"True Grit" Rifle Bloopers

Above, John Wayne takes aim with his Winchester 1892 carbine. IMFDB photo.

The 1969 True Grit is the beloved movie that garnered John Wayne his one and only Oscar.

However, there are some goofs in the movie when it comes to firearms.

True Grit was also a breakout movie for actor Robert Duvall as the outlaw Ned Pepper. In the movie Pepper carries a Winchester 1894 rifle. There's only one problem with this.

Above, Robert Duvall fires his Winchester 1894. IMFDB photo.

The story was set in 1880, before the Winchester 1894 was made.

Duvall wasn't the only one in the movie who carried a Winchester 1894. Actor Myron Healey also carried one during the scene where Rooster Cogburn (Wayne) unloads a wagon of prisoners.

From the Internet Movie Firearms Database:

A U.S. Marshal helping unload outlaws from the Indian Territory is seen armed with a Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine. He is seen with it in hand when telling Mattie to wait another day to talk to Rooster Cogburn. Later in the film, Ned Pepper is seen with a '94 rifle and fires it into the air to let Rooster know where he is. It clearly has a longer receiver and the more complex lever system under the gun helping tell it from an 1892 rifle. It is anachronistic for the film, which is set in 1880.

John Wayne carried a Winchester 1892 carbine in the movie. That rifle wasn't also around in 1880.

At least Glen Campbell used the correct rifle for the period.

According to the IMFDB:

La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) uses a Sharps 1874 Cavalry Carbine as his rifle of choice throughout the film.

 

Above, Glen Campbell and his Sharps 1874 carbine. IMFDB photo.

Hollywood is notorious for having props that were wrong for different eras. Some sharp-eyed fans have spotted that wrong Jeeps were used in Patton (1970), for example.

Enthusiasm and Star Power For McCain-Palin

(Robyn Beck/AFP/Gety Images)

McCain crowds have grown enormously since Sen. John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Previously, crowds averaged about 1,000. But since Palin's pick, the smallest crowd for a McCain rally was about 5,000. Estimates of last weekend's Colorado Springs rally ranged from 11,000 to 30,000.

The "Palin Factor" has greatly boosted McCain's crowds and GOP enthusiasm.

Besides Palin, the campaign has also included actor Robert Duvall, adding more star power to the campaign.

From Jill Zuckman:

Robert Duvall and his wife, Luciana Pedraza, were the opening act for Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, at the Albuquerque Convention Center this evening.

Walking on stage, Duvall, the star of the "Godfather," shouted out, "Somebody give me an amen!"

The crowd, numbering in the thousands, shouted "amen" back at Duvall.

"My friend, Wilford Brimley, the old cowboy actor you may know, told me, 'Bobby, when you sit down and talk with this man, he will sit down and listen to you with no agenda,' " Duvall said, adding that Brimley told him when McCain "was in North Vietnam in the prison camps, they tried to kill him and he wouldn't let them."

From ABC News:

Actor Robert Duvall claimed to have known about Palin all along. At the New Mexico event, he was on hand to cheer on the new political couple.

"About a year ago I first saw this wonderful woman speak," the veteran of "Lonesome Dove" and the "Godfather" movies said. "I didn't know who it was. And I said who is this woman? And a year later, I said to myself about three or four weeks ago, why isn't she up for the vice presidency?"

Glad to see that Hollywood conservatives haven't gone extinct.