Rio Bravo (1959)

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

Admirable film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Dean Martin should have gotten an award for his part in this film. I like how the two team up to fight the bad guys, you can see there's a real friendship here. A bit slow in parts but some good action scenes. My only disappointment was John Wayne didn't take on John Russell, he's a big man, a bit taller than Wayne. That would have been quite a fight to see.

It is almost impossible to talk about this movie without talking about other movies as well. First, there are the comparisons to other movies previously directed or produced by Howard Hawks, such as "To Have and Have Not" (1944) and "The Thing from Another World" (1951); as well as two of his subsequent Westerns, "El Dorado" (1966) and "Rio Lobo" (1970), each of which also stars John Wayne.Then there is "High Noon" (1952), which Hawks disliked so much on account of the way Marshall Kane (Gary Cooper) goes around asking ordinary citizens for help and finally has to be saved by his Quaker wife that he made "Rio Bravo" in response, in which Sheriff Chance only wants professionals to help him. But whereas "High Noon" is grim, "Rio Bravo" is lighthearted, with many scenes played for laughs, and with a scene in which the good guys sing a couple of cute songs. Had Hawks not explicitly made the comparison of his movie to "High Noon," I would never have noticed, for the plot is quite different as well.Then there is "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" (1962), directed by John Ford, who apparently did not approve of what happened in "Rio Bravo." In "Rio Bravo," the humiliating spittoon scene in the beginning leads to someone getting shot; in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence," when Valence (Lee Marvin) trips Stoddard (James Stewart), which leads to a confrontation with Doniphon (John Wayne), Stoddard defuses the situation and nothing bad happens.Then there is "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976), which has a similar story, although it is not a western.Then there is "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964). Director Sergio Leone told composer Ennio Morricone that he wanted the music in his movie to be like the "Deguello" played in "Rio Bravo."That much I learned from reading reviews of film critics. But one comparison that occurs to me is "North to Alaska" (1960), also starring John Wayne, but, more importantly, starring Fabian. Fabian is a rock 'n' roll singer like Ricky Nelson, but a much better actor. I would have preferred to have him cast as Colorado in "Rio Bravo," and he could have sung along with Dean Martin.Another performance in the movie that I did not care for was that of Angie Dickenson as Feathers. If "Rio Bravo" were the only movie I had ever seen her in, I would think she was a bad actress. But her acting in other movies is fine, so the fault must be with the role that was handed to her. It comes across as forced and artificial. In fact, now that I think about it, maybe Ricky Nelson was not to blame for his performance as Colorado either.Despite these weak performances, and despite a weak plot that does not always make sense, it nevertheless all adds up to a pretty good movie. It's not as good as "High Noon" though.

I don't get it! I really don't.This film has got to be one of the most tired and lethargic big-budget Westerns ever produced this side of the goddamn Rio Grande. I ain't kiddin'! Like, how could this film ever get away with being so over-rated for all of these years? Everything about Rio Bravo was tired-tired-tired, including the 52 year-old John Wayne, who looked like he was about ready to nod off at any minute in this one.At 140 l-o-n-g minutes, I must say that Rio Bravo definitely pushed the limits when testing one's overall patience and tolerance. I believe that at least 30 minutes could've easily been cut from Rio Bravo's running time and no one would've noticed the diff, one way, or the other.Considering the so-called "star-power" that was jam-packed into Rio Bravo, you'd honestly think that this film would've just snapped, crackled, and popped with pure "Western"-style vitality and vibrancy. But, no, sadly enough, Rio Bravo was so tired and slow-paced that, at times, it got mighty close to falling flat on its face.The unusual thing about Rio Bravo was that (since 95% of its action took place indoors) it lacked an authentic, Western-type, outdoor adventure to hold the viewer's interest. This struck me as very odd and this was the main factor that contributed to Rio Bravo's tired and somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere.Naturally with Rio Bravo being the tired Western production that it was, it could only be expected to feature a tired romance, as well. Right? This tediously tiresome love affair took place between 2 people who were, quite obviously, 30 years apart in age. And because there was no on-screen chemistry, whatsoever, happening between these 2 actors (Wayne & Dickinson), the whole affair was just plain tired to the 10th power, going, pretty much, nowhere, fast.Rio Bravo's highlight (if you really wanna call it that) was the duet of sorts that was sung between Pop Idol, Ricky Nelson and Swooner-Crooner, Dean Martin. Needless to say, this particular rendition of the ballad "My Rifle, My Bow and Me", which was effortlessly sung by these 2 singers was very much like the rest of Rio Bravo - T-I-R-E-D!Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... What more can I say!?

Perhaps Howard Hawks' most acclaimed film Rio Bravo is not really that bad of a western movie but there was only just one problem that I had while watching this movie and that was the overrated performance by Angie Dickinson. Otherwise it was a good movie, and what a decent cast for a western movie which includes some of his Red River stars John Wayne and Walter Brennan, who end up teaming with Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and the man who ends up in most of Wayne's films Ward Bond. The movie goes on a par with western movie greats such as High Noon, Unforgiven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Big Country, Pale Rider, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Winchester 73, The Naked Spur, The Cowboys, The Sons of Katie Elder, True Grit, The Shootist, and as I mentioned earlier Red River. Director Howard Hawks made this movie what it really is but it is not a great movie it is a good movie and a near masterpiece.