John Wayne's Oscar winner, 'True Grit,' returning to LI theaters

John Wayne returns to theaters nationwide, including several on Long Island, this month in the 1969 classic “True Grit.”

The film earned Wayne his only Oscar, for best actor, and was remade by the Coen brothers in 2010 with Jeff Bridges in the starring role.

The original film, based on the acclaimed novel by Charles Portis, features Wayne as U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn, an aging bounty hunter with an eyepatch and a drinking problem. He’s hired by a precocious girl, Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), who is determined to bring her father’s killer to justice. Country singer Glen Campbell plays La Boeuf, a preening Texas Ranger who invites himself along for the journey; the cast includes Robert Duvall as the outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper and a young Dennis Hopper as an unfortunate fellow named Moon.

Directed by Henry Hathaway, a veteran of Westerns since the 1930s, and written by Marguerite Roberts (a former blacklist victim of the 1950s), “True Grit” stands as one of Hollywood’s last straightforward Westerns. By the late 1960s, the hippie counterculture was turning away from all things traditional and ushering in a wave of edgy movies like “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Easy Rider.” Westerns, too, would follow suit with downbeat films that shattered their own myths, including “The Wild Bunch” (released one week after “True Grit”), “Little Big Man” (1970) and “McCabe  & Mrs. Miller” (1971). Even “True Grit” has an unsentimental, spare-us-the-speeches quality that’s rare for its genre.

“True Grit” screens Sunday and Wednesday, as part of the yearlong TCM Big Screen Classics series. For a list of participating theaters and show times, and to order tickets, go to fathomevents.com.