Rio Bravo (1959)

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Jules Furthman (screenplay), Leigh Brackett (screenplay),

Stars:

John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
John Wayne	...	Sheriff John T. Chance
Dean Martin	...	Dude ('Borachón')
Ricky Nelson	...	Colorado Ryan
Angie Dickinson	...	Feathers
Walter Brennan	...	Stumpy
Ward Bond	...	Pat Wheeler
John Russell	...	Nathan Burdette
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	Carlos Robante (as Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez)
Estelita Rodriguez	...	Consuela Robante
Claude Akins	...	Joe Burdette
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Jake (Stage Driver)
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Harold (scenes deleted)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sheb Wooley	...	Cowboy (scenes deleted)

Storyline

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.

---

Plot Keywords:

sheriff | small town | texas | jail | gunfighter | 

---

Taglines:

Old Stumpy...no teeth...one leg...but all the rest was guts...

---

Genres:

Western

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

4 April 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$5,750,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Armada Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ward Bond's death scene was filmed from a distance because it was actually a double. Bond had already left the set to be back on location for Wagon Train.

---

Goofs

When Dude confronts Burdett and his gang, a rifle's butt is showing from the fore part of Burdett's horse. But in the moment he takes off his gun and gives it to a gunman, the rifle is missing.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
John T. Chance: Joe, you're under arrest.

---

Connections

Referenced in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.4 (2011)

---

Soundtracks

"My Rifle, My Pony, and Me"
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Performed by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson (uncredited)

User Reviews

The real bullettime

It says much about current cinema that this vintage slice of Hollywood is now considered too long and too slow by the modern generation of movie goers. Howard Hawks labours to create setting, mood and pace introducing genuine characters are colourful for the flaws they have as their positive points presenting heroes one can empathise with, people with three dimensions, not thin caricatures that popular many of today's movies.

No character empathises this more than Dean Martin's broken down drunk Dude. Nicknamed "Borachon" by the Mexicans (Borachon is Spanish for "Drunkard") Dude battles with the demons that drove him to drink as he desperately tried not to let down Sheriff Chance, John Wayne, who believes in him more than he believes in himself. Dude's pouring back of a glass of bourbon into the bottle is one of the most life affirming scenes ever committed to film.

Wayne never really does anything other than play John Wayne and Hawks spins on this playing with the ethos of the man. The same steadfast values that mean Wayne's Sheriff John T. Chance will not release the prisoner Joe Burdette back to his murderous gang leave him stiff and awkward in front of Angie Dickinson's love interest "Feathers" creating perhaps the quintessential John Wayne movie in which the Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett's screenplay explores the depths of the ideals that Wayne stands for. This is a movie about not just about redemption, but about the reasons for a tough redemption in a World in which collapse and lawlessness are easier options.

And when Dude pours his Bourbon back, affirming that even though he cannot be the man he was but he can still be a good man, you will not be wishing it was film in bullettime.