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Red River on DVD (1948)

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Average rating: 73%
12122121220411
3.5
from 516 members
 
Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Coleen Gray, Noah Beery, John Ireland, Noah Beery Jr.
Director: Howard Hawks
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 133 mins
Certificate: U
Collections: 100 Wild Westerns
User collections: Superb Films of the 1940's, retro gold
Genres: Action/Adventure
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: English
Released: 12/06/2000

Brief synopsis of Red River

RED RIVER, Howard Hawks's masterpiece, is one of the greatest Westerns ever filmed, a saga of obsession and rivalry between a man and his adoptive son amid an epic struggle for survival in the Old West. Tom Dunson (John Wayne) journeys west to Texas to build a cattle empire and adopts Matthew Garth, a young boy orphaned by an Indian raid. Years later, Matthew (Montgomery Clift) returns from the Civil War and joins Dunson on a massive cattle drive north undertaken to avoid financial ruin. Stampedes and Indian attacks build tension, but it is Dunson's ironfisted leadership that causes the most problems, finally bringing the action to a boiling point that pits father against son. This bold canvas of the American frontier features stirring performances, including Clift in his first film and Wayne in one of his finest and most complex roles, stunning photography shot on location in Arizona, and a perfect balance of action, drama, romance, and comedy from one of Hollywood's greatest directors.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 2 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This “Three Mesquiteers” B-western, starring John Wayne just before John Ford borrowed him for Stagecoach, takes less than an hour to trot out its modern-day story of the trio (Wayne, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune) catching highly organised cattle rustlers. Veteran comedian Polly Moran takes a supporting role, while two of the younger members of the cast went on to better things — Kirby Grant as a B-western star and Adrian Booth (here billed as Lorna Gray) as one of Republic's leading ladies.

Time Out

Hawks' leisurely adaptation of Borden Chase's story about the establishing of the Chisholm Trail by Wayne and Clift's... Read more on www.timeout.com

Rating of 3 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Brawling Western, a bit serious and long drawn out but with splendid action sequences.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 5 stars

Zamy from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 28/09/2004

It is a reflection of the lowley status the western is currently held that few subscribers seem to have viewed this movie if nil reviews are anything to go by. Yet it is a classic of the genre and the videoisland write up is absolutely spot on in its assessment. The western is a great genre because it enabled American film-makers to display their talents on a large canvas in mythic proportaions. All human life was there in the vaste unexplored continent. Howard Hawks was a master at developing his characters and their interactions, both men and women, in this hostile environment. With this film and 'Rio Bravo' he made two of the best westerns ever. I'll stick my neck out and say that the two other best ever are 'Stagecoach' and 'The Searchers', both directed by John Ford; another master of the genre, though in more sentimental vein. Go on, indulge youself in a few westerns, these old films are temendously entertaining.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsREASONABLE WESTERN

A customer from Leicester, England , 16/08/2004

This is a pretty good western with interesting characters, some memorable lines and decent John Wayne performance. The only qualms I have are that it was slightly dated and archaic in places, it suffered from a cheesy Hollywood ending and the relationships between the two women weren't really explored. Fun enough though.

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Rated - 4 starsred river

A customer from bham , 26/04/2005

excelent drama -western a must for any john wayne fan

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Rated - 4 starsAnother good Hawks western

McClennan from St Helens , 07/08/2005

My second Howard Hawkes western and another enjoyable one. John Wayne plans to rustle 9,000 cattle a 1,000 miles to save his stock following a similar storyline to many a sea-faring tale. As with Rio Bravo, this was a story rather than a series of set-pieces and the script was again surprisingly good, however it was some of the photography that really stole the show, with several shots of what appeared to be hundreds, possibly thousands of cattle on the screen at the same time.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 stars5 years before the real Hawks masterpiece...

Robt P. from Notts , 22/02/2006

I've always considered 'Red River'to be an eminently watchable film, but not one of Hawks' best!

Prior to this DVD I hadn't seen it for 10 years or so, and it served to confirm my previous view.

As with several Hawks' movies, greatly enhanced by the superb music of Dimitri Tiomkin - arguably the greatest ever composer for the Western Movie.

IMO, the real Hawks masterpiece is 'The Big Sky' of 1953 starring Kirk Douglas and Arthur Hunnicutt - in his greatest ever role as 'mountain man' Zeb Calloway.

Even better Tiomkin background music too!

Would that the colorised version of this great film was available on DVD...

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Rated - 5 starsclassic western

A customer from england , 16/05/2006

this is the first time i have seen this movie and it was well worth the wait. john wayne at he's best

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