From 1939 to 1948, two major Westerns done with taste and skill and with an eye to beauty could be mentioned: John Ford's "Stagecoach," and Howard Hawks' "Red River."
"Red River" is a great adventure Western considered as the very best among all Westerns... But could we compared it to Ford's splendidly filmed "Wagon Master"? John Ford maintains his shooting eye at a certain distance while Howard Hawks keeps it nearby... But both are skilled directors of a bunch of great movies
Ford is closer to Western movies, and Hawks to other genre... Ford treats his Western characters as people behave... Hawks displays it in vivid adventure... In "Red River," "Rio Bravo," and "The Big Sky" Howard Hawks is far from the magnitude of Ford's "The Searchers." Under Ford's instruction, John Wayne is fluent and moderate, refined in conduct and manners as in "The Quiet Man." With Hawks, Wayne's character prevails differential tendency toward passion and fury...
It is soon evident that the cattle boss is tough to the point of obsession
It could be argued that only men of this spirit could have handled and survived the first pioneering cattle drives
One of the drovers (John Ireland) wants to make for Abilene but gets no change out of Wayne
When the cattle stampede Wayne goes to 'gun-whip' one of the hands, Clift intervenes
It was then evident that Wayne was going to drive his men just as hard as he intends to drive the cattle
"Red River" is a Western just as much concerned with human relationships and their tensions as with spectacle and actiona hallmark of Hawks' films and this element is introduced when the pair meet up with a boy leading a cow
The boy confirms the wagon-train massacre, and the boy and the cow from then on are included in the partnership
This is not only a key-point of the narrative but also a highly symbolic moment
For some years Garfield was the only screen rebel... But in Clift's appearance in "Red River," another rebel was born
In "Red River," Clift plays the adopted son who opposes his father's domineering attitudes and behavior towards himself and also towards the cowhands who work for them on the drive to market
The struggle between father and adopted son, compels delighted interest... Dunson's unfeeling hardhearted style remembers us Captain Bligh in "Mutiny on the Bounty." In the beginning of the film we had admiration for Wayne's persona... We concluded finding him unfriendly, unconscious, unacceptable and faulty... Clift wins our sympathy!
Clift was the withdrawn, introverted man who quietly maintains his integrity as he resists all pressures
These qualities were summed up in the words of Private Prewitt in "From Here to Eternity" probably Clift's finest rebel role!
"Red River" will remain a film with a unique flavor
It has, and will continue to have, its own special niche among honored Westerns
With two Academy Award Nomination for Writing, splendid music score by Dmitri Tomkin and excellent acting including the supporting cast, the film had all the concepts of Howard Hawks' quality: vigor in action, reality as opposed to emotions and a faculty of scale...
