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Amazon.co.uk Review
When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, Hawks' Red River and John Ford's The Searchers. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River, a sweeping cattle-drive drama, Rio Bravo is a much calmer film. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T Chance (Wayne), his alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black coffee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. If the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. The film achieved additional notoriety in the 90s when Quentin Tarantino revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
Synopsis
No-nonsense Texas border sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) fights off ruthless mercenary gunmen in order to keep a murderer in custody. A ragtag band of volunteers, consisting of a singing kid, a toothless old man, a recovering alcoholic, and a spunky woman, assists.
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Howard Hawks' ode to professionalism and friendship,
By
This review is from: Rio Bravo (2 Disc Special Edition) [1959] [DVD] (DVD)
Hawks' great film finally gets a special edition DVD release. RIO BRAVO is one of the finest American Westerns from one of the greatest American filmmakers, although sadly the cult of Hawks seems to be waning amongst younger film fans. Nevertheless, this 'special edition' DVD release of RIO BRAVO is exemplary, a dream come true for the film's fans. The documentaries are brilliant, offering great insight into Hawks' craft and themes, and the commentary track with Richard Shickel and John Carpenter is excellent: Carpenter clearly knows this important and influential movie inside out, and on the commentary track he laments the way in which society has turned against the professionalism of Hawks and now venerates the amateur. Nowhere is this more apparent than in modern popular cinema, where the professionalism, honesty and narrative economy of a filmmaker like Hawks seems to have been almost completely neglected in favour of spectacle and narrative 'flab'.
If you're a fan of the movie, no doubt you've already made up your mind and ordered this disc; if you've never seen RIO BRAVO before and are considering ordering the DVD, please do so--you won't regret it, and you'll see how one of the best examples of how movies used to be made, and perhaps more importantly how more modern movies should be made.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An underrated classic!,
By Prufrock (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rio Bravo [VHS] (VHS Tape)
One of the best westerns ever made, this is the typical Howard Hawks movie. Themes of friends coming together, loyalty and an unwritten code of honour run through the film. With an assured hand, tough and a gentle, yet never dull, Hawks first lets us understand who these people are; from Dean Martin's drunk (caused by a woman) to Ricky Nelson's novice hired gun who has more morals than he suspects the cast fill the screen with an ambling warmth.Leading them all is Wayne in one of his most relaxed, iconic performances. He is as straight as a arrow and uncorruptable. What really makes this fun though is his growing romance with Angie Dickinson's saloon moll. Wayne and Dickinson do the usual Hollywood dance, but with enough sassy dialogue and feeling to make one wonder why they didn't appear more together on celluloid. Add to this great action scenes and it all adds up to a great movie.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Slam-Bang Western from Howard Hawks,
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This review is from: Rio Bravo [DVD] [1959] (DVD)
Hawks was a director who could turn his hand to any kind of movie. Westerns (Red River), screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby) even science fiction (The Thing From Another World). Whatever the genre though, Hawks' films tended to explore the same themes. In Rio Bravo, a small close-knit group of men are forced to confront personal demons and overcome differences, in order to defeat the villains who outnumber them. The plot concerns a sheriff (John Wayne) and his fight to stop a powerful rancher springing his brother from jail. Wayne has only a crippled old deputy (Walter Brennan), a green kid (Ricky Nelson) and a drunk (Dean Martin) to rely on.This is ostensibly John Wayne's film, as he's the star, but the film's main character is really Dean Martin's drunken ex-deputy. His efforts to regain his pride and lost standing, both in his own mind and in the eyes of his friend (Wayne) make up the backbone of the story. Dean Martin, who was never taken seriously as an actor, here gives a terrific performance. His sweaty, humiliated 'Dude' is touching without ever being sentimental. Dude's eventual redemption, when he pursues a wounded gun-man into a bar crowded with men who'd previously laughed at him, is thrilling. The film nicely undermines Wayne's iconic masculinity. In several scenes, the sheriff finds himself gently mocked by Angie Dickinson's attractive gambler (the one person in the film he can't get the better of). It's also the only film I can think of in which John Wayne kisses another man (a slight peck on the top of Walter Brennan's bald head).
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