Jeff Bridge was a more believeable charactor for Rooster than Wayne. But John Wayne was making a John Wayne movie and Jeff Bridges wasn't. That to me was the difference and made the same movie line different from each other.
The thing I found myself doing was looking at the faces of all the extras to see if there was anyone in the background that I may have met at "shining times" or in a re-enacting event. The most memorialable charactor in the movie for his short scene was the "Bear Doctor", he was outstanding. When you first saw him you wouldered "what is that?"
I swear I have seen some of those charactor sitting around some of the campfire at night that I have been at. And somebody did some research. The thing about buying and selling or trading dead bodies as having a value was something that most people wouldn't touch on, that in the late 1800's and early 1900's there was a business dealing in human bones and that even grave robbery was at thriving practise because of that.