Red River (1948)

A Western with a huge cattle drive at its core. John Wayne plays the head rancher, and among his workers and upstarts are a son-like youngster (Montgomery Clift) and a old-timer best friend (Walter Brennan). There are rivalries, Indians, opposing ranchers, and a woman or two who each intrude or help out Wayne in various ways.

A Howard Hawks Western is about as close as you can get to a John Ford Western. Ford is the one who re-discovered a languishing John Wayne in 1939, and Hawks was a parallel director, about the same age, specializing in male-dominated adventure dramas. But Hawks also directed some amazing other kinds of films, including a few classic screwball comedies, the terrific "Only Angels Have Wings," and some film noirs including his film before this one, "The Big Sleep."

So I expected something really special here and in fact this is well done all around. But it falls into so many of the already established stereotypes of the genre, I was surprised and had to keep my disappointment in check. Wayne is terrific as the kind of John Wayne you'd expect, and Brennan is the earthy, witty, likable type he always plays. It is probably Montgomery Clift who shines best, here in his first year in Hollywood, just before "The Heiress" and a string of other great films. This is apparently his first major acting role, as the film was shot in 1946, though another movie, "The Search" (which is very good), was released first.

It's interesting to see co-directing status for Arthur Rosson (the photographer's brother), partly because Hawks would not seem to need a second hand. But then that points to some of the really complex scenes here--mostly shot on location and with easily hundreds if not a thousand or more actual cattle. You realize as you watch this long trek through the low dry hills that the actors on horses are having to really move the cattle through this country for the filming. I'm sure they have help, and all those extras must have been good hired hands. It's still pretty neat to watch that aspect, going for example through a wide river.

In a way you can get fully invested in the movie based on the action and the acting and the characters. Directly. They are strong, believable, and their lines are well written. It's the plot that will seem to fall into familiarity too often for many of you.