with my attorney.

Mattie Ross:
And I will take it up with mine - Lawyer Daggett. And he will make money and I will make money and your lawyer will make money... and you, Mr. Licensed Auctioneer, you will foot the bill.

Col. G. Stonehill:
I will pay a total of two hundred dollars to your father's estate when I have in my hand a letter absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date!

Mattie Ross:
Now I'm sure you'll find a buyer for those ponies very soon.

Col. G. Stonehill:
I have a tentative offer of ten dollars a head from the soapworks at Little Rock.

Mattie Ross:
It seems such a shame to render such spirited horseflesh into soap.

Col. G. Stonehill:
I'm confident the deal will fall through.

Mattie Ross:
Do you know a Marshal Rooster Cogburn?

Col. G. Stonehill:
Most people around here have heard of Rooster Cogburn and some people live to regret it. I would not be surprised to learn that he's a relative of yours.

Col. G. Stonehill:
Do you entertain plans of ever leaving this city?

Mattie Ross:
Yes, I'm off early tomorrow morning for the Indian nation. Marshal Rooster Cogburn and I are going after the murderer, Tom Chaney.

Col. G. Stonehill:
Cogburn. How did you light on that greasy vagabond?

Mattie Ross:
They say he has grit. I wanted a man with grit.

Col. G. Stonehill:
Well, I suppose he has that. He's a notorious thumper. He's not a man I would care to share a bed with.

Mattie Ross:
Nor would I.

Mattie Ross:
This man wants to take Chaney back to Texas. That's not what I want.

Rooster Cogburn:
He wants him caught and punished - so do you.

Mattie Ross:
I want Tom Chaney to hang for killing my father. It's little to me how many dogs and senators he killed in Texas.

Rooster Cogburn:
You can tell him to his face, you can spit in his eye, you can make him eat sand out of the road, you can shoot him in the foot and I'll hold him for you - but first we gotta catch him.

Rooster Cogburn:
You look like a hog on ice.

Mattie Ross:
That tastes like iron.

LaBoeuf:
You're lucky to be where water's so handy. I've seen the time I've drank out of a filthy hoofprint - and was glad to get it.

Rooster Cogburn:
If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk water from a hoofprint, I think I'll... I'll shake their hand or buy 'em a Daniel Webster cigar.

Rooster Cogburn:
How long you boys down there been mounted on sheep?

Capt. Boots Finch:
So this is the man shot Ned Pepper's horse from under him.

Rooster Cogburn:
Yeah! This is the famous horse killer from El Paso. He believes in puttin' everybody afoot. Says there'll be less mischief that way.

LaBoeuf:
Fewer horses - fewer horse thieves.

Mattie Ross:
Hooray for the man from Texas! Some bully shot!

Rooster Cogburn:
Texican... saved my neck twice. Once after he was dead.

Mattie Ross:
You never told me you had a wife.

Rooster Cogburn:
Oh, well, I didn't have her long. My friends was a pack of river rats and she didn't crave their society so she up and left me and went back to her first husband who was clerkin' in a hardware store in Paducah. "Goodbye, Reuben," she says, "the love of decency does not abide in you!" That's a dee-vorced woman talkin' for you, about decency. Well, I told her. I said, "Goodbye, Nola, and I hope that nail-sellin' bastard makes you happy this time!"

Mattie Ross:
Did you have any children?

Rooster Cogburn:
There was a boy. Nola taken him with her. He never liked me anyway. A clumsier child you'll never see than Horace; I bet he broke 40 cup.

Rooster Cogburn:
Baby sister, I was born game and I intend to go out that way.

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, sister, the time has come for me to ride hard and fast.

Mattie Ross:
They say he has grit. I wanted a man with grit.

Goudy:
Now is it not true that you sprang up on old man Wharton and his two sons with a deadly, six shot revolver in your hand?

Rooster Cogburn:
I always try to be ready.

Goudy:
Was this revolver loaded and cocked?

Rooster Cogburn:
Well, a gun that's unloaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.

Rooster Cogburn:
LaBouef, you get cross ways of me and you'll think a thousand of BRICK have fell on you! You'll wish you was back at the Alamo with TRAVIS!

Rooster Cogburn:
What do you want, girl? Speak up. It’s supper time.

Col. Stonehill:
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough.

Glenn Campbell (Lebourf) to Kim Darby (Mattie):
Well for starters I expect to marry well.

Col. Townsend:
I just received word a young girl fell head first into a 50 foot well on the Townsend road. I thought perhaps it was you.

Mattie Ross:
No, it was not I

Mattie:
You have not traded poorley.

Col. Stonehill:
Oh! Certainly not! I am paying you for a horse I do not possess, and have bought back a useless string of ponies which I cannot sell again.

Moon:
Send the news to my brother George Garret. He is a Methodist circuit rider in south Texas.

Rooster:
Shall i tell him you was outlawed up?

Moon:
It don'matter. He knows i am on the scout.

I will meet him later walking the streets of Glory.

Rooster:
Well don't be looking for Quincy.

[Marshal Cogburn is cross-examined by a defense attorney]

Attorney:
How many men have you shot since you became a marshal, Mr. Cogburn?

Rooster:
I never shot nobody I didn't have to.

Attorney:
That was not the question. How many?

Rooster:
Uh, shot, or killed?

Attorney:
Oh, let us restrict it to killed, so that we may have a manageable figure!

Rooster:
Well, twelve to fifteen, stopping men in flight and defending myself.

Attorney:
Twelve to fifteen? So many that you cannot keep an accurate count! I have examined the record, Mr. Cogburn. A much more accurate figure is available. Come now — how many?

Rooster:
Counting them two Whartons… twenty-three.

Attorney:
Twenty-three men in four years. That makes about six men a year!

Rooster:
It's a dangerous business.

[Moon & Emmett Quincy were arrested in previous scene; Moon was shot in the leg during their capture]

Moon:
Oh, my leg hurts!

Rooster:
I'll bet it do, sonny-boy. Now you just sit right still so it don't bleed so much.

...

Quincy:
I don't know any Ned Pepper. What's he look like?

Rooster:
Short, feisty fella. He's got a messed-up lower lip. I shot him in it.

Quincy:
In the lip? What was you aiming at?

Rooster:
His upper lip.

Rooster:
What we want to do is get them inside that dugout. I'll shoot the last man through the door, and then we'll have 'em over a barrel!

La Boeuf:
You'll shoot them without a call?

Rooster:
Well, it'll give 'em to know our intentions is serious! [La Boeuf & Mattie give him disapproving glares] Aw, well, I'll holler down after I shoot and see if any of 'em want to be taken alive — but when they won't, we'll shoot 'em as they come out the door.

Mattie:
[drinking water from river near camp] That tastes like iron!

La Boeuf:
You're lucky to be where water's so handy. I've seen the time I've drank out of a filthy hoofprint and I was glad to get it.

Rooster:
If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk from a hoofprint, I think I'll… I'll shake their hand, or buy them a Daniel Webster cigar! [he looks over La Boeuf's horse] How long you boys down there been mounted on sheep?

La Boeuf:
Go ahead and have your little joke. But I'll tell you one thing: that little fella there will still be running when that big American stud of yours is winded and collapsed.

Rooster:
Ha — sheep! Heh, heh…

Mattie:
I'm here to take you back to Fort Smith and hang you!

Chaney:
And I think I will not go. Now how do you like that?

Mattie:
Well, there's a posse of officers up the hill who'll force you to go!

Chaney:
How many officers?

Mattie:
I'd say right around fifty — and they mean business! So you just walk up that hill right in front of me.

Chaney:
I believe I'll oblige those officers to come after me.

Mattie:
If you refuse to go with me, I'll have to shoot you.

Chaney:
Is that so? Well, you better cock your piece. [Mattie pulls back the lever on the revolver to load it. She doesn't pull it all the way.] All the way back, until it locks!

Mattie:
[c*cks revolver properly] I know how to do it. Now you mean to say that you won't go with me on your own free will?

Chaney:
You just got it the other way around, now you will follow me!

Chaney:
I didn't think you'd do it!

Rooster:
[From the top of the hill] Sis! Where are you!

Mattie:
I'm down here! I got Chaney!

Chaney:
I just didn't think you'd do it! One of my short ribs is broke!

Mattie:
You killed my father when he was trying to help you! You're just a piece of trash! You also killed a senator in Texas when he was sitting on a porch swing!

Chaney:
Everything happens to me and now I'm shot by a child!

Mattie:
I'll shoot you again if you don't get up!

[Ned Pepper, Mexican Bob, and the Parmalee brothers meet Rooster Cogburn blocking the road.]

Rooster:
Where's the girl, Ned?

Ned:
She was in wonderful health when last I saw her. I can't answer for her now.

Rooster:
You'll answer for her now! Where is she?

La Boeuf:
[from far off, in outlaw camp] Rooster, make a run for it! I've got Mattie! Chaney too!

Ned:
Well, Rooster, will you give us the road? I have business elsewhere.

Rooster:
Farrell, you and your brother stand clear. I've got no interest in you today. Stand clear and you won't get hurt.

Harold:
Cock-a-doodle-doo! [other outlaws laugh]

Ned:
What's your intention, Rooster? You think one on four is a dog-fall?

Rooster:
I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

Ned:
I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Rooster:
Fill your hand, you son of a b*tch!

[In a scuffle with Chaney, Mattie falls into a rattlesnake pit.]

Mattie:
Help me! Please help me! I'm in the pit! There's a snake down here, and skeletons!

Chaney:
[leaning head over edge of pit] I warrant there'll be another one before long — a little, spindly one! How do you like it?

Mattie:
[sobbing hysterically] Oh, help me, help me… please, HELP ME!

Chaney:
You say you don't like it?

Rooster, I'm all shot up.

Mattie Ross:
If I smelled as bad as you I wouldn't live near people.

Mattie Ross:
If in four months I could not find Tom Chaney, with a mark on his face like banished Cain, I would not advise others how to do so.

Mattie Ross:
I also notice that the men of Texas gouge their mounts with great brutal spurs and cultivate their hair like lettuce!

Mattie Ross:
I want Tom Chaney hanged for killing my father! It's little to me how many dogs and senators he's killed in Texas.

Mattie Ross:
Those horses can't outrun Little Blackie! They're loaded down with fat men and iron!

Mattie Ross:
I'm going! And it's not because you say I can't, and it's not because you say I can. I paid good cash money to be here, and I'm on my own business! Now, we'll have no more talk about it.

Mattie Ross:
My name is Mattie Ross, of Near Dardanelle in Yell County. My family owns property, and I don't know why I'm being treated like this!

Mattie Ross:
Rooster Cogburn is no good friend of mine! He led us straight into your hands, and now he has left me with a gang of cut-throats! Is that what they call "grit" in Fort Smith? We call it something else in Yell County.

Mattie Ross:
Papa's marker is not what was ordered. I will make that wool-hatted fool of a stone man change it.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Mr. Rat, I have a writ here that says you are to stop eating Chen Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now, It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same! [to Mattie] See? He doesn't pay any attention to me. [shoots the rat] You can't serve papers on a rat, baby sister. You either kill him or let him be.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
General Price don't belong to me. He just rooms with me. Cats don't belong to nobody. 'Course, I depend on him.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
A fella that carries a big-bore Sharps carbine might come in handy… if we get jumped by elephants, or buffalo, or something.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
By God! She reminds me o' me!

"Rooster" Cogburn:
It's a shame, a kid like Moon losing his leg. He's too young to be hoppin' around on a raw peg. Loves to dance too much, and sport!

"Rooster" Cogburn:
DAMN a man that whistles!

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Young fella, if you're looking for trouble, I'll accommodate you. Otherwise, leave it alone.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Ned doesn't go around killing people for no reason. Had he a reason, he'd kill them.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker's convenience. Which'll it be?

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Fill your hand, you son of a b*tch!

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Damn that Texican! When you need him, he's dead.

"Rooster" Cogburn:
We've got to get you to a doctor or you'll be deader than he is!

"Rooster" Cogburn:
Well, a gun that's unloaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.

Ranger La Boeuf:
The French is 'La Bourf'. I say 'La Beef'.

Ranger La Boeuf:
I only take one step at a time. That's why I was given two feet.

Ranger La Boeuf:
You can't take men by watching them run away!

Ranger La Boeuf:
I served under General Kirby Smith. And I don't have to hang my head when I say it.

Ranger La Boeuf:
I ain't dead yet, you bushwhacker!

Ranger La Boeuf:
She draws him like a gun! [referring to Mattie's constant invocation of her lawyer's name]

Ned Pepper:
I never busted a cap on a woman or anybody much under sixteen. But it's enough that you know that I'll do what I have to do.

Ned Pepper:
Most girls like little play-pretties. But you like guns, don't you?

Ned Pepper:
All the Parmalees is touched, but Harold's the worst… no, their Ma's the worst, then comes Harold's brother Farrell… but they're all good shots.

Ned Pepper:
If that girl don't stay healthy, you don't neither, understand? And you don't get paid!

Ned Pepper:
I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!

Tom Chaney:
A gun will say a whole lot quick!

Moon:
He never played me false until he killed me.

Mexican Bob:
My wounds healed by themselves - from the inside!