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From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: RIO BRAVO
Message-ID: <1679@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Feb-86 08:36:12 EST
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1679
Posted: Wed Feb 19 08:36:12 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Feb-86 20:54:15 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
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				  RIO BRAVO
		       A film review by Mark R. Leeper

	  Capsule review:  Classic Western with a very good
     reputation but with feet of clay.

     This month Cinemax is running the 1959 Howard Hawks Western RIO BRAVO.
The film is a sort of answer to HIGH NOON.  John Wayne plays a sheriff about
to have problems, just like Gary Cooper did in HIGH NOON.  In the earlier
film Cooper had to face a handful of killers.  Hawks's one-ups-manship has
Wayne facing dozens.  And how do they react?  Cooper spent his time trying
to get someone to help him.  The Duke, of course, has more of an image to
live up to.  He spends his time trying to discourage people who want to help
him.  The question nevers enters his mind that he might not be man enough to
take on any number of people who want him dead.  Sure enough Wayne, with a
little help from two or three selected friends, is more than enough to take
on a small army.  Of course, Rambo later took on bigger armies in even more
contrived plots, but Wayne was modest and was willing to be equal to only
three or four dozen men in his scripts.

     The cast for this film were chosen more for marquee value than for
acting talent.  Besides Wayne, who always did the world's best imitation of
John Wayne, there was current heart-throb Ricky Nelson for the teenage girls
in the audience and Dean Martin for their mothers.  Neither ever won any
acting awards.  Also on hand are Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward
Bond.

     I am not sure where the title came from.  There isn't one scene with a
river in it in the entire film.  But then, Westerns with Spanish names--you
know, RIO GRANDE, RIO LOBO, EL DORADO, VERA CRUZ, SILVERADO--they all have a
sort of epic feel.

     I won't deny that RIO BRAVO has some fun to it.  Most critics seem to
like it and it is worth a peek.  It has some reasonable humor; most Hawks
films seem to.  Also there is a long opening sequence, somewhat
experimental, in which for three or four minutes there is action but no
dialogue.  Any Howard Hawks film is worth seeing, but RIO BRAVO is good in
spite of itself.  So if it is enjoyable why am I picking holes?  Well,
nobody else seems to be doing it.  Rate RIO BRAVO a flat 0 on the -4 to +4
scale.


					Mark R. Leeper
					...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper