Posted on 05/06/2009 3:29:55 PM PDT by ReformationFan
It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism and the true measure of a man. The simple storyline has sheriff John T. Chance arresting a murderer and keeping him locked up until his trial. It soon becomes evident that the jailed prisoner has plenty of armed friends and they plan an attack on the jail. Luckily, sheriff Chance, who is outnumbered forty to one, gets some unexpected backup from the least likely characters - an alcoholic drifter, a crippled, elderly man, a naive young gunslinger, a dance-hall girl, and a hotel clerk.
(Excerpt) Read more at tcm.com ...
Love the film, like all John Wayne movies, but Ricky Nelson is annoying as all get out through most of it.
One of my favorite Westerns.
Wayne tells Ricky Nelson that he carries the carbine because others he met were faster with a hand gun. But Wayne also carries his hand gun, of course.
Dean Martin’s alcoholism is explored in a common-sense way, with Wayne telling him to “sweat it out” and buying him beer to take the edge off the detox as he recovers from his two-year drinking binge.
A young and very attractive Angie Dickenson provides some great sexual tension with Wayne.
Nelson doesn’t bother me too much in it. They threw in there to appeal to the teenage crowd to identify with while Walter Brennan was there for the senior citizen crowd to identify with. Truly a film for all age groups.
James Caan did do a better job as Missippi(similar to Nelson’s Colorado) in Howard Hawks’ semi-remake El Dorado.
Western marathon on TCM: Josey Wales, Rio Bravo, High Noon, Man From Laramie.
DVR set!
I have always liked High Noon better, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen Rio Bravo.
Since I don’t have a TV, I guess I’ll be going a while longer...
Indeed. Dino showed he could truly act in this film. And in retrospect, it may have been Angie Dickinson’s finest hour playing a role very similar to Lauren Bacall’s in Hawks’ To Have and Have Not and Jean Arthur’s in Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings.
Some great scenes:
Dean Martin beginning to regain his confidence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIt_54ZcnqY
Dean Martin quits drinking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0zlyKHJao&feature=related
“My Rifle, My Pony and Me”(great song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IpEnsdXwFM
The trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phx8CrLeOEc
I also love the 2nd Duke/Dino western, The Sons of Katie Elder
High noon was a fantastic film. Anybody that has ever faced danger has to first face down their own fear. Gary Cooper was every bit the hero John Wayne characters ever were and far richer in depth.
While Hawks and John Wayne made their careers out of projecting glib and fearless men, they also inadvertantly set up legitimate criticism of greater ideals embodied in their films because of the two-dimensional characters they so masterfully concocted.
BTW, IMO Hawks movie ‘The Thing’ was the best he ever made. Go ahead and shoot - it’s an opinion. Oh yeah, FWIW, I love John Wayne/Hwks movies, too, but I also know the difference between Hershey’s Bars and European 85% cacao content chocolate and appreciate the difference.
Also love it when Walter Brennan says “How do like ‘dem apples?”
Isn’t Rio Bravo the one with the line: “Badges? We don neeed no steeenking BADGES!”
That’s from “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” And later reused in the spoof western “Blazing Saddles”.
Setting the Tivo...
The only thing good Ted Turner gave this country is TCM.
Walter Brennan. Great character, great actor.
Cool name, Liberty Valance.
And it features conservative, patriotic anti-communist Republican actor Ward Bond in his final role.
From his biography on wikipedia-
“In the 1940s, Bond was an intensely active member of the right-wing group called the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, whose major platform was opposition to communists in the film industry. In 1960, Bond campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon. Bond died three days before Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Nixon.”
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