IMDb user comments for
Red River (1948) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 12:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Index

117 comments in total

---

39 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
"Let's Take 'Em to Missouri.", 18 May 2005

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

In the pantheon of great performances by John Wayne, Red River ranks as one of the great ones, probably in the top five of his films. It's what the publicity folks mean when they talk about epic westerns.

John Wayne is a driven man, he's got to get that gigantic herd of cattle to market in Missouri or face ruin. He's not going to be selling them in Texas at carpetbagger prices so he's putting together the biggest, longest cattle drive on record to get to the railroad terminus in Missouri. He does it with the able assistance of his stepson Montgomery Clift newly returned from the Civil War.

A prologue to the main film shows what happened to Wayne years before. He left a wagon train going to California with good friend Walter Brennan and later that train is massacred with Wayne's fiancé Coleen Gray along with it. On the way to Texas, Wayne and Brennan pick up Mickey Kuhn who is playing a younger version of Monty Clift. They settle in Texas and Wayne puts together the biggest cattle ranch in the state which is where the main film starts.

Wayne and Clift play beautifully off against each other. Father and surrogate son, first working together and then having a big difference of opinion on the cattle drive. Clift started a film career in Red River playing sensitive people who you can only trod on just so long before they take action. You can see the inner workings of such later Clift roles as Robert E. Lee Prewitt and Noah Ackerman. Monty made a grand screen debut. And it was his debut, Red River was filmed first, but held up in release and Clift's The Search was released first to the public.

John Wayne had one of the best faces for movie closeups ever. In his best performances, top directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Bill Wellman realized this. He has a few in this film and they tell the audience more about what's going on inside this man than ten pages of dialog.

With Joanne Dru, Howard Hawks tries to repeat the magic he had with Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not. Joanne is no Bacall, but she's good and had a pretty good career on her own. Her scenes with both Wayne and Clift have some of the same bite that Bacall's do with Bogey.

Dimitri Tiomkin's score deserves star billing right up there with the human cast. It is one of the great movie scores of all time period. let alone in the western genre. For me I've always noticed the similarity with the cattle drive beginning with the great use of Tiomkin's music and what Cecil B. DeMille did in the sound version of Ten Commandments as Charlton Heston tells the Hebrew children, he's takin' 'em to Canaan with Elmer Bernstein's score in the background as DeMille's cast of thousands moves out. I've often wondered whether DeMille copied Hawks, or Hawks was influenced by DeMille's silent Ten Commandments.

Red River is a must, for John Wayne fans, for Monty Clift fans, for fans of both and of great movie music like I am.

---

42 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
An enjoyable western, 3 August 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Fourteen years ago Thomas Dunson entered Texas across Red River with two head of cattle, his trail hand, and a young boy, Matt Garth, who survived an Indian attack on a wagon train that killed Dunson's sweetheart. After years of development he is now head of a ranch and is preparing to drive his head of thousands of cattle up to Missouri for sale, despite the perils. However Dunson's brutal leadership style bucks up against the more peaceful Matt, leading to a rebellion and a splitting of the ways between Dunson and his adopted son.

With an early scene establishing both Dunson's methods (taking land by force) and the source of much of his future bitterness and rage, this film sets itself out to be a real good character piece and pretty much manages to do it. The plot sweeps across 14 years but doesn't suffer for it. The main plot device is the cattle drive, which is depicted with affection here, however the main story is the conflict between Dunson and Matt's methods and views on man management. This aspect is not given quite as much time as I had hoped and tends to be over shadowed by the scale of the cattle drive itself – however this is still good.

The weakest point here is the romance which feels tacked on at the end. Not only does it feel unnecessary but it doesn't really work very well either. To make matters worse – when the conflict between Dunson and Matt manifests itself physically, it is devalued by the involvement of Tess somewhat. Wayne's leading man is strong and is a good performance considering how unpopular he is as a character. Clift gives a balanced performance and stands up well alongside the Duke. The support cast is full of western favourites and does well to fill the story out with colour, comic relief from Brennan's chuck wagon driver is great fun.

Overall this is a good western that I felt didn't quite reach it's full potential as a film. It could have gone further with the battle of wills between the characters but instead the cattle drive takes the lion's share of screen time. Having said that, there is still plenty to enjoy with both the character clashes and the perils of the cattle drive itself.

---

31 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
A film which is spectacle at its best , although spectacle is by no means all of it..., 21 November 1999

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

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 action—a 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...

---

37 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
A much neglected Classic western!, 30 May 1999
Author: Lawrence Davis (ldavis@shockware.com) from Medicine Hat, Alberta

I was the "first kid on the block" to purchase a VCR, way back in the late 60's...the RCA VBT200...no timer, no remote, no nothing! Paid $1200.00 for it (Canadian funds!)and ALL my friends told me I was nuts. I TRIED to tell them that, eventually, everybody would own a VCR but was shouted down. In any case, Red River was the first movie I taped and, deleting commercial breaks, I was ecstatic to have a Hollywood movie on hand to watch whenever the urge arose. And WHAT A MOVIE!!! I agree with earlier comments re John Wayne...who usually just played John Wayne. In THIS one, and "The Searchers", however, the director got one helluva performance out of the Duke. Also, the second movie performance by the tragical Montgomery Clift...so "pretty" in the Mohammed Ali sense that I virtually fell in love with him myself, even though I was a "straight" teenaged boy. From the opening credits, with that almost Wagnerian music by Dmitri Tiomkin, this movie (shot in 1946 and held 'til 1948 for release...I forget why)should be compulsory viewing for the brain-dead Hollywood moguls of today. Actually, there are no "moguls" left...they're all bottom-line money men who wouldn't know a good movie if they saw one..."Let's check the demographics, guys, and fill those multiple screen outlets with brain-dead teens (not really their fault as products of our so called progressive p.c. education system)and make a TON of money!" My age is showing...back to the movie. If you haven't seen it, be prepared for a LONG sojourn. This isn't brain candy...it's an allegorical treatise on the impetuousness of youth vs. the inflexible values of pioneer stock. In the end, BOTH are told to cut themselves some slack, by the "gun-totin" Joanne Dru. In summary, a Great Western, and to get back to the Duke, an amazing performance by a 39 year old made up to look like a 60 year old...and he pulled it off! The respect/fear combo of his hired trailhands is almost Shakespearian, and a tribute to the screenwriter/s and director Howard Hawks. If you've never seen it...do yourself a big favour and rent this little classic!

---

26 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic Western, 30 October 2000
Author: marquis de cinema from Boston, MA

Red River(1948) is a film that gets better with age. This was the first of five Howard Hawks/John Wayne features. Red River(1948) was Howard Hawks third straight gem right after To Have & Have Not(1944) and The Big Sleep(1946). John Wayne had come a long way from his low budget Lone Star film days.

The film is considered a Western take on The Mutiny on the Bounty. The relationship between Tom Dunson and Matt Garth is deeply complex. Although they're prepared to kill each other, deep down they still respect for one another. This relationship is based on control, idealism, respect, and trust.

It takes a fascinating look at the cattle drive during the Wild West. The film shows the responsbility that went with driving cattle across country and the different road blocks that many riders were faced with. Red River(1948) shows that the cattle drives were a cowboy's main source of work. City Slickers(1991) would do a wonderful homage to this Howard Hawks classic.

Tom Dunson, Ringo Kid, and Ethan Edwards to name a few are some of the best characters played by the duke. He exhibits here that he was a great actor as well as a great Hollywood star. Its a shame that his best performances were overlooked by by many people during his lifetime(he's definitely a superior actor compared to the likes of Stallone, Arnold, and Willis combined). It was actually filmed during 1946 but was shelved for two year due to a legal battle with Howard Hughes.

Montgomery Clift stands out on his own as Matt Garth in acting next to John Wayne. Walter Brennan is excellent in the role of Tom Dunson's sidekick. Red River(1948) was one of the best film to come out of 1948. Red River(1948) contains a trademark flirtious man-woman relationship between Matt Garth and Tess that also evident in some of the director's other works...I.E., His Girl Friday(Walter & Hildy), Ball of Fire(Potts & O'Shea), To Have & Have Not(Harry & Slim), The Big Sleep(Phillip Marlowe & Vivian Sternwood), and Rio Bravo(John T. Chance & Feathers).

---

34 out of 50 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the finest movies ever--and I don't like Westerns, 9 January 1999

Author: Myles Brooker from Waltham, MA

Although I have never been a huge fan of Westerns nor of John Wayne, this movie was truly excellent. My father is a true-to-life cowboy from that era and could vouch for how accurate this movie portrayed the life of a cowboy in those days. What really makes this movie is the stellar performance of Montgomery Clift as Matt Garth, brilliant though forgotten actor of the late 40's thru the mid 60's. The depth of John Wayne's acting in this movie was very refreshing. In short, this movie deserves a viewing by even the most avid loathers of Westerns.

---

24 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
I didn't ask for a 'happy ending' (Don't beat my cattle)10/10, 18 January 2005

Author: Clark Richards from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I understand the reason why a lot of people are disappointed over the ending of Red River. The movie, up until the ending, does a wonderful job of drawing us in to the story of the hard-nosed tyrannical cattle owner Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) and his adopted son Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift). Dunson and Garth along with Dunson's lifetime side kick and cook, Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan) have set out along with many other hired men, to relocate as much of Dunson's cattle as they can. Against terrible odds of survival the hired men set out with dreams of making $100 a person for their efforts. Along the way many of the men talk of an easier and quicker passage for relocation through Abilene, but Dunson will not hear of it unless he has absolute proof that a railroad runs through this spot. This becomes the seedling of mutiny. After many days of adversity the hired men become more restless. We slowly see that his men are giving up on Dunson's methods of leadership by intimidation and have become increasingly tired of Dunson and his stubborn plight of relocating his cattle across the states while battling through hostile territories. We also see that Dunson is starting to break under the strain of herding two drives, one of his cattle and the other of his cattle herders. Dunson resorts to shooting and killing some of the men that tried to quit the drive. Dunson is not only becoming ornery with his hired help, but with Garth and Root as well. Dunson snaps at Groot and doesn't listen to Garth's thoughts of a different passage. Dunson won't sleep at night for fear of other men quitting on the job. The hired men begin to think that they can either do battle against the ever waiting Indians or other cowboys trying to steal Dunson's cattle, or they can run away from Dunson. One-night three hired men take a chance and try for their escape once Dunson finally collapses into sleep from exhaustion. These escapees figure they don't want to end up like the others who wanted to quit and were killed, buried and read their last rites by Dunson. In this way Dunson is a precursor to Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction. Except when Dunson is sermonizing, he's already killed you.

Once the surviving escapees are caught and brought back to Dunson, Dunson only needs a second to figure on how he will kill them. When he mentions that he intends to hang the deserters, the rest of the men, including Garth rebel against Dunson. The quick draw of his son helps to spare the life of the deserters, but also severs the father and son relationship to the point that a broken down and dejected Dunson tells Garth, "I'm going to find you Matt, I'm going to find you and then I'm going to kill ya". This moment was very powerful. And it is perhaps the best moment in the film. This event refocuses Dunson and it makes him blind to anything else in the world. The rest of the movie starts back up with a new dynamic. I started to care more about what would happen to Garth and Dunson than I did at all about the destination of the cattle drive. You know the ending is going to be severe and that someone is going to have to die. Well, you would think so.

And this is where the debate starts up. Some people really like the feel good ending. For me, the ending comes across as what I would expect a movie made in 1998 to end like, not 1948. That damn speech by that woman (I won't mention her name), who came into the story more than two thirds the way through, that just tidies everything up, I just can't see it. All in all, I can't hold that against the movie. It was so excellent up to that point. I can accept the ending; I just don't like it. And furthermore, Howard Hawks didn't like the ending either.

What I did like was: The scene of the cattle before the drive, the one that does a 360-degree pan. For its time it was very impressive. Walter Brennan. Then again, I like almost anything with Walter Brennan in it. The on going joke about losing his teeth in a poker game is fantastic. However, I didn't get to see the version that Brennan narrates; I saw the one that plays out through a diary. Apparently the Brennan narrative is the better version. Or so Howard Hawks seemed to think.

Montgomery Clift was a revelation. It's too bad he died so early in his life.

Despite the happy ending, it still ranks 10/10.

Clark Richards

---

17 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Epic Cattle Drive, 19 July 2006

Author: Lechuguilla from Dallas, Texas

Dimitri Tiomkin's thunderous score sets the tone for this rousing story of cowboy ranchers in nineteenth century Texas headed north, with a thunderous herd of cattle in tow. It's the archetypal story of the American West, with its strong, ethical male leader, Thomas Dunson (John Wayne), and his pursuit of a big dream, set in an era when men were men, times were tough, hardships were inevitable, guns ruled, and Native Americans were the bad guys. What a saga ...

What makes "Red River" such a grand adventure is its high quality. Its story is simple, direct, exciting, and well told, with complex characters, interesting and sympathetic because they show weakness as well as strength. Dunson is a good man, but he's stubborn and headstrong. His semi-adopted son, Matt (Montgomery Clift), is good with a gun but a little softhearted. Dunson's chief sidekick is Groot (Walter Brennan), a cantankerous old buzzard who has problems with his teeth.

It's the relationship between these three men that is the heart and soul of "Red River". Trouble ensues along the way, you can be sure. And how that trouble unfolds and plays out presents viewers with engaging human drama, and humor, centered on these three main characters. The lonesome High Plains, with all its inherent risks, adds grandeur to the epic story.

At strategic points in the film, the page of a book appears on screen with text that briefly summarizes upcoming events. It's like we, the viewers, are reading a book about some long ago trailblazers. It's a technique that could have been intrusive. But here, it is handled with such finesse that it actually helps the narrative, by functioning as a transition from one sequence to the next.

The acting is fine. John Wayne is more than convincing as Dunson. Walter Brennan is characteristically funny. And Montgomery Clift is terrific. Had he maintained his looks, and if real-life circumstances not intervened, Monty could have been one of the truly top actors through at least the 50s and 60s.

If the film has a weakness, it might be the cinematography. Not often, but at times, the actors appear to be standing in front of a canvas, an effect that renders a shallow depth of field. Maybe this was the result of technical limitations of photography at the time the film was made.

There are few film westerns that can compare in quality with "Red River". And I don't know of any other cinematic cattle drives that are this good. So, the next time you herd your cattle to market, this is the film to watch. Even if you have no cattle, "Red River" is still a wonderfully entertaining cinematic experience.

---

19 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
The last picture show, 31 October 2005

Author: Martin Bradley (MOscarbradley@aol.com) from Derry, Ireland

Some people think this is the greatest western ever made and they aren't far off the mark. It is certainly among the most expansive. Borden Chase adapted his own Saturday Evening Post story "The Chisholm Trail" but it was Howard Hawks who fleshed it out. There are some who see the relationship between Tom Dunson, (John Wayne), and his surrogate son Matthew Garth, (Montgomery Clift), as mirroring that of Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian and again that isn't too far off the mark either. Then there is the teasingly suggestive homo-erotic by-play that exists between Clift and gunslinger John Ireland, with a lot of emphasis on the affection each shares for the other's gun. But pat psychology aside the film is chiefly enjoyable for its sheer physicality. Indian attacks, gunfights, cattle stampedes and a great climatic confrontation between Wayne and Clift, it has them all.

Clift, a relative newcomer when the film came out, (it was only his second picture), is excellent. The camera loves him and he knows it. This is Clift at his most likable and laconic. But it is Wayne's tyrannical Tom Dunson who dominates every scene. It's a great piece of acting, the equal of his work in "The Quiet Man" and "The Searchers", maybe better. Those who say he was the same in every picture were surely blinkered. Given a great part like Dunson or Ethan Edwards he clearly understood the psychology of the role and what made the character tick. And for once, Dimitri Tiomkin's great score adds to, rather than detracts from, the film. Trivia time; in Peter Bogdanovitch's "The Last Picture Show" it was Hawk's "Red River" that was the last picture show.

---

22 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Movie, 10 June 2004

Author: RACHEL (rab1092001@yahoo.com) from USA

I love westerns and this is one of my favorites. But it isn't just a shoot-'em-up flick. This movie is a story about relationships particularly ones between fathers and sons. This is also about the struggle of growing up in a tough world. Montgomery Clift, John Wayne, and Walter Brennan are excellent actors and play their parts beautifully. Montgomery plays the son of cattle baron Thomas Dunson(Wayne).Dunson adopted Matthew Garth (Clift) after his parents died tragically. Together with Groot Nadine (with Brennan) build a cattle empire. When it's time to drive the cattle north for shipment they start the drive but new secrets are revealed as the drive continues and Garth takes the cattle to Kansas to a railroad station and Dunson pursues. The landscape shots in this film are also excellent.

---

---

Page 1 of 12:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Amazon.com summary
Ratings	Awards	Newsgroup reviews
External reviews	Plot keywords	Main details
Your user comments	Your vote history