Cheap Rio Bravo (DVD) (John Wayne, Dean Martin) (Howard Hawks) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rio Bravo

a casual, brilliant film
Rio Bravo is one of a handful of movies (see also The Quiet Man) that belies the one-note, tough-guy stereotype that so many people associate with John Wayne. Here he is endearing (his scenes with Walter Brennan are hilarious and genuine) and, dare I say, even somewhat sensitive in his own way (his firm method of "treatment" for Dean Martin's alcoholic character is something a counselor friend of mine finds priceless). The rest of the cast is wonderful as well: Brennan is cranky, Martin is wounded but charismatic, Angie Dickinson is sly and assured and Ricky Nelson, surprisingly, does more than just hold his own and look pretty (*and* he sings a duet with Dean Martin). Everyone involved here obviously had a ton of fun making the movie, but more importantly the film exudes that sense of good cheer without undercutting the narrative tension. Director Howard Hawks certainly had a great deal to do with the quick pacing and the tightness of the ensemble, both of which assure that the film never seems to drag, even in quiet moments. In short, a western for people who don't like westerns and a John Wayne movie for people who don't like John Wayne.

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"The state is a body of armed men"
Considered by many to be one of the two greatest John Wayne films (the other being John Ford's The Searchers), Rio Bravo features the Duke as Sheriff John T. Chance, a lawman facing incredible odds as he tries to hold criminal Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), delinquent brother of a ruthless and powerful local landowner, until a judge arrives. Under increasing and relentless siege by big brother Burdette's violent mercenaries, he begins preparing for a showdown in which he knows he will be outgunned and outnumbered. Aided by his ageing deputy, Stumpy (Walter Brennan in an Oscar-winning performance) and former gunslinger and friend Dude (Dean Martin), who is now the town drunk (Dean Martin), Chance digs in knowing his actions would mean the difference between law-and-order and anarchy. The three are joined by mysterious young gunslinger Colorado (Ricky Nelson), whose motives are intriguingly unclear. Rio Bravo is perhaps John Wayne's most satisfying Western, allowing him the signature performance that most composes his movie persona - a heroic, principled man, appealing to and aided by young and old, but fully prepared to stand alone against overwhelming adversaries in protection of decency, law and order. Given its central premise, it's perhaps unavoidable to draw comparisons between Rio Bravo and Fred Zinneman's High Noon, which has Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) preparing to face the man he once sent to jail, all the while being persuaded to leave by his wife (a role interestingly paralleled in Rio Bravo by Angie Dickinson's smitten good-time girl, Feathers). In High Noon, Cooper effectively has to stand alone as the cowardly townsfolk abandon him in his hour of need. Nor is Cooper's character blessed with the lack of self-doubt of Wayne's John Chance. Rather, standing his ground scares him as it would anyone. For him, fulfilling his duty as a lawman has nothing to do with the townsfolk who hardly deserve it but all to do with his personal integrity. His heroism is compelled by his personal decency and has no grand intent unrelated to his own view of who he is and what he stands for. In the end, having defeated the gang (with help from his wife) he tosses his tin star into the dust. Community has been revealed to be a myth - what he did was to be able to live with himself. In Rio Bravo, Wayne is not so much abandoned as admired by the townsfolk. To be sure, they are practically little more forthcoming than High Noon's townsfolk - but they hardly shun him. Rather, he is even in the position of being able to turn down offers of assistance and even the town's meekest man (the Latino hotel proprietor) is hardly afraid to be anything but supportive. Wayne is the designated defender of the community and happy to be so without imposing expectations on anyone else around him. He stands astride the town as the unquestioning and unquestioned defender of a law-and-order status quo he wholly buys into. Whether the townsfolk support him or not is hardly a concern linked to his butt-kicking commitment to his badge and the American way. Significantly, the support he receives from Stumpy, Dude and Colorado result from conscious decisions - acts of will - on their part, not entreaties from him. It's clear throughout that Stumpy has the option of bailing if he wishes to - he doesn't; Dude's easiest road is to remain in a drunken stupor - but he doesn't; and the fight hardly concerns Colorado in any way so his obvious best interest is to remain uninvolved - but he doesn't. Similarly for the rancher who offers Chance assistance (which he turns down); Feathers who positions herself dangerously close to Chance when she needn't; the hotel owner who need not be overly familiar with Chance but is. Rio Bravo displays a thoroughly less jaundiced view of community than High Noon (perhaps unsurprisingly given that High Noon was written by Carl Foreman - cruelly blacklisted during the disgraceful McCarthy hearings that so clearly revealed the fallacy of "community" in Hollywood). Yet, Rio Bravo succeeds in its optimism just as powerfully as High Noon succeeds in its despair. Hawks clearly believes that when worse comes to worse there will be a body of armed men - bound to each other through a higher code - that will stand their ground in defense of the weak. It succeeds of course because - despite the realities of modern American aggression and lack of compassion - the far majority of us would like to believe that as well. But beyond the ideological food for thought, Rio Bravo is also at heart a cracking Western. The scene where Colorado - on-the-draw - tosses a rifle to the outnumbered Chance is a real highlight for fans of movie "moments" and hey - the predictable musical showdown between Nelson and Dean Martin is not half as bad as you may expect. Effectively and creatively reworked in a violent urban setting by John Carpenter as Assault on Precinct 13, which jacked up the claustrophobic tension inherent to the premise but sacrificed the rich characterization of Hawks' original.

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Bravo, Rio Bravo
One of the best westerns made at the time. Others have been made more recently that use modern technical skill, but for the time and place, Rio Bravo was the epitome of the western genre and still holds up today. Period!