Red River
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Movie Reviews of Red River
Movie Review: A film which is spectacle at its best , although spectacle is by no means all of it...
Summary: 5 Stars
From 1939 to 1948, two major Westerns done with taste and skill and with an eye to beauty could be mentioned: John Ford's "Stagecoach," and Howard Hawks' "Red River."
"Red River" is a great adventure Western considered as the very best among all Westerns... But could we compared it to Ford's splendidly filmed "Wagon Master"? John Ford maintains his shooting eye at a certain distance while Howard Hawks keeps it nearby... But both are skilled directors of a bunch of great movies...
Ford is closer to Western movies, and Hawks to other genre... Ford treats his Western characters as people behave... Hawks displays it in vivid adventure... In "Red River," "Rio Bravo," and "The Big Sky" Howard Hawks is far from the magnitude of Ford's "The Searchers." Under Ford's instruction, John Wayne is fluent and moderate, refined in conduct and manners as in "The Quiet Man." With Hawks, Wayne's character prevails differential tendency toward passion and fury...
It is soon evident that the cattle boss is tough to the point of obsession... It could be argued that only men of this spirit could have handled and survived the first pioneering cattle drives... One of the drovers (John Ireland) wants to make for Abilene but gets no change out of Wayne... When the cattle stampede Wayne goes to 'gun-whip' one of the hands, Clift intervenes... It was then evident that Wayne was going to drive his men just as hard as he intends to drive the cattle...
"Red River" is a Western just as much concerned with human relationships and their tensions as with spectacle and action--a hallmark of Hawks' films and this element is introduced when the pair meet up with a boy leading a cow... The boy confirms the wagon-train massacre, and the boy and the cow from then on are included in the partnership... This is not only a key-point of the narrative but also a highly symbolic moment...
For some years Garfield was the only screen rebel... But in Clift's appearance in "Red River," another rebel was born... In "Red River," Clift plays the adopted son who opposes his father's domineering attitudes and behavior towards himself and also towards the cowhands who work for them on the drive to market... The struggle between father and adopted son, compels delighted interest... Dunson's unfeeling hardhearted style remembers us Captain Bligh in "Mutiny on the Bounty." In the beginning of the film we had admiration for Wayne's persona... We concluded finding him unfriendly, unconscious, unacceptable and faulty... Clift wins our sympathy!
Clift was the withdrawn, introverted man who quietly maintains his integrity as he resists all pressures... These qualities were summed up in the words of Private Prewitt in "From Here to Eternity" probably Clift's finest rebel role!
"Red River" will remain a film with a unique flavor... It has, and will continue to have, its own special niche among honored Westerns...
With two Academy Award Nomination for Writing, splendid music score by Dmitri Tomkin and excellent acting including the supporting cast, the film had all the concepts of Howard Hawks' quality: vigor in action, reality as opposed to emotions and a faculty of scale...
Movie Review: ONE OF THE WAYNE'S BEST & MOST NUANCED PERFORMANCES
Summary: 5 Stars
OVERVIEW: A MILESTONE PERFORMANCE FOR JOHN WAYNE
"RED RIVER" depicts Capitalism and Rugged Individualism with maximum human stress added, resembling a "Mutiny On The Bounty" culminating during a desperate cattle drive along the "Red River". By no means is this film any less dramatic or hard-hitting for having been made in the Western genre.
ABOUT "RED RIVER"
It was Wayne's and Hawks' first collaboration [1948]. It went a million dollars over budget, costing 4 million dollars, and it introduced Montgomery Cliff in a leading role. There were nominations and awards received:
Best Editing (nom) Christian Nyby 1948 Academy
Best Story (nom) Borden Chase 1948 Academy
Best Director (nom) Howard Hawks 1948 Directors Guild of America
U.S. National Film Registry (win) 1989 Library of Congress
But most of all, we see the Duke in a very nuanced and unexpectedly complex role where things are going far from right from the get-go. Sure, he's a hero, but he's not a simple or predictable one. His dark side is very near the surface and the kind of stress that a desperate cattle drive raises presses everyone to his limit. The results are -- "RED RIVER"!
LIVING AT THE LIMIT: THE RESULTS ARE -- "RED RIVER"!
Throughout the film, virtually every scene has major hurdles for our characters to overcome, especially Wayne, and they are going to have to deal with these hurdles like human beings -- NOT GOD-LIKE ICONS. In essence, there are no short cuts for the cast in the way of simple and expected outcomes. This makes the film AWESOME during every one of its 133 minutes. The rare dark side seen of Wayne is shocking in its unusual and mostly [until the finale] unsentimental excellence. WOW!
CONCLUSIONS - "RED RIVER" IS JUST 'THAT' GOOD & 'THAT' SOPHISTICATED
Somehow, this is one of the rare superb films that I missed seeing when I was young. It was a treat to see it now. The film boasts Wayne in an Oscar-worthy performance and he is well-complemented with a superb cast which included:
Montgomery Clift - Matthew Garth
Joanne Dru - Tess Millay
Walter Brennan - Groot Nadine
Coleen Gray - Fen
John Ireland - Cherry Valance
Harry Carey - Mr. Millville
Harry Carey, Jr. - Dan Latimer
Paul Fix - Teeler Yacey
The whole cast really played it up a notch, probably inspired by Wayne's fantastic performance. I plan on seeing this film a number of times over the coming months, at which time I hope to add more comments as this film is just that good and that sophisticated.
ABOUT THE DVD: FEATURES WOULD HAVE BEEN APPRECIATED
Excellent Widescreen transfer of both audio and video
DVD Features: Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Movie Review: An American Treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
In the rich history of American film, this piece of work by Howard Hawks makes the short list. It has been used as a template for any filmmaker wishing to make a Western, and further, it is one of those rare pieces of culture by which a society defines itself. If you needed to demonstrate to a foreigner what the American character is all about, you could show them this movie. As a Western, it certainly has it all: cowboys killing Indians, men leaving women for the call of the trail, gunfights, stampedes, love, betrayal, and finally redemption. It is also gorgeously filmed, beautifully written, and well acted throughout. And finally, it stars John Wayne, an actor that towers over today's crop of male actors like an oak over weeping willows.
This film also stars Montgomery Clift as the surrogate son that eventually challenges Wayne for control of the drive. In terms of acting styles, Clift and Wayne were about as different as two actors could be: Wayne seemed always to act on instinct and charisma, while Clift was one of the young Turks through the 40's and 50's, a proponent of a new style of acting - the method developed by Lee Strasburg (one can easily imagine Wayne giving his crooked sarcastic grin over the very idea of a "school" where young people learn acting). Yet, casting these two together works. By all reports, the two hated each other at the beginning of the production, but had developed an actor's respect for one another by the end of filming. Wayne, after watching Clift in one of his scenes, was quoted as saying something like "damn, that little queer sure can act."
John Wayne, for his part, goes toe-to-toe with the new school of internal acting and more than holds his own. His portrayal of a powerful, unbending man who slowly descends into bitterness and hate is a real treat to watch. His performance was, to use a phrase Wayne would have hated, multi-layered and very, very skillful.
Other performances to watch: the ever-faithful Walter Brennan, one of the greatest character actors of all time, is perfect as Wayne's partner/friend. It is in watching Brennan's reaction to Wayne's increasing dementia that we see how far off track he's gone. John Ireland also is a standout as Cherry Valance, the pistoleer, who is full of casual grace and menace. As if all the above wasn't enough, the great Harry Carey is onboard briefly as Mr. Melville, radiating authority.
Every film lover should own this film and watch it at least once annually.
Every American should treasure it as a source of national pride.
One note: this is one film that simply demands a better DVD treatment. The picture and sound isn't bad, but it isn't widescreen, and there are absolutely no special features. C'mon, Criterion Collections, where are you? --Mykal
Movie Review: Red River is an Epic of Western Filmmaking!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let it be known to one and all: "Red River" is one of the best Western movies of all time! It is a supperlative western film, telling the story of the first cattle drive from Texas to Abeline, Kansas, which would later be known as the Chisholm Trail.
The American West is known for it's rugged individualism, and starring in this epic film is Hollywood's #1 rugged individual, John Wayne. Wayne plays Tom Dunson, who on a wagon trail of settlers going west, decides to strike out on his own for Texas country and establish his own cattle ranch. In leaving the wagon train behind, Dunson also leaves behind the love of his young life, saying he will send for her when he finds his homestead. But that same day, the wagon train is attacked by Indians, and his love is brutally killed. The only survivor of the massacre is a spirited young boy, who is found wandering in a daze with his cow. The boy, Matthew Garth, is adopted by Dunson. The stage is then set for the remainder of the story, the struggle to establish the greatest cattle ranch in Texas, and the massive cattle drive to get the cattle to market.
Howard Hawks directs this masterpiece of filmmaking, and takes Borden Chase's (Saturday Evening Post) serialized storyline, and spins a visual saga of obsession and rivalry between Dunson and and his adoptive son Matthew Garth. The film co-stars Montgomery Clift as Matthew Garth. The cast is very favorably rounded out with the addition of Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, and John Ireland. The film's musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin is as perfectly composed for the old west as the black and white rendering of the western barren landscape in the film.
It is Dunson's dictatorship resolve to get the cattle to market that eventually leads to the supreme conflict in the film, the battle of wills between father and son. Matthew Garth is forced by dire circumstances to lead a mutiny against the tyrannical Dunson, and take the herd to Kansas, leaving Dunson alone in the wilderness. Dunson, stung by the perceived betrayal of his adopted son, promises to catch up with Garth, and kill him. The film's climax is the showdown between Dunson and Garth, on the streets of Abeline.
This is a film that you will enjoy watching for the first time, and for many times afterward. It is one of Wayne's best films, and the film that established him as a Hollywood western film icon. John Ford, a close friend of Waynes, and a premier director of his time, commented upon seeing Wayne dominate the film: "That son of a bitch can really act!"; perhaps the highest form of praise Ford ever gave.
If I had to recommend one western film, this is the one I'd choose.
Movie Review: Taking a desperate chance
Summary: 5 Stars
John Wayne was 41 when he made this movie and turns in one of his most powerful performances as the mostly unsympathetic yet ultimately comprehensible Tom Dunson, whose age throughout most of the film is probably somewhere around 55. Going west with a wagon train in 1850, Dunson--who is presumably a veteran, since he wears Cavalry trousers--leaves it, and his beloved Fen (Colleen Gray), to make a home in Texas, just in time to escape the Indian attack that destroys the rest of the outfit. With his longtime partner Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), he picks up a 14-year-old boy, Matt Garth (Mickey Kuhn), who has been orphaned by the Indians, and establishes the "Red River D" brand near the Rio Grande. 15 years later, he's built up one of the biggest spreads in Texas, but in the aftermath of the Civil War, like all the rest of the state, he's broke, and takes a desperate chance on a vast cattle drive to Sedalia, Mo. His obsession soon alienates his crew, and Matt (Montgomery Clift) finds he can't ignore the man's vagaries despite his deep respect for him. The break comes when they learn of a purported new trail town called Abilene which, if they can reach it, will keep them out of the clutches of the border bandits who infest Sedalia's vicinity. But Dunson knows Sedalia is there and isn't so sure about Abilene. Matt finds himself with no alternative but a mutiny and the takeover of the herd, even though he knows that a thwarted Dunson, if left alive, will do his best to catch up and kill him.
Like most Golden Age Western movies, this one somewhat mangles history--Texas made no drives north at all in 1865 (most of her sons didn't return from wartime service till well into the summer), and Abilene didn't exist till '67; if the script had set the story in the latter year, given Dunson a drive to Sedalia the previous season in which he lost much of his herd (as did many Texas cowmen that year), and then introduced Abilene as an alternative, it would have made just as good a story and more accurate reality. But the conflict between Dunson and Matt, the perils of the drive, and the wonderful crew, including Noah Beery, Jr., as Buster McGee, Harry Carey, Jr., as Dan Latimer (his father, Harry Sr., also appears as an Abilene cattle buyer), Chief Yowlachie as cook's assistant Quo, Hank Worden as Simms Reeves, Paul Fix as Teeler Yacey, and John Ireland as the young gunman Cherry Valance, make up for the inaccuracies, which are really minor compared to those of some other films of the era. Critically acclaimed from its first appearance, this is one of Wayne's and director Howard Hawks's best and belongs in every Western fan's collection.