Red River

Where Order Prednisone Free Samples Where Order Neurontin Dosing Where Order Hoodia Weight Discount Seroquel Cheapest Pills Cipro Description Price For Stromectol Get High Lipitor Herbal Erythromycin Get High Where To Get Lipitor Canada Ultram Delivery Natural Toprol XL France Purchase VPXL Austin Generic Cymbalta Overnight Delivery Buy Zithromax Buy Inderal Lansing Price For Neurontin India Prevacid NoRX Where To Get Lipitor Spain Discount Doxycycline Italy Discount Stromectol Online Clinic Taking Topamax Generic Lipitor Concord Price For Antabuse Shipping Generic Accutane Springfield Zithromax Review Price For Cymbalta For Add Discount Elavil Overnight Delivery Where To Get Phentrimine Swaziland Levitra Erythromycin Review Where To Get Lasix Canadian Generic Antabuse Helena Discount Hoodia Review Zelnorm Dosing Where To Get Seroquel Mexico Where Order Celexa Mail Penisole Mail Topamax Dosing Herbal Avapro Side Effects Natural Stromectol Horny Goat Weed Herbal Prednisone Cheapest Pills Price For Prevacid Free Samples Where To Get Flomax Age Nexium Weight Where Order Celexa United States Stromectol Shipping Where Order Aldactone Australia Purchase Plavix Dover Lasix Review Where Order Acomplia Germany

Red River
(c) A.J. Malouin 2008

(Rating: 3 by Al.) (In our system, “1” is Best, “31” is Worst.)
(1948/USA. Directed by Howard Hawks.)
This is the perfect American-West cowboy movie. Made as one of the few “western” movie projects that Howard Hawks undertook, this film captures completely both the Romance of being a cowboy and the mythology of the lone rugged individuals who eventually carved Ventura highway out of what was a heartless frontier.

John Wayne is Thomas Dunstan, an individual determined to way his own way and create a huge cattle ranch in Texas, somewhere south of the Red River.

Rugged individual or not, however, Dunstan is a Western Knight who has his loyal squire, a sidekick in the person of “Groot” Nadine to keep tabs on and direct him. Groot is played to perfection by Walter Brennan, years before Walter Brennan became a Hollywood icon by playing Walter Brennan.

As Dunstan blunders and savvies his way toward amassing a huge ranch full of Texas cattle, Nadine is the character who delivers wisdom and moderation to the whole she-bang.

Brash and cowboy-like in his every heroic move, Dunstan is mentored, mellowed and reeled in with good humor by Brennan’s Nadine character, who acts as both the conscience and the mother that Dunstan/Wayne may have never had.

Brash and effective still, Dunstan carves a life and living out of the wild grasslands of Texas. There are quarrels with the Native Americans, of course, but most of the quarrels the cowboys face are internally created, or are a function of the rutting rituals of young men who are far, far from Boston.

Mentored by Nadine and driven by his own juices, Dunstan spends 17 years in Texas, passing on all he knows to Matt Garth, a boy he finds wandering in the desert after a Native American attack has decimated the wagon train carrying, among other things, Dunstan’s future wife.

Garth, however, also has to make his own way, establishing his credentials and coming up against other young ascenders like the famous gunman, Cherry Valance.

(Cherry Valence!!! Is that the Coolest Western gun-fighter name of allllll time… or what??!?)

Matt and Cherry, the two young pups, spar and maneuver amongst themselves a lot. Then comes the time it’s time to drive these cows to market, because those beef steaks ain’t worth nothing when they’re grazing on the grasslands of Texas.

It’s a tough drive to get them to market. Many people have actually died attempting it. But market is where the money is— and so the herd must be herded there.

When Dunstan/Wayne croaks out the command, “All right, Matt! Take them to Missouri!” we are greeted some a microcosm of the entire drive. One after the other, we are shown in-saddle shots of all the cowboys who are going to be players in this dangerous drive.

Eventually, Matt, the upright “adopted son” of the dictatorial Dunstan, is forced to take charge of the drive.

When he does, Dunstan says, “I’m going to find you, Matt. And when I do, I’m going to kill you.”

Pleeeeeeease! We doughnut actually believe this, and when Dunstan *does* find him, that is *not* the denouement.

(As if we are surprised!!!) (And if we AREN’T surprise, the gun-totting Joanne Dru character makes it Very Clear!!!)

“Red River” is a classic cowboy western movie worthy of your undivided attention. In addition to the acting of alllll the principals and many of the minors, it offers other tremendous rewards.

The cinematography, for one thing, is *stunning.* NO one has *ever* photographed skies and landscape the way they are photographed here.

In addition, the framing of the scenes of the cattle drive to Missouri (okay, it actually turns in the direction of Abilene, Kansas, thanks to Matt) are without parallel. Every single frame of the drive is a composition worthy of Degas or Monet (you know, IF those dudes worked with cattle and in Black and White.)

It’s almost tooooo much to comprehend how beautiful and perfect this film is: No matter how many times you’ve seen it, see it once more, this weekend.

(2 hr 13. Rated * in the USA. In Black and White, and English. With Shelley Winters, uncredited, as a Dance Hall Girl in the Wagon Train; John Wayne asThomas Dunson; Ivan Parry as Bunk Kenneally; Mickey Kuhn as Matt, as a boy; John Ireland as Cherry Valance: Joanne Dru as Tess Millay; Montgomery Clift as Matthew ‘Matt’ Garth; Harry Carey Jr. as Dan Latimer; Harry Carey as Mr. Melville (as Harry Carey Sr.); Walter Brennan as ‘Groot’ Nadine, and; Noah Beery Jr. as Buster McGee.)