There is “True Grit’ and there is Real Grit.

“True Grit” was a 1969 western movie starring John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogbur, who went after bad guys.

It was so good that “True Grit” was reshot and remade in 2010, this time starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon.

But it was only a movie. And everybody knows there is a big difference between movie grit and grit in real life, especially in politics.

Grit in a movie character depends on good acting. Grit in real life calls for courage, perseverance and passion.

Which is where Mike Minogue comes in.

Minogue, 56, is one of three Republicans running for governor. The other two are Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve.

The winner of the GOP primary will take on Democratic Gov. Maura Healey who will one day wake up to find out that she is not running against Donald Trump, but one of the three Republicans.

It could be Minogue, who has grit.

Not that he is a huge Trump fan, but as governor he would, for the benefit of the state, work with whoever is in the White House, something Trump-hater Healey has refused to do.

Minogue is the former CEO of Abiomed, the producer of the world’s smallest heart pump that has saved countless lives. He is a businessman, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist. He is wealthy, energetic and generous.

He is also a graduate of West Point, an Army Airborne Ranger and a decorated combat veteran of Desert Storm, the 1991 Gulf War.

He led the first infantry platoon that crossed into Iraq during that successful military operation headed by the late, legendary and gritty Gen. Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf.

Minogue, who has not run for office before — and believes it is an advantage to be a non-professional politician — bills himself as “a new kind of governor” who has “the grit to deliver for Massachusetts.”

In an interview with the Boston Bros podcast produced by Inside Lowell, Minogue last week said he would be accountable only to the people of Massachusetts, not party politicians.

Establishment politicians, like Healey, “are beholden to too many people,” he said.

Minogue said he has no ambition to run for any other office and would not use the office as a steppingstone.

But could he, as a Republican governor, work with the Democrat- controlled Massachusetts Legislature?

Well, if he could cope with hazing at West Point, getting wet and frozen at Ranger School, survive combat in Iraq, and work hard for 19 years to build a billion-dollar company, he is confident he could work with the Legislature.

“I will work with anyone who has good ideas,” he said. “Success in life has a lot to do with grit and discipline.”

While he has solid ideas about cutting the state’s $63 billion budget and returning savings to the cities and towns, cutting taxes, auditing the Legislature and other state agencies — as well as a host of other ideas — the themes of hard work, discipline and grit run through his approach to government, politics, business and life.

Grit is a lesson to be learned, he said. “You have to earn it when it is not easy, but you are doing it for the right reason.”

“If you have purpose, you have grit because you are serving something bigger than yourself, and you will succeed.”

“Everyone in life should have their nose bloodied” and then be able to “understand what it is to get up,” Minogue said. That’s grit.

“People who have soft lives lack character. Maybe they don’t know it. When you have failed and suffered it gives you more empathy, more joy, more gratitude.”

And more grit.

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: petr.lucas@bostonherald.com

The Massachusetts State House. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)