Red River (1948)
Red River (1948), produced and directed by Howard Hawks.
The two most prominent features of this massive cattle drive story are:
John Wayne, showing (as if it needed demonstration) that he can be a flawed protagonist, always strong but sometimes in the wrong.
Montgomery Clift (age 26 when it was filmed) bringing new youthful vigor into westerns. In many ways he is like his elders: he's been to war, is fast with a gun, taciturn and steadfast. But he departs from them in having new ideals and being able to reject even legitimate authority.
That post-War movie vision of youth will soon sour, derailing into juvenile delinquent and biker films.
The movie has a John Ford look (and uses some of his regulars), but is maybe a bit talkier and has more spice in the romance.
The ending is a mixed bag. We never quite trusted tough guy John Ireland but he was not actually a villain and it seems unjust to see him shot down. We didn't want Wayne and Clift to kill each other, but the happy ending resolution seems abrupt and "Hollywood".
I always enjoy seeing Joanne Dru, who I think was under-appreciated. I'll have to watch Wagon Master (1950) again; I recall her being extra cute there. She married John Ireland after this film; he was the second of her four husbands.
Some of the cattle drive is done with process shots, but we also have a real, vast herd and impressive shots of managing them, as when crossing the river. Some dangerous looking stunts.
A good bit: caught between enraged John Wayne and marauding Comanches, our drovers elect to keep ahead of the Duke.
Dimitri Tiomkin score. Photographed by Russell Harlan -- Gun Crazy (1950), Rio Bravo (1959), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Hawks' first western.
Available on Blu-ray from Criterion. Some fine imagery, although a few of the scenes are from a much poorer source.
