Movie- Rio Bravo

Release- 1959
Writers- Jules Furthman, Leigh Bracket (Screenplay), B.H.(Short story)
Director- Howard Hawks
Stars- John Wayne, Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin
Supporting- Rick Nelson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Estelita Rodriguez, Clude Akins and others.

Just finished watching this on TCM (love this channel). I'll talk about it in a minute, but first a little tidbit. The next movie up on TCM is High Noon. Some sources report that both Wayne and Hawks disliked High Noon because they felt that it was disrespectful and inaccurate in its treatment of pioneer life. So they made Rio Bravo. I'll talk about that another time.

Rio Bravo is a big movie in a lot of ways. It was made by a big studio with a big director using big stars and a big cast. It made a big splash and a big wad of cash. It gave a big boost to Ricky Nelson's career and to Dean Martin's acting credibility. Also, it was filmed at Old Tucson Studios, where the sets are reportedly built to 7/8 scale, so everybody looks big. Yup. This one was made to impress...and it delivers.

As John Wayne pictures go, this was among his best to date. Two better/earlier come to mind - The Quiet Man and The Searchers - and several of his later movies outdid this one, in my mind. Still, for outright western excitement and entertainment, you really cant go wrong with Rio Bravo.

This was the film in which John Wayne began to solidify that powerful cowboy persona everyone remembers. It was further solidified in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and cast in stone by The Sons of Katie Elder. He'd played other characters in other westerns, but in this one he really seemed bigger than life.

You have to grin at Rick Nelson. It's easy to see why the girls were all crazy over him. He had those dreamy eyes and such a pout.

Then there's Angie Dickinson. Whoo-ee! She sizzled this one. One thing that separates this movie from others I can think of is the dialogues between Dickinson and Wayne. Her character knows how to work the big man. By telling him what he thinks, she pressures him into saying what he doesnt want to say. It' s a clever technique and astute on the part of Hawks to direct her this way.

One thing you have to love about this kind of westerns is how accomodating all the townspeople are. They stay off the streets and away from windows. In some movies, you might not know they were there at all. Rio Bravo is that kind of movie. Bad guys and lawmen confront one another up and down the main street, throwing lead from time to time, and there are rarely any pedestrians to be seen.

Naturally, the bad guys are professional gunmen who cant shoot. They bounce bullets all around the heroes and, with the exception of Ward Bond's character (who is killed early in the film), never even graze anyone. Conversely, Dean Martin can quick draw and cut the reins in a man's hands, John Wayne can take down a horseman from across town and Ricky can throw John a rifle, draw and kill a man while it's still in the air. Angie cant shoot, but she's disarming in other ways. Walter Brennan is deadly with a shotgun at close range, but never leaves the jail house, so it's okay.

There's lots of shooting, but no blood. Bullets stop with the first thing they hit, even if it's a window or a door. Men are tough and cavalier. Women are beautiful and far outnumbered.

What more could you ask? This was a western just to be a western. It isnt an art movie or anything too philosophical. I'll save that for High Noon and some others.