France's law-making body, "Les Follies", today formally admitted their proposal
to ban private ownership of all historic former military vehicles was based on
an idea they borrowed from a film produced in the United States in the late
1960's. Well known for its violent and bloody story line, the American film was
viewed in a private showing to Les Follies, who were preparing to reaffirm the
legal foundations supporting the traditional French means of avoiding violence
which is by means of immediate formal capitulation or by formally capitulating
on a regular basis to no one in particular.
The film, TRUE GRIT (1969), was written by Margeurite Roberts, a blacklisted
writer of that era. Beloved American tough-guy actor, John Wayne, plays the
main character, Marshall Rooster J. Cogburn, a hard-as-nails dispenser of
frontier justice, out to catch a cold-blooded killer. The killer, Lucky Ned
Pepper (Robert Duval) has taken refuge in the territory Cogburn serves. On his
journey, Cogburn finds himself accompanied by a young woman, Mattie Ross (Kim
Darby) and handsome Texas Marshall La Boeuf (Glen Campbell). Each character
pursues the killer for his/her own reasons.
In a key scene where Mattie Ross looks on as the lawmen engage in a wild
shoot-out with Lucky Ned Pepper and his gang of desperados, Marshall LaBoeuf
shoots a horse from beneath Pepper, killing it. In a later scene, Marshall
Cogburn introduces La Boeuf as "The great horse-shooter from Texas." Cogburn
continues the introduction with, "He believes in putting everyone afoot...says
there'll be less mischief that way.."
Senior members of Les Follies stated (with an outrageous French accent), "It
waas quiet zee revelation for us. Unteel zen, all we cood doo waas to
con-seeder how to queekly giff zee tradeetional Frrrench capitulation. Zee
charachter La Boeuf ees wreeten by zee woomaan Margeurite! Both goo-ood French
names, no? Zees makes zem connected in zee special way. It was at zees mo-ment
we knew ex-zactly what was re-quir-ed to keep our glorious France safe for zee
men, zee women and zee cheel-dren. We maast poot ef-verywon on foo-oot to make
less zee miss-cheef! Zees weel esure our saf-ety. Vive la FRANCE!"
It remains to be seen what effect this law, if enforced, will have on French
national security.