Red River
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Movie Reviews of Red River
Movie Review: THE cattle drive film.
Summary: 5 Stars
** Some SPOILERS towards the end **
There aren't many directors whose films have more consistently improved on second or subsequent viewings for me than Howard Hawks. Five years ago I'm not sure I would have confidently named any of the 15 or so films I've seen to my top films list besides his relatively early screwball comedies BRINGING UP BABY and HIS GIRL FRIDAY; at this point I'm pretty confident in also naming THE BIG SLEEP and RIO BRAVO to the pantheon, and after tonight I can't help but raise the RED RIVER to that level as well. Why is it that Hawks films so often work so much better the second time around? It seems to me that if looked at on the most basic narrative level few of them are all that special, and even the one that stands out in that regard, the almost impossible to follow BIG SLEEP, is memorable more for it's chaos than for anything brilliant that it tells us as a story.
No, what we appreciate in Hawks is the camaraderie of the characters, the snappy dialogue which can sometimes slip past us at interesting moments if we aren't listening closely enough, and the sheer joy of living in this grown-up boy's adventure world where women are guys like the rest of us (not so common in Hawks' day, not so common at all) and we can always expect, if not a happy ending then at least a really good time getting to whatever fate awaits us. Hawks films are more about enjoying the journey than following what happens along it I think, and so when we know what's coming up next we can sit back and enjoy the ride a little bit more, because he's not out to surprise or excite us, and we might be disappointed if that's what we're looking for.
After ten minutes or so of prologue in which we meet Tom Dunson (John Wayne) and the surrogate son, Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift) he rescues from a burning wagon train where he's left the woman who was to become his bride, we're off on a thousand mile adventure to drive 10,000 head of beef from Texas to Missouri. Among those along for the ride are Groot (Walter Brennan), Dunson's old buddy from the pre-Civil War days, and hotshot gunslinger Cherry Valance (John Ireland), Garth's rival in many respects who we might think will come to a bad end eventually. There's also an Indian, Quo (Chief Yowlatchie) who is paired up with Groot when Groot loses his teeth to Quo in a poker game, and a host of other skillfully drawn minor characters, many played by greats among the western character firmament like Hank Worden and Harry Carey Jr.
The story is essentially "Mutiny on the Bounty", with Dunson increasingly irascible, mean and finally downright vicious and brutal as he drives his men onward to Missouri despite plenty of evidence provided from numerous sources that Abilene Kansas would be a better choice, and despite the growing unease of the men. Finally Garth, his right hand man, has to make a decision when Dunson is determined to hang a couple of "deserters" and from this point onwards the climax of the film is obviously no longer going to be the successful fight against the physical hardships, Indian attacks and low morale to get the beef to market, but the battle between experienced, cynical and hard middle age and outgoing, even-tempered youth - between father and son.
RED RIVER is a spectacularly impressive production from top to bottom, with terrifically sharp and textured black and white photography by Russell Harlan, impressively staged action sequences including a "circle the wagons" scene and a stampede, and a general feel for the grit and hard days of a hundred-day drive; this is a film that really puts you in the moment, plunks you down beside those wide rivers, on those dusty trails. Dmitri Tiomkin's score may mostly be variations on the theme song, "Settle Down" but it's absolutely wonderful and joyous regardless and is among my favorite western soundtracks from the period. Hawks' direction is as always stylish and interesting without ever seeming showy; I particularly like his regular long, slow pans across the herd, always communicating the vastness of the undertaking and yet always keeping the men in charge firmly in the forefront, and firmly in command.
And those men (and one woman, in the last act) are of course the major reason to watch the film. Wayne's Bligh-like Dunson and Clift's Fletcher Christian-esque Garth are terrific characters in large part because the leisurely pace of the film gives them time to grow and change, gives us the audience a real feel that weeks have passed and that Dunson's growing madness - and Garth's growing sense of authority - aren't just sudden movie plot devices, but real changes in personality brought into place through real conditions. The rest of the characters revolve around the two principals and here is an area where Hawks' genius really comes into play. Ireland's excellent portrayal of Cherry Valance would probably still have been memorable if he'd been allowed to be just a conventional rival to Garth, but he doesn't go that route, instead becoming in a sense the replacement for Garth when Garth replaces Dunson; and when Groot decides he's had enough of Dunson too, it's a bit of a surprise - usually the old-timer guy stays with the hard and uncompromising protaganist. But Hawks makes Dunson enough of a bastard - and gives Garth enough genuine space to mature - that we accept the situation, and it helps to make the final resolution relatively uncertain.
Or is it uncertain? In the last half hour we have a woman, Tess Millay (Joanne Dru) rescued from the wagon train by Garth who inserts herself into the story and into their relationship. Some critics and viewers find the ending of the film stupid or unbelievable or weak in part because I suppose they don't like Tess coming in and changing the dynamics - in essence, healing the rift between "father" and "son" by offering herself as a builder of further generations, a link to the future that Dunson has dreamed and talked about through the whole movie. And so the ending - after a pre-climax shootout that is admittedly a bit problematic - is jokey, romantic, repaired friendships, and platonic masculine love. There is no bad guy at the end, not really; we get a fistfight to settle just a bit of our desire for that cathartic violence, but that's all we need. If the Western is ultimately all about the future, and not the past, why does it always need to end in a killing? Though I certainly can understand the argument that the WAY the ending is handled is too silly, I also think that those who insist on a more conventional finish there are guilty of a failure of imagination; I think blaming Hawks or his screenwriters Borden Chase and Charles Schnee for trying something different is missing the point. I say, long live the unconventional, in this most hidebound of genres.
Movie Review: Classic John Wayne Western About Cattle Drives
Summary: 5 Stars
Producer & director Howard Hawks set the bar so high that not even he could surpass himself when he helmed his first and greatest western, "Red River," with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Hawks bought Borden Chase's serialized "Saturday Evening Post" story "The Chisholm Trail" about the first big historic cattle drive between Texas and Kansas and turned it into this sprawling, spellbinding horse opera. The closest any of Hawks' contemporaries ever came to matching his masterpiece was Raoul Walsh's "The Tall Men" (1955) with Clark Gable, Jane Russell, and Robert Ryan. More than any other Hawks' movie, "Red River" qualifies as the director's purest expression of physical action on a grand scale with more than 9000 steers filling the frame. This epic western dealt not only with Manifest Destiny as one of its multiple themes but also the creation of the great western cattle empires that would mass produce beef for national consumption. At the same time, Hawks' film depicts the trials and tribulations that occurred after the Civil War in Texas. An autocratic cattle baron struggles to maintain his authority against well-nigh impossible odds. Treacherous white desperadoes plundered herds and cattlemen confronted these brigands as well as bloodthirsty Native Americans. Nothing like "Red River" had been attempted, even by legendary western director, John Ford, who had chronicled the development of the railroad in his silent classic "The Iron Horse." Indeed, James Cruze's "The Covered Wagon" (1923) and later Walsh's "The Big Trail" (1930) showed the physical hardships that the pioneers encountered on wagon trains crossing the vast untamed west. On the other hand, nobody had made a movie about herding cattle. This monumental cattle drive served as the larger-than-life background story to the foreground story about a penniless ranch baron, Tom Dunson, (John Wayne) and his adopted son, Matthew Garth (Montgomery Cliff), who built one of the biggest cattle ranches in Texas. Eventually, Raoul Walsh made "The Tall Men" (1955), with Clark Gable, Jane Russell, and Robert Ryan, the second greatest western about cattle driving.
"Red River" opens in 1851 with a wagon train crossing the plains when ex-soldier Tom Dunson (John Wayne) and his friend Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan) leave the safety of the procession and venture off south. The wagon train boss warns Dunson about hostile Indians in the vicinity. Ironically, the Indians massacre the train and Dunson's amour (Coleen Gray) who he refused to take with him because he couldn't ensure her safety. Dunson and Groot survive an Indian attack. As they are about to resume their journey, a teenager leading a cow, who survived the Indian attack, wanders into their camp. The orphaned Matthew Garth (Montgomery Cliff) grows up to become Dunson's adopted son. Fifteen years later, Dunson presides over 9-thousand cattle, but he is as broke as Texas. Dunson decides to drive the herd to market in Missouri. Dunson quarrels with Matt over the best route, and Matt rebels against Dunson's overbearing rules. At gunpoint, Garth relieves Dunson of the herd and drives it to Kansas instead of Missouri. Along the way, our heroes help out a wagon train besieged by Indians. Matt meets Tess Millay (Joanne Dru) who falls in love with him. A vengeful Dunson, who has vowed to kill him, trails Matt until they confront each other in Abilene and challenges him to duel. During this showdown, Matt refuses to shoot Dunson. Dunson and Garth beat each other to a pulp until Tess intervenes and forces them to shake hands.
"Red River" proved something of a departure for John Wayne. Wayne had confined himself to roles roughly corresponding to his actual age. In "Red River," however, Tom Dunson ages some 14 years, a feat that the actor had never been called on to portray. Wayne goes from being a fit, fast-drawing, dark-haired hero to a tyrannical, gray-haired individual who cannot draw his six-gun as swiftly and suffers from the infirmity of his increased longevity. John Ford, who gave Wayne his first important role in "Stagecoach," saw "Red River" and told Hawks that Wayne's portrayal of an older man captivated him. Subsequently, Ford cast Wayne as a retiring cavalry commander in his own classic western "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon." Actually, "Red River" is a seminal Wayne feature because in many of his later oaters, particularly "The Train Robbers," his colleagues always refer to him as stubborn, bull-headed, and Tom Dunson established that character for Wayne. Hawks said that he considered making "Red River" in color but elected to use black & white to give the film a period look. Montgomery Cliff surprised Howard Hawks when he managed to hold his own against his renowned co-star. Next to "From Here to Eternity," "Red River" is one of Clift's best performances and he looks comfortable in his cowboy outfit. The scene between Clift and Ireland where they swap six-guns and keep a tin can flying through the air is outstanding. Of course, Walter Brennan steals the movie with the running gag about his teeth. Early in the action, he loses his teeth to a Cherokee Indian when he is playing for table stakes in a poker game and cannot borrow money. Consequently, he stakes his teeth, but loses the game. The Cherokee lets the Brennan character eat with them, but he demands that he return them between meals. The Brennan character complains because his teeth helped keep the dust out of his mouth. Noah Beery, Jr., is very good as Buster and the man who taught John Wayne his distinctive walk--Paul Fix of "The Rifleman" TV show--is perfect as one of the drovers who rebels against Dunson.
A lawsuit between Howard Hughes and Hawks arose over a simple line of dialogue from an earlier movie, "The Outlaw," that Hawks had worked on with Hawks postponed the release of "Red River" from 1946 to 1948.
Movie Review: top notch Western
Summary: 5 Stars
I really liked "Red River," a 1948 classic Western starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, and many, many cows. Directed with great skill by Howard Hawks, this is probably the best Western I've ever seen.
At first glance, you might feel you've seen this film before. Cattle stampede? Check. Sweeping theme music, with lyrics about "doggies" that for some reason must "git along?" Check. Crusty old chuck wagon Cookie that pronounces words like "fastest" as "fehss-tuss?" Yessir, and that's curmudgeonly Walter Brennan himself, serving up the lousy coffee with his oft-imitated voice. In fact, "Red River" is saddled with so many horse opera clichés, you'd think this flick about the first cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail would be as cheesy as a fake cactus. But you'd be wrong, because this consistently entertaining film is crackling with suspense, surprising plot twists, interestingly characters and dialogue, and nuanced performances. The photography and staging of the scenes is top notch, which is important because major stretches of the film take place at night, and those scenes are clear and easy-to-follow but still realistic. Even the rugged central-casting types who go along on the cattle drive have significant parts to play. And we have John Wayne, playing a character so much more complicated than usual that Wayne's frequent director, John Ford, said after seeing the film, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act."
The plot is complex, and so kind of important to review. Wayne opens our film doing what he does best, blazing a man-sized trail west, this time to Texas to fulfill his dream of starting a cattle ranch. Along the way his character, Thomas Dunson, tells his sweetie to stay behind with the wagon train, because the journey ahead is "too dangerous." So she stays behind, and is promptly killed by Indians (thanks, Duke). Dunson soldiers on until he finds a suitable plot of land, which he steals at gunpoint from the Mexican settlers, who stole it from the Indians. Fast forward 10 years, and the cattle aren't selling, since Dunson can't compete with the towns along the railways that can transport thousands of cattle at a time. So he decides to lead a cattle drive to Missouri and, after delivering the mother of all "beef - it's what's for dinner" speeches, Dunson heads off with his now-grown adopted son Matt (Montgomery Clift, in his film debut). This is just the first 15 minutes, folks - a lot happens in "Red River." Dunson, perhaps driven by remorse over the death of his gal, grows increasingly obsessive and violent. He refuses to take a shorter but untried path, the Chisholm Trail, to Abilene Texas, where rumor has it there's a railroad and a ready market for his cattle. Dunson's behavior gets so bad that young Matt leads a mutiny, and he and most of Dunson's men wind up taking the bovines themselves along the trail to Texas, with a vengeful Dunson in pursuit. Hawks directs the rest of the film expertly, ratcheting up the tension by turning Wayne's larger-than-life persona inside-out. Dunson becomes a mostly-unseen menace, a formidable killer waiting out there somewhere in the vastness of the desert. As the fidgety cowboys start jumping at their own shadows, and are beset by predictable but well-staged complications including a romantic subplot, the film becomes more and more tense until the inevitable showdown can settle things.
Wayne is not an actor who usually "plays flawed," and the film is given a somewhat pat ending to allow him to regain his lost luster (although even this is not what you'd expect). But young Clift nearly steals the Duke's thunder, in a fine coming-of-age performance that really makes you root for the guy to git them doggies to market, although he knows that even if he succeeds, he will likely be gunned down before he sees the fruits of his labor. Clift's character is not black-and-white, but evolves, maturing from a hot-shot, trigger-happy kid to a reasoning man, able to do the right thing with Dunson's cattle despite what Dunson intends to do to him. He represents the brave, ethical everyman character often played by Gary Cooper, macho enough to make the other men respect him, but thoughtful and at times, frightened. Wayne is in the unusual position of being first a hero, then a villain, and while somewhat exonerated at the end, he ends up an anti-hero, representing the every-man-for-himself ethics of the Westward movement when taken to the point of obsession. It's a fascinating role for Wayne, and while he doesn't show a whole lot more range than he usually does, well, I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act either.
It's been said that our culture is waiting for a larger-than-life hero to come along and sheppard us cattle to a better place, one that, like the imaginary 1950's of "Leave it to Beaver," exists mostly in our imagination. If so, we are waiting in vain. The Duke - or what we imagine him to be - has ridden off into the proverbial sunset. But "Red River" presents an exciting and thoughtful look into the cherished American mythology of the Westward movement, and it deserves its ranking as among the very best classic Westerns.
Movie Review: Compelling, gritty, touching...
Summary: 5 Stars
This review has spoilers, for those that may not want to read them.If I could I'd give this four and a half stars, because there are a few flaws. The biggest flaw, I'd say, is the romance. I am a woman and I like to look at good-lookin' ultra manly men (like John Wayne), but I don't need a tacked-on romance to appreciate a good movie. I realize they think they needed the Tess character in order to bring about the reconciliation between Tom & Matt, but it really doesn't work - partly because Joanne Dru just isn't convincing in the role. She's got some good moments (mostly when she's alone with Wayne), but her ineptitude is painfully obvious at the end, at the pivotal moment when she breaks up the much-anticipated fight between Tom & Matt.
So, having gotten that aside, I will say what works. John Wayne. Awesome. A wonderfully rich and nuanced performance. This is one of the films you want to show someone who (maybe because of his politics?) still wants to believe that Wayne was a bad actor. As Tom Dunson's paranoia and his tendency toward cruelty grows, you want to detest him but you can't quite do it - I guess because you know that he can be tender and good (his sweetness with the girl he leaves behind, the fact that he plans to buy red shoes for the wife of the cattlehand that is killed in the stampede, etc.), and because JW makes him so real & vulnerable.
Montgomery Clift. His performance is nearly as compelling as John Wayne's, but since the role is not quite as complex (i.e., not on that dangerous edge between good and evil), I guess he has less of an opportunity to show what he's capable of. You're not allowed to take sides between he and Dunson, because you understand where both of them are coming from. If you look closely, you can see tears in his eyes at the film's climax - when he is smiling at Dunson even as Dunson is coming at him with a loaded weapon. It's extremely touching in an extremely unsappy way.
Walter Brennan turns in a nuanced performance, too. He is the comic relief, certainly, but that doesn't preclude him from being an interesting character. The scenes when he is torn between his undying friendship for Dunson and hatred for what Dunson has become are particularly rich.
Cherry Valance is an interesting character and the actor who plays him (John Ireland?) is very good. I feel like more could have been done to bring this out, but for whatever reason he doesn't have much to do in the film. All the other minor characters are on par here - everyone is top-notch.
I don't mind this film's ending nor do I find it a bowing to Hollywood convention - convention that normally does dictate a happy ending. These are two men who love each other like father and son. The son will not draw, and the father will not take his son's life. We know this and we know that this is the one time Tom Dunson will change his mind. It is the only ending this film *could* have. I do, however, think it could have been handled differently... they should not have gone quite as abruptly from anger and violence to grinning schoolboys as they did. And as I said before, a stronger performance from Dru would have made a big difference.
There are so many moments and images that just stay with you - for example, the anticipation that builds as we see Dunson arriving in Abilene with his band of mercenaries. We are only allowed to view him from a distance. Then he gets off his horse and our view of him is partially obscured as he makes his way toward Matt through a sea of cattle - a sea that parts and makes way for this huge, swaggering, angry figure. It's just plain cool-looking; I can't put it in different terms than that. Then as Matt refuses to draw his weapon, we see him come closer and closer to the camera, to the point where he fills the entire screen and his image is blurred. I am tempted to posit here that the camera has never before or since loved anyone like it loved Duke. His presence and charisma are astounding.
This gets my vote for one of the best westerns ever made, and while I've certainly not seen all of John Wayne's 100+ films, this has got to be right up there with the best he's ever been.
Movie Review: Take 'em to Missouri, Matt!
Summary: 5 Stars
With RED RIVER, versatile director Howard Hawks, well-known for his screwball comedies (BRINGING UP BABY, HIS GIRL FRIDAY) made one of the greatest westerns ever in just his first attempt at the genre. This story of the epic first cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail in 1865 is noted for its fine acting performances as well as for its tension-filled and exciting storyline. This was also really the first film in which John Wayne notably plays a troubled anti-hero rather than the more conventional matinee-style hero or villain he was known for previously. The greatest roles that lay ahead in his career (particularly Ethan Edwards of THE SEARCHERS) would follow in this mold.
Wayne plays Tom Dunson, a self-made but ruthless man who has built the largest ranch in Texas with 10,000 cattle that need to go to market. Montgomery Clift, in his first major film role, plays his adopted son Matt Garth, who has just returned from service in the Civil War. Tom and Matt and their cowhands set out on the 1000 mile drive intending to take their herd to Missouri. Although Dunson gives his men the option to opt out before the drive begins, he will permit no man who begins the journey to quit along the way. As the hardships mount up on the trail to Missouri and the men begin to hear of the new, safer Chisholm trail to Abilene, Kansas, morale drops. When Dunson refuses to go to Kansas due to uncertainty about its having access to a railroad, the men begin to leave. Several attempting to leave are shot dead by Dunson.
Eventually, after Dunson attempts to hang some more deserters, Garth wrests control of the herd and steers them toward Kansas with Dunson vowing that he will kill him when he catches up to him. Despite the rather vile acts that Dunson commits, he is not an altogether unsympathetic character and Wayne plays the character in a well-nuanced performance. Garth clearly loves his adopted father but, at the risk of being perceived as "soft," he is more empathetic and intelligent in his approaches to problem solving than is Dunson. The tension mounts as Garth tries to reach Kansas before the vengeful Dunson, even as he knows that he will eventually have to face him anyway.
Leading the strong supporting cast is Walter Brennan, who is as great as he always is as chuckwagon driver "Groot." Also supporting this film are such Western stalwarts as Hank Worden (who was also a particular favorite of John Ford), John Ireland, Paul Fix, and Noah Beery Jr. (known to a later generation as "Rocky" on THE ROCKFORD FILES). On an interesting note, this was Harry Carey Jr's first film as well as the last film of Harry Carey Sr, and so is the only film in which the father and son appeared together (albeit in different scenes). Joanne Dru is appealing and attractive as the love interest. More trivially (for the trivia-minded), Richard Farnsworth and Shelly Winters have tiny, uncredited roles that fans of Where's Waldo? might want to watch for.
RED RIVER, along with The Searchers (John Wayne Collection) has always been on the top of my list of my favorite westerns. Anyon who doubts John Wayne's abilities as an actor need to check out these two films. While it is true when people say that the only character that John Wayne ever played was "John Wayne," he was sometimes quite remarkable in playing that character.
Jeremy W. Forstadt