Its odd that I'm writing this review after "Rio Bravo" because the contrast is so vast even though many of the "players" remain the same. Howard Hawks directs, John Wayne is in his prime, and Walter Brennan has lots of...
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Its odd that I'm writing this review after "Rio Bravo" because the contrast is so vast even though many of the "players" remain the same. Howard Hawks directs, John Wayne is in his prime, and Walter Brennan has lots of character but isn't a cartoon.

A truly masterful Western with real background - those few pre-Civil War years when the cattle drive was important, the Mexicans and Comanche had both teeth and legitimate claims, and the ideas of beef ranches were new - none of the stale trappings of the western town and traditional "outlaws". Nice film production and a sentimental score, great outdoor panoramas (good twilight shots and hard to film night scenes).

And the challenge, getting Texas beef (the film at least tries to show a few look-alikes of the scrawny "longhorns" that were the cattle of the day) to market in Missouri (or Kansas) is a real opportunity to spotlight characters. The gunslingers who help protect against raiders are marvelous in this film, comparing their revolvers to Swiss watches. Also notable are the reactions of the men and Wayne to stress, and Wayne becoming unhinged and losing his herd to the men who abandon his tyrannical leadership.

The fact that the characters have something big to do but are only human is one of those things that make this film and "Shane" some of the greatest examples of the Western genre.