Rooster Cogburn

There is a noticable difference between the alpha cowboy in the movie, Rooster Cogburn, and the alpha cowboys we have been introduced to in the previous movies we have watched. John Wayne’s character, Rooster, is much older than his previous characters. Rather than playing a man who is unaffected by the law, he is a marshal who serves the law. He does not chase down criminals as his daily business, but instead is paid by the judge to catch and bring them to justice. Rooster is a character who is an alcoholic (until reformed by a woman) and also blind in one eye – a physical disability which we have not seen an alpha cowboy have. Rooster has an attitude towards women and Native Americans which is very different from what we have seen. The young Native American, Wolf, tells Rooster that he wants to grow up to be a marshal just like him. Rooster responds by saying that he not only supports Wolf’s aspiration, but that he will also help him become a man like himself. He treats Wolf like a son, with tolerance and care. Not with hatred and a notion of inferiority as we have seen. The relationship between Rooster and the “sister” is also new. They develop a strong relationship because they experience all the adventures throughout the movie together. Rooster allows the woman and Wolf to join him on his journey to catch the bad guys and gives them both guns to use for protection. Rooster’s posse in this movie is not the usual group of cowboy followers. Instead, he travels with a woman and a young boy, both of which are independent of him and take on numerous roles as leaders. All three of these characters work together to fight the bad cowboys and to get through any obstacles that come in the way.

The role of the “sister” in this movie is a polar opposite of what we have seen until now. She is a woman who can be described as an alpha cowgirl. She can out-do Rooster in almost every situation. She uses a gun better than him. She rides a horse better than him. She hunts better than him. Eula even saves twice. First she protects Rooster from being killed by a bad guy when he is not paying attention. Then, at the end of he movie, she takes the blame for killing the man Rooster was supposed to bring alive so the judge will give Rooster his job back. Her character is very dominant and far from “girly.” One of the most important points made in this movie is made by the amount that Rooster and Eula communicate. Rooster reiterates the newly introduced role of women when he passes a comment to Eula saying that “it’s okay if a woman can outsmart and outshoot a man, as long as she’s quiet about it.” The idea that a woman can out-do a man, let alone the alpha male, in anything was unheard of in the previous movies we watched and the readings we read. Rooster Cogburn is the first movie that begins to show the emerging and changing roles of the alpha cowboy and women.