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Red River Editorial Review:
One of the finest westerns ever made, this "monumental, sweeping and powerful" masterpiece (Variety) features impassioned performances, stunning cinematography and adventure on a grand scale. Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift (in his screen debut), Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, Sr. and Noah Beery, Jr., Red River is a hard-hitting, action-packed adventure that captures the grandeur, majestyand dangerof the wild American West.Wayne gives "one of the best performances of his career" (Cinebooks) as Tom Dunson, a self-made cattle baron who'll do anything to protect his way of life. So when plummeting livestock values demand that he drive his herd through thetreacherous Chisholm Trail, Tom proves that he'll risk anything to reach his destination even his own sanity.
Customer Reviews:
Taking a desperate chance
John Wayne was 41 when he made this movie and turns in one of his most powerful performances as the mostly unsympathetic yet ultimately comprehensible Tom Dunson, whose age throughout most of the film is probably somewhere around 55. Going west with a wagon train in 1850, Dunson--who is presumably a veteran, since he wears Cavalry trousers--leaves it, and his beloved Fen (Colleen Gray), to make a home in Texas, just in time to escape the Indian attack that destroys the rest of the outfit. With his longtime partner Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), he picks up a 14-year-old boy, Matt Garth (Mickey Kuhn), who has been orphaned by the Indians, and establishes the "Red River D" brand near the Rio Grande. 15 years later, he's built up one of the biggest spreads in Texas, but in the aftermath of the Civil War, like all the rest of the state, he's broke, and takes a desperate chance on a vast cattle drive to Sedalia, Mo. His obsession soon alienates his crew, and Matt (Montgomery Clift) finds he can't ignore the man's vagaries despite his deep respect for him. The break comes when they learn of a purported new trail town called Abilene which, if they can reach it, will keep them out of the clutches of the border bandits who infest Sedalia's vicinity. But Dunson knows Sedalia is there and isn't so sure about Abilene. Matt finds himself with no alternative but a mutiny and the takeover of the herd, even though he knows that a thwarted Dunson, if left alive, will do his best to catch up and kill him.
Like most Golden Age Western movies, this one somewhat mangles history--Texas made no drives north at all in 1865 (most of her sons didn't return from wartime service till well into the summer), and Abilene didn't exist till '67; if the script had set the story in the latter year, given Dunson a drive to Sedalia the previous season in which he lost much of his herd (as did many Texas cowmen that year), and then introduced Abilene as an alternative, it would have made just as good a story and more accurate reality. But the conflict between Dunson and Matt, the perils of the drive, and the wonderful crew, including Noah Beery, Jr., as Buster McGee, Harry Carey, Jr., as Dan Latimer (his father, Harry Sr., also appears as an Abilene cattle buyer), Chief Yowlachie as cook's assistant Quo, Hank Worden as Simms Reeves, Paul Fix as Teeler Yacey, and John Ireland as the young gunman Cherry Valance, make up for the inaccuracies, which are really minor compared to those of some other films of the era. Critically acclaimed from its first appearance, this is one of Wayne's and director Howard Hawks's best and belongs in every Western fan's collection.
A Classic Western with the Duke and Clift
"Red River" is an epic western that features John Wayne and Montgomery Clift at their best. It's sort of a "Mutiny on the Trail" with the Duke in one of his darkest, most fully rounded portrayals. A great film that deserves a full restoration for DVD.
made for TV slop
Amazon is dishonest to put a clip of John Wayne's "Red River" under the Video on Demand "Red River" which stars James Arness, not John Wayne. I want my money back!!!
Billed as a psycological western. I don't particularly care for movies in which
John Wayne plays an ass----. Maybe it just gives his typical character too many facets. He is Tom a cattle rancher who adopts as his own Matt played later as the boy grown up by Montgomery Clift. Tom becomes a ruthless cattle baron. Matt is starting to chafe under Tom's heavy handed control. He wants his own herd & own brand. Tom won't hear of it. Conflict ensues & it gets ugly.
I haven't read all 80 something reviews, but somewhere it might have been mentioned that this was John Kennedy's favorite movie. Interesting in that in his own real life he had a love-hate relationship with his own father, Joe sr. His father was rather domineering, desiring to control every aspect of JFK's life, & the future president hated it. So similar to the characters on the screen
Howard Hawks' First (and Best) Western
An unsurpassed cattle-drive epic, director Howard Hawks' "Red River" (1948) ranks among the Top 10 sagebrush sagas. John Wayne's superb portrayal of Tom Dunson represented the actor's first complex characterization - ideally matched by Montgomery Clift's impressive screen debut as the cattle baron's adopted son. In his 1982 critical guide "Western Films," author Brian Garfield attributed the greatness of "Red River" to the fact that "a lot of people were having good days." The film truly benefited from an excellent supporting cast (notably Walter Brennan, John Ireland and Harry Carey in his final role), Dimitri Tiomkin's classic score and the stunning cinematography of Russell Harlan. Though Hawks directed relatively few Westerns, "Red River" remains his best work in that genre - the absurdly overrated "Rio Bravo" doesn't even come close. (The DVD issued by MGM Home Entertainment only includes the 133-minute pre-release version. It's time for a remastered special edition with the 125-minute studio cut.)
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