Rio Bravo [Blu-ray]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Set in Texas during the late 1860s, Rio Bravo is a story of men (and women) and a town under siege. Presidio County Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) is holding Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), a worthless, drunken thug, for the murder of an unarmed man in a fight in a saloon -- the problem is that Joe is the brother of wealthy land baron Nathan Burdette (John Russell), who owns a big chunk of the county and can buy all the hired guns he doesn't already have working for him. Burdette's men cut the town off to prevent Chance from getting Joe into more secure surroundings, and then the hired guns come in, waiting around for their chance to break him out of jail. Chance has to wait for the United States marshal to show up, in six days, his only help from Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a toothless, cantankerous old deputy with a bad leg who guards the jail, and Dude (Dean Martin), his former deputy, who's spent the last two years stumbling around in a drunken stupor over a woman that left him. Chance's friend, trail boss Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond), arrives at the outset of the siege and tries to help, offering the services of himself and his drovers as deputies, which Chance turns down, saying they're not professionals and would be too worried about their families to be good at anything except being targets for Burdette's men; but Chance does try to enlist the services of Wheeler's newest employee, a callow-looking young gunman named Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson), who politely turns him down, saying he prefers to mind his own business. In the midst of all of this tension, Feathers (Angie Dickinson), a dance hall entertainer, arrives in town and nearly gets locked up by Chance for cheating at cards, until he finds out that he was wrong and that she's not guilty -- this starts a verbal duel between the two of them that grows more sexually intense as the movie progresses and she finds herself in the middle of Chance's fight. Wheeler is murdered by one of Burgette's hired guns who is, in turn, killed by Dude in an intense confrontation in a saloon. Colorado throws in with Chance after his boss is killed and picks up some of the slack left by Dude, who isn't quite over his need for a drink or the shakes that come with trying to stop. Chance and Burdette keep raising the ante on each other, Chance, Dude, and Colorado killing enough of the rancher's men that he's got to double what he's paying to make it worth the risk, and the undertaker (Joseph Shimada) gets plenty of business from Burdette before the two sides arrive at a stalemate -- Burdette is holding Dude and will release him in exchange for Joe. This leads to the final, bloody confrontation between Chance and Burdette, where the wagons brought to town by the murdered Wheeler play an unexpected and essential role in tipping the balance. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Subtitle: English, French, Spanish
• Features:
  • Commentary by director John Carpenter and historian/Critic Richard Schickel
  • 2 Slam-Bang All-New featurettes: Commemoration: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked
  • Career profile
  • The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
  • John Wayne Westerns trailer gallery

AWARDS

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1959 (Howard Hawks)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       John Wayne - Sheriff John T. Chance
       Dean Martin - Dude
       Ricky Nelson - Colorado Ryan
       Angie Dickinson - Feathers
       Walter Brennan - Stumpy

• Director:

  Howard Hawks

• Producer:

  Howard Hawks

• Screenwriter:

  Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman

• Cinematographer:

  Russell Harlan

• Composer (Music Score):

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Songwriter:

  Dimitri Tiomkin, Paul Francis Webster

• Editor:

  Folmar Blangsted

• Art Director:

  Leo K. Kuter

REVIEWS:

• The inspiration behind Rio Bravo originated with the outrage that John Wayne and director/producer Howard Hawks both felt over the 1952 western High Noon -- neither man appreciated that earlier movie's depiction of the town marshal (played by Gary Cooper) and his desperate appeal to the townspeople for help against the band of outlaws headed their way. And so the two of them, in conjunction with screenwriters Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman, set out to do a film in response, and the result was Rio Bravo, which was a complete inversion of High Noon in virtually every detail of its plot and structure. Both movies unfold in strictly linear fashion, but where High Noon takes place in real time, covering the life and death of a western town on a single morning in 85 minutes of screen time, Rio Bravo sets a surprisingly leisurely pace across nearly two and a half hours, telling a story spread across three days. Both movies utilize the services of composer Dimitri Tiomkin; but in contrast to High Noon's use of a central ballad that only the audience could hear, the centerpieces of Rio Bravo's score include a trumpet dirge that is very much in the consciousness of the characters; and the score also contains a pair of songs (one of them, "My Rifle, My Pony, And Me," adapted by Tiomkin from his own main title music for the 1948 Hawks/Wayne film Red River) sung by two of the characters. Finally, beyond its relationship to High Noon, Rio Bravo's most notable aesthetic attribute is its marvelously neat construction. As the opening credits roll, we see the wagons led by Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) toward the Texas border town of Rio Bravo. Those wagons, as we later learn, contain dynamite, a cargo that will play an essential role in resolving the film's central plot conflict; and we glimpse Wheeler himself, whose friendship with Chance and whose offer of help will lead to his murder, an event that will drive the plot for the last two thirds of the movie, right through to the denouement. Rio Bravo was Bond's final film and it was a fitting send-off for Wayne's longtime friend -- his character is essential to the structure of the movie, introducing the town of Rio Bravo under the credits and providing the means by which Wayne can explain what is going on and why he and his deputies have to do this job alone. "Joe Burdette isn't worth one of those that would get killed," Chance tells Wheeler, who ends up the only man on the side of the law who is killed. The care with which Brackett and Furthman's screenplay lays out its material -- in what is essentially a moral, literary, and cinematic chess game -- is reflected throughout this "opening." Every key character and plot element is introduced within the first 30 minutes, along with the relationships that drive them, leading inexorably, move after move (not without some surprise twists) to the violent denouement. Rio Bravo was one of Wayne and Hawks's most successful and satisfying vehicles, which may help explain why they liked it so much and were so impressed with its potential for further exploration, that they remade it twice, once as El Dorado and once as Rio Lobo. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
• The inspiration behind {#Rio Bravo} originated with the outrage that {$John Wayne} and director/producer {$Howard Hawks} both felt over the 1952 western {#High Noon} -- neither man appreciated that earlier movie's depiction of the town marshal (played by {$Gary Cooper}) and his desperate appeal to the townspeople for help against the band of outlaws headed their way. And so the two of them, in conjunction with screenwriters {$Leigh Brackett} and {$Jules Furthman}, set out to do a film in response, and the result was {#Rio Bravo}, which was a complete inversion of {#High Noon} in virtually every detail of its plot and structure. Both movies unfold in strictly linear fashion, but where {#High Noon} takes place in real time, covering the life and death of a western town on a single morning in 85 minutes of screen time, {#Rio Bravo} sets a surprisingly leisurely pace across nearly two and a half hours, telling a story spread across three days. Both movies utilize the services of composer {$Dimitri Tiomkin}; but in contrast to {#High Noon}'s use of a central ballad that only the audience could hear, the centerpieces of {#Rio Bravo}'s score include a trumpet dirge that is very much in the consciousness of the characters; and the score also contains a pair of songs (one of them, "My Rifle, My Pony, And Me," adapted by Tiomkin from his own main title music for the 1948 {$Hawks}/{$Wayne} film {#Red River}) sung by two of the characters. Finally, beyond its relationship to {#High Noon}, {#Rio Bravo}'s most notable aesthetic attribute is its marvelously neat construction. As the opening credits roll, we see the wagons led by Pat Wheeler ({$Ward Bond}) toward the Texas border town of Rio Bravo. Those wagons, as we later learn, contain dynamite, a cargo that will play an essential role in resolving the film's central plot conflict; and we glimpse Wheeler himself, whose friendship with Chance and whose offer of help will lead to his murder, an event that will drive the plot for the last two thirds of the movie, right through to the denouement. {#Rio Bravo} was Bond's final film and it was a fitting send-off for Wayne's longtime friend -- his character is essential to the structure of the movie, introducing the town of Rio Bravo under the credits and providing the means by which Wayne can explain what is going on and why he and his deputies have to do this job alone. "Joe Burdette isn't worth one of those that would get killed," Chance tells Wheeler, who ends up the only man on the side of the law who is killed. The care with which Brackett and Furthman's screenplay lays out its material -- in what is essentially a moral, literary, and cinematic chess game -- is reflected throughout this "opening." Every key character and plot element is introduced within the first 30 minutes, along with the relationships that drive them, leading inexorably, move after move (not without some surprise twists) to the violent denouement. {#Rio Bravo} was one of Wayne and Hawks's most successful and satisfying vehicles, which may help explain why they liked it so much and were so impressed with its potential for further exploration, that they remade it twice, once as {#El Dorado} and once as {#Rio Lobo}. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

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