In celebration of the 50th anniversary to the day of its publication, Lincoln Theater will screen the 1969 film classic “True Grit” (Rated G), on Friday, April 20 at 2 p.m.  This is the performance that garnered John Wayne an Academy Award, and its  title song, by Glen Campbell, was nominated for an Oscar.

Published by Simon & Schuster in 1968 (after it was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post), “True Grit” earned immediate popularity and critical praise as a rousing frontier adventure tale in which 14-year-old Mattie Ross seeks to avenge her father’s murder with the aid of a down-at-the-heels federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn. Over the past half-century, readers of all ages have come to treasure the book as a classic of American literature. The book has inspired two award-winning films—the 1969 version and the 2010 remake by Joel and Ethan Coen starring Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges.

“So few books stand the test of time but ‘True Grit’s’ literary reputation and its popularity have only grown in 50 years,” said Jay Jennings, a senior editor at the Oxford American. Among the many writers who have hailed the novel as a touchstone of American storytelling. 

The 1969 film starring Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby, with its luscious score by Elmer Bernstein, is equally as celebrated as the book on which it is based.  See it, perhaps for the first time, on the big screen at the Lincoln Theater.  Tickets, available at the door starting at 1 p.m., are $8/adults, $6/theater members and youth 18 and under. 

The Lincoln Theater is located at 2 Theater St. in Damariscotta. For more information, visit www.atthelincoln.org.