On the whole a wholesome film that older children would enjoy, but it has almost constant gun violence, shows blood, a stabbing, cutting off a finger, multiple dead bodies, and the moments leading up to a hanging with the hanging occurring off screen. Given all of that, I would have thought this would have earned a “PG” rating as small children would find many parts of the film frighting.
shareI think the fact that John Wayne was the star made them more lenient. I was too young to go see this, but a few years later I saw his "Big Jake" on a double bill with a Peanuts cartoon. In Big Jake a psychotic killer outlaw hacks Wayne's dog to death with a machete. You don't see the dog getting hit, but you see him hacking downward, hear chops and a yelp, see blood on the machete, and I think you see the dog lying dead after.
shareGood god. When I googled the film rating for True Grit, I came across a report that it had received an “M” rating (which later became the PG rating) when first submitted to the ratings board and was subsequently edited and resubmitted to receive a “G” rating. But at that point the rating system was in its infancy, only having replaced the Hays Code the previous year. So the standards were likely evolving and inconsistently applied.
share