Hawks World: Rio Bravo

I can't tell you how much joy I get out of watching a film like "Rio Bravo". It's special in many ways, for one reason it's the kind of film with a kind of pace that isn't done anymore, it focuses more on character than story, and it perfectly encapsulates everything Howard Hawks had been making in his films up to that point.

"Rio Bravo" was made late in Hawks' career and was probably his last great film. It's a western that may not be as psychological as John Ford's "The Searchers" or Hawks' own "Red River", but it has a certain charm and style that is all it's own. John Wayne plays Sheriff John T. Chance, who has his hands full when he arrests a killer and has to keep him locked up until the Marshall arrives. Unfortunately the killer just happens to have a wealthy brother who is buying his freedom with a bunch of hired guns. Chance has some help with his deputies; there's Dude (Dean Martin) a drunk who's trying to stay sober in order to do his job, Stumpy (Walter Brennan) a grumpy old coot who watches the jail, and then there's Colorado (Ricky Nelson) a young gun ready to prove himself. The men are all pros, which is something Hawks adored in his action films. The movie doesn't go for false heroics, these men are just good at what they do which keeps them alive.

Along with all the male bonding going on, there is also a lady involved by the name of Feathers (Angie Dickenson) who is one in a long line of Hawks' femmes. She is interested in Chance and therefore makes herself irresistible to him.

Although much like "Only Angels Have Wings" the real love story in the picture has to do with Chance and Dude. Dude has been a drunk ever since a girl he loved walked out on him. Through the film, Chance has been encouraging Dude to come back to action and to prove himself again. It's an interesting dynamic in the film and a relationship that Hawks revels in. It's not unlike the friendship formed by Humphrey Bogart and Walter Brennan in "To Have and Have Not", in that movie Brennan was the drunk, but Bogart never tried to reform him.

What's great about "Rio Bravo" and what makes it so wonderful to watch is Hawks attention to character. Hawks has always been a character driven director but this is probably the one film where he seems almost uninterested in action. I'm not saying there isn't any action, there are plenty of intense moments, but there is this whole feeling in the movie that all of that is secondary.

This film was made after Hawks spent about four years abroad in Europe, he hadn't made a film in all that time. He returned to America with a new more broader perspective on cinema. He complained about television and how all the shows on at that time were more concerned about getting from point A to point B they never stopped to consider the characters. Hawks set out to make "Rio Bravo" into a leisurely paced action film where he spent plenty of time on character development.

The film was also a critique on other popular westerns such as "High Noon", a film Hawks despised. Hawks was always preoccupied with showing men as professionals, where he thought the sheriff in "High Noon" was always looking for help from non-professionals who were married and never handled again. In the end of that movie the sheriff is saved by his quaker wife, an ending which no doubt Hawks would've balked at and probably did. In "Rio Bravo" you get the sense that all these heroes know how to handle themselves in a fight, and Chance is smart enough to know that even a drunk like Dude is more useful to him than someone who has never picked up a six-shooter.

Above all "Rio Bravo" is just a joy to watch, it's a film I can turn to any time and feel satisfied with. It is perhaps my favorite Hawks film although there are many that can compete with it. Hawks was the kind of director who was economical, he was never showy, he only put things in his scenes that were necessary to the audience. In "Rio Bravo" we see a confidence that you could only see in an experienced director like Hawks. "Rio Bravo" was more or less remade by Hawks two more times in "El Dorado" and "Rio Lobo" which all starred John Wayne. Perhaps he didn't have much else to say after "Rio Bravo". Hawks' cinema was quite unique in the way he simplified his films, but he always made them extremely entertaining. Perhaps there was no other director who could bring out such complex themes in such a mainstream way.