Rio Bravo (1959)

Rio Bravo - a must see

If you like Westerns and have not yet seen "Rio Bravo" - buy/rent it today - you will not be disappointed. Yes, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson costar with John Wayne and Walter Brennan, but it works. Howard Hawks directs this diverse cast in his usual masterful way. The basic plot was so good that it was remade by Hawks as "El Dorado" 8 years later, and others - one example "Assault on Precinct 13". Watch and Enjoy! WP July 16, 2008

An great example of how good Westerns can be!

This was such a hard film to rate. On one hand you have a Howard Hawkes classic western, starring John Wayne, and with a great supporting cast. And yet, there are a couple of things that do detract from the movie. So after vacillating between 4 and 5 stars, I settled on 4. In reality, I rate it a 4.5.

Rio Bravo is the first, and arguably best, of a trio of western films from Hawkes that many say the latter two (El Dorado & Rio Lobo) were sequels of. While calling those two later films sequels isn't accurate Hawkes did manage to steal many scenes and situations from Rio Bravo to insert into the other two. John Wayne stars as John T. Chance, the town sheriff who has arrested the brother of a wealthy cattle baron, Nathan Burdette, for murder. Burdette has vowed to spring his brother from jail by any means necessary so he's bottled up the town and hired murdering gun hands to be successful. Chance has two deputies as support, a recovering drunk name Dude (Dean Martin) and a crippled old man named Stumpy (Walter Brennan). Along the way he gets help from an old friend named Wheeler (Ward Bond), a young gunslinger named Colorado (Ricky Nelson) who works for Wheeler, and a woman gambler (Angie Dickenson). The situation is already tense as the movie opens then the stakes are raised when Wheeler is gun-downed by one of Burdette's hired killers. What follows is a classic chess match between the sheriff and the cattleman as Burdette gets more & more desperate to free his brother.

What makes this film great, besides a great cast, is the pace of the film. Hawkes keeps turning up the tension as Chance and his deputies are forced to retreat into the jailhouse. When you add Dude's detoxified-driven anxiety, Stumpy's stubbornness, and Chance's growing attraction to the woman gambler, known only as "Feathers", it seems Burdette has them right where he wants them. Things begin to change for the better as Colorado joins the sheriff to avenge his boss' murder.

Where I think the movie struggles a little is in the Colorado character. It's obvious that Ricky Nelson was cast to attract the "teen" crowd. Although he does an OK job portraying the laid-back gunslinger, overall his character becomes a little annoying at the end. And I'm sorry, but the jailhouse scene where Nelson & Martin do a duet on one song and then is joined by Walter Brennan in a second, was so Gene Autry-ish that it really stuck out like a sore thumb. I understand why it's there but I could have done without it. It was just so out of place.

But all-in-all it is a great western. Not as good as Hawkes'Red River but still a great ride. I would highly recommend it to ANY western fan.
July 6, 2008

Newly rediscovered- and am I ever glad!

I hadn't seen this movie for... well, decades. In fact, I'd pretty much forgotten about it. Sure, I smiled at the reference in GET SHORTY, but I'd pretty much forgotten this one. Then I saw it at Wal Mart for a price too nice to pass up. I bought it and watched it with my wife who had never seen it before. We both loved it.

A little while later I watched my dvd of TRUE GRIT, the film Duke won his only Academy Award for. Good movie, but I thought he was MUCH better in RIO BRAVO (and BIG JAKE for that matter). I watched RIO BRAVO again and was so impressed by the subtlety of his performance. That's something people don't remember John Wayne for. Usually we point out his swagger and his whole "tough guy" persona. I think that sells him short- especially in RIO BRAVO. Is it Duke's best? Tough call. It's hard to top THE QUIET MAN and THE SEARCHERS. I think... yes, I must say it. RIO BRAVO is, in my opinion, his best performance.

Bt BIG JAKE is still my favorite of his films.

The bonus features on this dvd are well worth it as well. In all I think this is a very nice package. June 20, 2008

Howard Hawks/John Wayne classic

A decade after RED RIVER, Wayne and Hawks reteam on this powerhouse western (which Wayne and Hawks remake nearly a decade later with EL DORADO -- when Leigh Brackett (scripter on both) told Wayne and Hawks it was the same story Wayne responded, "It worked once, it'll work again." Dean Martin as the alcoholic "Dude", Ricky Nelson as fast-draw Colorado and Walter Brennan as "Stumpy". Hawks opens the movie without a word of dialogue in the first five minutes. Note: the man Claude Akins shoots dead in the bar in the beginning is Bing Russell, father of Kurt Russell! A very young Angie Dickinson, John Russell as Burdette, fun fair for all. Also constant Wayne co-star Ward Bond. May 30, 2008

the duke

i love this movie 10 star not 5 it was the first hd dvd i bought allstar cast May 27, 2008

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