A Truly Great Movie

Last night I caught Rio Bravo (1959) on Turner Classic Movies. It's a film I've seen seven or eight times before, ands I consider it to be one of the greatest American movies of all-time. It's near perfect as an entertainment, and holds up to close intellectual analysis as well. It's the quintessential John Wayne flick, and perhaps the apotheosis of the western genre as well. Director Howard Hawks evidently found the story so compelling that he essentially remade it twice more in the next dozen years, in the only slightly less entertaining El Dorado (1967) and Rio Lobo (1970). A big part of the greatness of Rio Bravo is the way it subverts the stereotypical notion of heroism even as it seems to promote it. The sheriff played by Wayne exhibits all the characteristics of the classic hero-- strong, smart and commanding the respect of all those around him (including his adversaries). But in this story, his success-- whether in the individual conflicts throughout the story, or in the bigger thematic sense-- is ultimately dependent on the support he receives from those around him, all of whom represent some marginalized or even ostracized group: the drunk (Dean Martin), the girl (Angie Dickinson), the kid (Ricky Nelson), the "cripple" (Walter Brennan, and the Mexican (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez). It's a great, very subtle, evocation of the diversity of American culture and the necessity of collaboration in making sure the democratic enterprise functions the way it is supposed to. Here is one the best scenes (unfortunatley divided between two clips) which establishes the bond between the members of this disparate group in a most charmingly effective way, through shared song. On one hand, this might seem out of place in an action-oriented picture; but in fact it serves as the ultimate evidence of the film's core theme, which (to me) gratifyingly reduces the violence of the gunfights to completely secondary status (even as they place this film firmly in the western genre tradition):





Let me conclude this little celebration with a quote from the eminent film critic Robin Wood: "If I were asked to choose a film that would justify the existance of Hollywood, I think it would be Rio Bravo."