SYNOPSIS

The story of the first great cattle drive along the legendary Chisholm Trail from Texas to Kansas is told through the relationship of Tom Dunson and Matthew Garth, the boy Dunson adopts after an Indian raid wipes out everyone else on a wagon train, including the woman Dunson loves. Together, they build a vast cattle empire and years later, take on an ambitious and hazardous drive of 10,000 cattle north. But Dunson's stubborn, tyrannical ways soon put his men and his herd in danger, forcing Garth to take over the drive to Abilene. Dunson, swearing revenge, pursues him to a final showdown.

Director: Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson (Co-Director)
Producers: Charles K. Feldman (uncredited), Howard Hawks
Screenplay: Borden Chase, Charles Schnee, based on Chase's story "The Chisholm Trail"
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Editing: Christian Nyby
Art Direction: John Datu Arensma
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cast: John Wayne (Thomas Dunson), Montgomery Clift (Matt Garth), Walter Brennan (Groot Nadine), Joanne Dru (Tess Millay), John Ireland (Cherry Valance), Harry Carey, Sr. (Mr. Melville), Noah Beery, Jr. (Buster McGee), Harry Carey, Jr. (Dan Latimer).
BW-133m.

Why RED RIVER Is Essential

Red River is widely and justifiably acclaimed as one of the greatest Westerns ever produced in Hollywood. Its tale of rugged men on an arduous mission - a hallmark of director Howard Hawks' work - combines a sweeping epic scope, moments of humor, and rousing action sequences with a sharply drawn emphasis on character and the logistics of a great cattle drive that had a profound effect on the development of the frontier.

The film represents Hollywood craftsmen working at the peak of their abilities and breaking new ground in their careers. Hawks was by this time one of the master directors in the industry, a versatile artist whose work encompassed comedies, war films, mysteries, and adventure pictures. Red River was his first Western, and in taking on the genre he significantly reinvigorated it as a form that could contain complex characters and broader themes within its rugged action-oriented stories. John Wayne was already an established star of Westerns as well as war films and other action pictures but not considered much of an actor until Red River was released. It had critics, public, and colleagues in the industry sit up and take notice, not only because of his multi-layered performance but for the way his role made use of, commented on and even subverted his on-screen image.

Although Montgomery Clift had already appeared on the screen in The Search [1948] - filmed after Red River but released earlier - it was Red River that brought him to the attention of the nation. Clift's naturalistic performance signaled the arrival of a new acting style that achieved greater intensity and vulnerability, the obvious result of "The Method" which was being taught at the Actors Studio and the Group Theatre in New York City and was gaining popularity with stage and film actors.

Red River is also remarkable for the brilliant exterior work of cinematographer Russell Harlan, who had only recently gotten his first break in big-budget features after years of labor on Hopalong Cassidy programmers.

All this would be enough to recommend Red River, but what sets the film apart from the Westerns that came before it is a story and theme worthy of classical tragedy and mythology: the need for the "son" to challenge and surpass the "father" if civilization is to move forward. Along with John Ford's epic dramas made during this same period (which were also an influence on Hawks's film), Red River gave a new life and direction to the genre, setting the stage for character-driven psychological Westerns in the years to come and creating a rich and enduring myth of the American West. As one critic has noted, the complex shadings given here to what had previously been the very black-and-white moral world of the Western, "propels the genre into the 20th century."

by Rob Nixon