True Grit

Rooster throws a holster over the horn on his saddle before he and LaBoeuf have the argument after which LaBoeuf leaves them (the first time).

During this argument, the position of Cogburn's holster on the saddle-horn changes several times.

When LaBoeuf first meets Mattie Ross in her room at the boarding house, he is smoking a pipe.

At one point during their conversation, LaBoeuf puts his pipe down on the table next to his chair.

The smoke curling up from the pipe suddenly changes shape and position.

When Rooster Colburn is pulling cornbread out of his satchel and throwing it the air to shoot, you see that several pieces of cornbread fall out of his satchel and on the ground; however when they go the wide shot, no cornbread is on the ground.

At one point in the film, Rooster says that they have a choice of heading north into the Winding Stair Mountains or continuing further west.

The Winding Stair Mountains are 30-40 miles southwest of Fort Smith, meaning they would have to travel south to go up into the mountains, not north.

Le Boeuf uses a Sharps carbine for the long shot (over 400 yards) that kills Ned.

This is not at all an impossible feat for a Sharps carbine.

Furthermore, he would not have used a full length rifle, as it would have been bulky and impractical on horseback.

When Rooster Cogburn is being cross-examined in Judge Parker's court, the position of the eye patch, more precisely the band above his left eye, changes position during the several scenes.

Mattie tells Rooster that her sister's name is Victoria.

Later, in her letter home, she asks her mother to pinch Violet on the cheek for her.

However, at that time "Violet" was commonly used as a nickname for people called Victoria.

Toward the end of the movie when Rooster is on the ground and Ned Pepper is on his horse ready to shoot him, LeBoeuf is aiming to shoot Ned with his Sharps Carbine.

He successfully shoots Ned, and then gets hit in the head with a rock by Chaney.

Mattie grabs the carbine and shoots Chaney.

The carbine that LeBoeuf used is a single shot breech load carbine.

He can be seen reloading while he is talking to Mattie, and closes the breach shortly before being hit.

When Mattie is fetching water from the river and encounters Tom Chaney, she is carrying a wood bucket.

Such an item would be very unwieldy and bulky to carry while riding horseback, and none of the characters is shown to be carrying one.

More likely, Mattie would have used a canvas bucket, and this in fact, is mentioned in the book.

When Marshall Cogburn is shooting the last piece of cornbread, his coat kicks up and knocks his hat off his head.

In the next shot of him, his hat is back on his head.

Little Blackie can be seen wearing a breast collar during the river crossing that he doesn't wear during the rest of the film.

When Maddie Ross shoots Tom Cheney the first time and she falls backwards into the water we can see her gun the entire time when she falls and then rights her self, she could not re-cock her gun without the camera seeing it, however when the camera cuts to her standing her gun is cocked and she then attempts to fire it.

This is impossible due to the fact that her pistol is a Colt Model 1848 which is a single action pistol, meaning she would have to cock it after each shot.

Before drunken shooting scene Rooster falls off his horse and the bottom of his boot is exposed.

The boot has a modern Vibram sole with traction groves.

Boots of that period had leather soles with no groves.

When Mattie cuts the hanged man down from the tree and Rooster kicks him over so that he is lying flat on his back, his legs are crossed and his coat is half open.

As Rooster stands over the dead man, Rooster's shadow falls behind him, away from the dead man.

After the next scene, where the Indian on horseback approaches, no one has touched the dead man, and Rooster is standing in the same place.

But now the dead man's legs aren't crossed anymore, his coat is fully open, and Rooster's shadow falls in front of him, across the dead man's legs.

When Mattie scales the tree to cut down the hanged man, the length of rope changes length between shots.

When we first see him, he is hanging very close to the tree.

In the next shot, he is hanging a fair amount lower.

In the original screenplay, Rooster cuts the rope at ground level and the body falls about 5 feet, and then the rope snags.

That is why Mattie has to climb the tree to cut him down.

The scene of Rooster cutting the rope at ground level was filmed, but did not make it into the final cut.

That is why the body is seen hanging several feet lower.

When Mattie first encounters Rooster at the courthouse, she keeps standing in his way to prevent him from leaving the courthouse, but exit doors are shown behind him (which he eventually walks through).

Most courthouses of this time (including the Blanco, Texas courthouse where this scene was filmed) were square-shaped and had exits on all four sides.

Mattie was only blocking him from exiting the doors he was originally heading towards.

During the cornbread shoot, Cogburn shoots the first piece of cornbread with his Colt Single Action Army, in the next scene, when LaBoeuf shoots the cornbread, Cogburn is seen holding a Colt Dragoon, similar to the gun Mattie Ross has.

It is NOT one of the Colt 1851 Navy's he carries on his saddle.

When the three men are hanged, the knot of each noose is placed behind their head.

The correct procedure would have the executioner place the knots under the left ear.

When we see Rooster and Maddie on their horses, both appear to be geldings, however when Rooster's horse is killed by Ned Pepper, the horse is clearly female.

The snakes Mattie sees in the cave are clearly rat snakes from their markings, but she calls them rattlers and you can hear rattling in the background.

The date for the Wild West Show on the flyer is July 18.

When Mattie shows up there , Cole tells her Rooster died 3 days ago.

The date of death on his gravestone is Aug.

When Ned captures Mattie, the pistol he threatens her with is a Remington New Army.

A few minutes later, Ned reloads his pistol and he has a Colt Single Action Army.

When he fires a shot to acknowledge Rooster keeping his end of the bargain, he is again using a Remington, however, when he pulls his pistol to shoot Rooster, he is back to a Colt SAA.

While it is possible that Ned carried two revolvers, at no time is he seen with a second revolver on his person.

LaBoeuf wears his spurs incorrectly throughout the entire film.

A cowboy buckles his spurs on the outside of his foot, leaving the large leather piece to rest against his horse.

LaBoeuf needed to flip his spurs to the opposite boot.

When Ned Pepper is pinning Mattie Ross with his boot in The Winding Stair Mountains, after the first pan down at Mattie and pan back to Ned you hear the director yell "Action".

While Ned is holding Mattie pinned with his boot the position of her hat that fell off changes from being an inch from her head to completely missing.

Also in the long shot it's leaned to the side but when she picks it up it's positioned straight up.

Near the beginning of the film, when Mattie is arriving by train in Ft.

Smith, the camera pans across the ground and tracks to the train, revealing a pre-cast concrete grade crossing with steel edges, and then subsequent wooden grade crossings.

These precast concrete grade crossings were not available in the late 1800s.

When Mattie and Rooster hear the warning gunshot in the distance and are waiting for someone to appear, a car is visible in the close-up of Mattie on her horse.

Mattie and her horse are completely dry right after swimming across the river.

In the grocery store back room scene, the closeup of Rooster Cogburn brushing past the ducks shows the ducks hanging separately.

In all wider shots in which the ducks can be seen, they are hanging in a tight group.

In the conversation between Mattie and the horse trader Col.

Stonehill, he is seated, leaning back in his chair, with both arms on the armrests.

Mattie speaks and the scene cuts to him saying, "You have no case.

" When he says this sentence, he's leaning forward in the chair, his right arm is extended out to his right and is resting on some papers on his desk.

The scene cuts to Mattie speaking again and when it cuts back to him, he's leaning back, both arms on the armrests.

When Mattie first meets LeBoeuf, she tosses the photo of Chaney onto a book on the nightstand.

The photo then changes position several times.