Red River (1948)

Red River is an American western first released in 1948, directed by Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson.  The film stars John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan and Coleen Gray.  Our overall rating for this film is: excellent.


Leaving his wagon train and the woman he loves, Tom Dunson heads south towards Texas to make his fortune as a ranch owner.  Not long after his departure, the wagon train is attacked by Indians who slaughter the entire party, except for a teenage boy, Matt Garth, who manages to escape and join up with Dunson.  Impressed by the boy’s spirit, Dunson adopts him as his own son and the two continue their journey to Texas with just two cattle, enough to start a ranch.  Fourteen years later, Matt returns from serving in the Civil War to find that Dunson is the owner of nine thousand head of cattle.  Knowing that he would barely make a profit if he were to sell his cattle in Texas, Dunson decides to drive the entire herd to Missouri, where beef commands a higher price.  The thousand mile drive is likely to take a hundred days, but Dunson manages to put together a team of men who are willing to go along with him.  But it is not long before Dunson, with his stubbornness and authoritarian streak, begins to antagonise his men.  Dissent grows when the men learn that there is a railhead at Abilene in Kansas where the cattle could be sold at a good price, but still Dunson insists on going all the way to Missouri.  Things come to a head when Matt turns on Dunson and takes control of the drive.  Leaving his adopted father behind, Matt takes the cattle to Abilene.  He knows that one day Dunson will carry out his threat to kill him...

Red River has an epic quality and spectacular fusion of realism and lyricism which makes it one of the greatest of the Hollywood westerns.  It is hard to believe that this was the first western to be directed by Howard Hawks.   The film’s sheer scale and visual power is unlike anything that we find in any of Hawks’s previous films, which consist mainly of cheap studio-bound comedies and claustrophobic film noir crime dramas.  Hawks did go on to make a few more westerns, notably Rio Bravo (1959), but none of these would match the supreme excellence of Red River, which is widely regarded as his finest film.

The film is notable in that it features what is arguably the best performance of its iconic lead actor, John Wayne.  Even John Ford was impressed.  He had directed Wayne in a couple of films previously, most notably Stagecoach (1939), but he was driven to exclaim, on seeing Wayne perform in Red River,  "I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!"  Howard Hawks was a hard taskmaster who knew how to get the best out of his actors, as can be seen from the authenticity and realism that Wayne brings to his performance in this film.  His Tom Dunson is a flawed and complex character who is as loathsome as he is sympathetic.

Just as impressive is Montgomery Clift, making a remarkable film debut at the age of 27.  Clift’s career would be cut short by tragic misfortune, yet throughout his brief period of stardom he was rarely less than perfect in whatever role he was given.  Although he and John Wayne are reputed to have had a bad working relationship during the making of Red River, on-screen he is the perfect complement to his co-star.  Clift’s Matt Garth matches Wayne’s Tom Dunson in charisma and Old West machismo, but shows a humanity and pragmatism that is so evidently lacking in the flawed Dunson.  Whilst this is undoubtedly Wayne and Clift’s film, it would be a sin to overlook the impressive contributions of the supporting cast, particularly that of Walter Brennan, who supplies much of the comic relief.   It was at Hawks’s insistence that the 53-year-old Brennan removed his false teeth to provide the film with its amusing running gag.

Another key contributor to the film was cinematographer Russell Harlan, who is responsible for the stunning vistas that vividly convey the enormity of the ordeal undertaken by the cattle drivers.  The sequence in which thousands of cattle are driven across a river is one of the greatest ever filmed for a western, but there are so many other memorable images: the wagon train silhouetted against the skyline, the thunderous stampede, the battle with the rampaging Indians and, of course, the final showdown between Matt and Dunson.  How much of Red River’s brilliance is down to Harlan and how much should be attributed to Howard Hawks is hard to determine, but one thing is certain: together they have crafted one of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema, a western that everyone should see.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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