True Grit

Score by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Don Black

1969 True grit

In 1969, Don worked together with the legendary Elmer Bernstein on John Wayne’s Oscar-winning ‘True Grit’. The movie has John Wayne’s character ride in to revenge a young girl whose family has been murdered. What won Wayne his Oscar was a real tenderness in his character’s relationship with the girl. Black and Bernstein picked up on that relationship with a song that at once keeps to the conventions of the Western but also scats around with flecks of real sensitivity.