206. Red River (1948)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

John Wayne loses his girlfriend, but as luck would have it he gets a young boy the next day! They grow up to be big cattle ranchers but with nowhere to sell the cattle, so they take it up to Missouri or do they!

Review

I love me a good Western and this is a great one, I am not a particular fan of John Wayne but the young Montgomery Clift looking like a young, man-sized Tom Cruise makes up for it and frankly John Wayne is pretty good in it too.

The film throws you some interesting and original twists, the fact that John Wayne becomes the menace instead of the hero later on in the film is one of those thing you don't really expect at the start of it. And is a pretty nifty twist to the story.

The relationship between the two main characters is also fascinating, in a very manly way. Speaking of which there must be fewer films which are so clearly for boys and that's fine with me, girls can have Bridget Jones when they aren't reading Jane Austen and I'll have John Wayne when I am not reading Hemingway.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Red River was filmed in 1946 but not released until September 30, 1948, reportedly because Howard Hughes threatened legal action against Hawks and United Artists, claiming Red River was too similar to Hughes' film The Outlaw starring Jane Russell. This, by the way, is one of the few pre-1951 UA films that the studio continues to own (sister company MGM now handles distribution).

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