Talk:Red River (1948 film)

Untitled
Somebody forgot to list Rory Calhoun in the credits!

Matt Garth and Tom Dunson were unrelated. I don't know what term to describe the relationship, but Matt was in no way "adopted" by Dunson.--Buckboard 00:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Sundry opinionated remarks
This entry does not do justice to Red River, arguably one of the 3-4 greatest Westerns ever filmed, and a masterpiece by master director Howard Hawkes. John Wayne's acting is sadly wooden, and his "Beef for a Hungry World" voiceover with which the film opens skirts self-parody. The film was arguably the springboard for Montgomery Clift's career. The tension between Wayne and Clift is ironic, given what we now know of Clift's homosexuality and Wayne's homophobia. The cattle drive scenes were difficult and dangerous to shoot, as they featured thousands of authentic longhorn cattle. Dimitri Tiomkin's rich Russian score powerfully contributes to the film's iconic character. (A decade later he composed the theme for Rawhide.) When I refer to a piece of music as being like the score to a Western film (e.g., "Jupiter" from Holst's The Planets), it is Red River I have in mind. The start of the cattle drive features editing and split screen techniques that Sergei Eisenstein would have admired.

The ending feels strangely forced. Dru's monologue, delivered unrealistically while pointing a .38 at Wayne and Clift, is a concession to American Christian optimism. A European director would have ended the film with Wayne being hanged for murdering Clift, and Dru walking into the sunset with a broken heart. Wayne represents traditional American macho, Clift the New Man of sensitivity, and Dru the strong American woman whose ascendance renders male conflict silly and irrelevant.Concerned cynic 18:59, 23 June 2007 (UTC)


 * sundry sunday.. take the blinders off your opinion. Consider the director's influence; ie, we hear the overlaid dialogue style, banter of Slim and Steve used a few yrs before in another Hawks film 'To Have and Have Not'; eg, the wagon train scene bt'wn Dru and Wayne. And would see it AGAIN in ANOTHER Hawks/Wayne/Brennan film, 'Rio Bravo' w/ Wayne & Angie Dickinson duking it out..... hmm Brennan was in all three, pretty good... 'You ever been stung by a dead BBEEE!?' 2600:1700:A760:C10:A047:76FD:1C4A:40B8 (talk) 01:10, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

What's the holdup?
Why did this film take two years to complete and cut after principal filming? Thanks, Maikel (talk) 10:19, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

On the ending of "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail"
The description of the ending of the original story is inaccurate. In the story, before reaching Abeline, Cherry and Dunson draw, and Cherry is faster, but Tess jostles his arm to save Dunson. Cherry ends up dead, and Dunson is wounded. Dunson goes to Abeline, and draws with Matt, who draws but does not shoot. Dunson wounds Matt but collapses from his wounds. He refuses medical help and instead insists on (and succeeds in) going back to Texas to see his ranch before he dies (!). Erniecohen (talk) 18:24, 9 January 2022 (UTC)