Editor Reviews:

Description:
There's a showdown at Rio Bravo when courageous Sheriff John T. Chance throws the brother of evil cattle baron Nathan Burdette in jail for murder. When Burdette's men lay seige to his jailhouse, Chance holds on until the arrival of a U.S. Marshal with the help of his drunken deputy, Dude, cranky old man Stumpy, and the beautiful long-legged Feathers.

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When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. --Jim Emerson

Rating : - Identity Crisis
I wonder if all the 5-star reviewers saw a different film than the one I watched. This is easily Howard Hawks' weakest Western and probably one of his worst films overall. The underlying problem is that it's hard to tell if it is supposed to be a serious film or a spoof; it tries to play on both sides of the fence, and that just doesn't work.

The Duke's performance is about average for him, but there seems to be a little spark missing from his acting; I wonder if he was a reluctant participant. Dean Martin (and I am a big fan) gave an unconvincing performance as a drunkard who is trying to reform. The problem with Martin is that a person never really knows when to take him seriously.

Walter Brennan was his usual irritating self. Ricky Nelson was wooden and flat. Angie Dickinson overacted, and I felt the film would have been better without her part. Ward Bond's performance was probably the best of all the major players, but it was a minor role.

The "romance" between Wayne and Dickinson was very, very awkward and unenjoyable. The caricature-like treatment of the Mexican roles was embarrassing. And, at 2 hours and 21 minutes, the film was about 30 minutes too long; I found myself fast-forwarding a lot at the end.

Hawks' second attempt at this story, El Dorado, is a MUCH, much better film. Even the much-maligned Rio Lobo is a lot more enjoyable. Rio Bravo is a DVD that will not remain in my library.