Rio Bravo (1959)

John Wayne as Sheriff John Chance

'Rio Bravo' is a stylish and influential Western film, made in 1959 and directed by Howard Hawks. It stars John Wayne and Dean Martin with Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan. The film was successful with both the critics and the public and has become a Western classic.

'High Noon' in 1952 famously depicted one man's courageous stand against lawless adversity in the name of the law. By all accounts both Howard Hawks and John Wayne hated 'High Noon' and made 'Rio Bravo' to tell the story their way.

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This time in the small Texas town of Rio Bravo, sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) doesn't go around begging for help from the townspeople he's sworn to protect, but he isn't alone either. He's aided by a charismatic and disparate group of locals including a hopeless drunk with a past reputation (Dean Martin), a gunslinging young singing cowboy (Ricky Nelson), a Mexican innkeeper (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) and a crippled old deputy nicknamed Stumpy (Walter Brennan) who holds the whole thing together with his goading of Wayne, his dialogue with the prisoner and his general role as comic relief. Together they must fend off a band of murderous desperados who have laid siege to the town, intent on springing the villain's brother from jail.

Hawks was always one of Hollywood's most reliable and vesatile directors, but after 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' in 1953 he left America for a stint in Europe which proved disappointing. 'Rio Bravo' marked a rousing return to America and to form, with Hawks offering a genre-smashing collision of everything he knows best. There are musical numbers - with crooner DeanMartin and teen idol ricky Nelson in the film, this was almost inevitable - moments of comedy, a touch of romance, thanks to the mysterious traveller 'Feathers' played by Angie Dickinson, and plenty of old-fashioned Western action, all unified by yet another casually iconic Wayne performance, playing basically himself, as the pragmatic hero bound by a sense of duty.

The siege-scenario Hawks sets up - a motley crew of mismatched characters holed up in one place for one last stand - has become a genre-film standby, borrowed repeatedly by such Hawks worshippers as John Carpenter and George Romero. Both recognised how the limited setting of 'Rio Bravo could be applied to their own low-budget films. The Hawks touch is that the siege itself isn't as important as the interaction of the characters under siege. By sticking them all together in one place, Hawks has fun letting them play off of one another revealing colorful little character traits as they fight back against insurmountable odds.

Coming not long after John Ford's eulogy to the Western with his haunting 'The Searchers' in 1956, 'Rio Bravo' also stands as one of the last of its kind, an old-fashioned and fun romp of a Western where the line between good guys and bad guys couldn't be more clear. Its a wonderful film, very watchable, and deservedly a classic.

Main Cast

John Wayne ... Sheriff John T. Chance
Dean Martin ... Dude ('Borachón')
Angie Dickinson ... Feathers
Ricky Nelson ... Colorado Ryan
Walter Brennan ... Stumpy
John Russell ... Nathan Burdette
Ward Bond ... Pat Wheeler
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez ... Carlos Robante
Claude Akins ... Joe Burdette
Estelita Rodriguez ... Consuela Robante
Malcolm Atterbury ... Jake (stage driver)

Director: Howard Hawks
Writers: Jules Furthman (screenplay) and Leigh Brackett (screenplay)
Musical score: Dimitri Tiomkin.