Red River

[Iamhere]

Red River next to The Searchers is my favoire Western of all time.

 

Is their any analitcal takes on the film such as this article : http://www.jeremyizzo.com/red-river-and-time which takes a look at Red River's use of time.

 

I love the film a lot and waynes dark hero along with dopplegangers, I also find it to be the best composted film by Hawks who normally doesn't uses such beautiful angles or shots, but I want to find some film theroist thoughts on it. Jeremy Izzo did a great job as always, but is there anyone else.

[faceinthecrowd]

A few random thoughts:

 

Before the big cattle drive begins, Wayne looks around. The camera follows his gaze and slowly does a complete 360. Then Wayne turns to Montgomery Clift and says:

"Take 'em to Missouri, Matt."

A very well done scene.

 

Clift and John Ireland have an intriguing rivalry, which begins when they compare their, ahem, guns. But it never develops into the final clash we're led to expect -- I consider that a flaw in the script.

 

And we see Wayne being implacably bent on vengeance, but when Joanne Dru fires a gun and says, "Stop that!" (or something equally lame), all the steam suddenly goes out of him. Not very believable.

 

With those faults noted, I agree that it's a first-rate western.

[Vertigo2]

I think one of the remarkable aspects of "Red River" is how believable is the "toughness" of slender, theatrical based Montgomery Clift. His climactic fight with Duke is very plausable. I understnd this was the first movie in which he acted too, although " The Search" was released first. He was a troubled soul though and the tragic car accident during the time of the filming of "Raintree County" really sent him on a downward spiral, but his sensitive modern acting in most of his films is timeless and can't be faulted.