No-nonsense Texas border sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) fights off ruthless mercenary gunmen in order to keep a murderer in custody. A ragtag band of volunteers, consisting of a singing kid, a toothless old man, a recovering alcoholic, and a spunky woman, assists. Contains an interesting sing-along interlude among the .. Read more
| Starring | John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson |
|---|---|
| Director | Howard Hawks |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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No-nonsense Texas border sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) fights off ruthless mercenary gunmen in order to keep a murderer in custody. A ragtag band of volunteers, consisting of a singing kid, a toothless old man, a recovering alcoholic, and a spunky woman, assists. Contains an interesting sing-along interlude among the group, and yes, the Duke participates.
| Starring | John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Ward Bond, Claude Akins, Walter Brennan, John Russell |
|---|---|
| Director | Howard Hawks |
| Studio | WARNER HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 16 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 15 mins HD DVD: 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Wild Westerns |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English HD DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 14 Mar 2005 Blu-ray: 25 Feb 2008 HD DVD: 17 Mar 2008 Production year: 1959 |
| Format | DVD |
Under-rated at the time of its release, this majestically paced western is one of the finest achievements of the genre, and stands as a career-best for many of its participants, its above-average length and simplistic plot masking a work of depth and artistry. Originally intended by director Howard Hawks as a riposte to the liberal High Noon, the quality and class of this movie owe little to what had gone before, save some dialogue lifted from Hawks's earlier To Have and Have Not. This is a definitive study of male camaraderie, particularly in the wordless opening sequence as John Wayne attempts to preserve the drunken Dean Martin's dignity. The casting is perfect (if you believe Ricky Nelson as a gunslinger) and the sense of fun contagious. Superb Technicolor photography and a Dimitri Tiomkin score provide the icing on a very impressive cake.
Cheerfully overlong and slow-moving Western in which everybody, including the director, does his thing. All very watchable for those with time to spare, but more a series of revue sketches than an epic.
Somebody was talking to me about how good they thought that Open Range was and I found this film to be very similar in its style with a surprisingly good performance from John Wayne holding the attention. I'm not a big fan of his, finding his acting a bit limited by the boundaries of his own personality yet this film is one that I really enjoyed. Some really surprising dialogue, decent action and good characterisation turned this into a very enjoyable western. It has dated slightly, with the final five minutes being a bit of a drag but it was tense, funny, dramatic and most importantly, entertaining. My first Howard Hawks western and I'll definitely be having a look at some others.
Probably a benchmark that all great westerns aspire to, Rio Bravo features the man himself (John Wayne) and also has crooner Dean Martin to add spice to the mixture. Walter Brennan is always affable as that `old chap`, there is a dame (of course!) and the film picks an exciting storyline with classic western scenes. Very enjoyable and thank goodness it's in technicolor unlike most Howard Hawk films!
Korean director Ji-woon Kim is best known in the west for the small but perfectly formed horror, A Tale of Two Sisters. That's about to change, however, with the release of his latest film, noodle western The Good, the Bad, the Weird, which just happens to have the largest budget of any live action film in Korean history. As the title would suggest, The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a remake of Sergio Leone's spaghetti western masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but given an Asian... Read more
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