Red River

You may be wondering why it took me so long to see Red River, one of the greatest American Westerns by one the greatest American directors, Howard Hawks, but I have no good answer for you. I did see it this afternoon (a perfect film for a lazy Saturday afternoon) and I can tell you it lives up to its reputation.

One of John Wayne's best pictures that wasn't made by John Ford, Red River is all about cattle, but secretly about fathers and sons. It's somewhat Shakespearean in tone, and a key scene in which the son usurps the father's power reminds me of the scene in which Henry IV catches his son Hal trying on the throne.

Wayne is Thomas Dunson, who at the film's opening leaves a wagon train with one cow, one bull, and a crotchety old friend (Walter Brennan, who else?) and heads south toward the Rio Grande to start his own ranch. He leaves behind his girl (Coleen Gray), but later will learn she was killed when the wagon train was attacked my Comanches.

Escaping that attack was a teenage boy, Matthew Garth, and Wayne and Brennan take him along. After fourteen years and a Civil War, Matthew will grow up to be Montgomery Clift, and Wayne will have a huge spread. But he's broke, with no one to sell the cattle to. He decides to drive them up to Missouri.

He hires a crew, including a gunman, played by John Ireland (who has the name Cherry Valance, which must have been where S.E. Hinton got the name for the ideal girl in The Outsiders). They head north, with a famous scene in which each cowboy gets a close-up while he yells, "Yee-ha!" or something to that effect.

Tensions run high. There's a stampede, which kills the guy who was talking about his future (a cliche, but always a good one). The company is warned about border ruffians attacking drives over the Missouri border. Ireland says he heard the railroad has extended to Abilene, Kansas, which would be a better destination. But Wayne is adamant, and becomes more and more tyrannical as he kills two men who want to quit and is ready to hang two more when Clift takes over. Wayne swears he will kill him.

Red River is an exciting film for Western fans as well as something a Freudian might enjoy. Wayne has become power mad, and earns his exile, while Clift, who has thus far followed orders, realizes his adopted father has gone too far. Later he will meet a rather forward woman (Joanne Dru) who will fall in love with him. She actually ends things.

The ending is a cop out when it comes to Shakespearean endings, but it was 1948 and this is not a film ahead of its time (although the story it was based on is more decisive). But the lead up to it is powerful. Hawks, who made dozens of great movies, knows what strings to pull to make our emotions jump. Who will we be pulling for? Wayne or Clift?

Red River was listed as the fifth-best Western by the AFI. Ford, upon seeing the film, said of Wayne, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act." He could, when he wanted to, and he does here.