Red River (1948)

[Groggy]

I didn't like Joanne Dru at all. The ending was just the icing on the cake. I know it's a Hawks film, but we don't need Hildy Johnson-esque characters in the Old West, chattering away even after being shot with an arrow (you sympathize with the Indians on principle).

[Ben Tyreen]

 I think Red River came up in the Rate the Last movie discussion recently, but I love the movie up until the end which almost single-handedly ruins the whole movie.  One of Wayne's top 5 parts and Montgomery Clift is surprisingly good as a gunslinging cowboy.  Add a great supporting cast led by Walter Brennan and many more recognizable western character actors that bring the movie up a notch.

  But the addition of Joanne Dru, as Groggy said, really pulls this movie down.  What was it with Hawkes that he felt the need to add an unnecessary female character to an otherwise really strong movie?  Cough * Rio Bravo * cough.

[Atlas2112]

I thought her part was a good addition to the story. It helps bring montgomery clift's character to age, make him become more of his own man, and most importantly, get rid of those bi-curiosity from the earlier scenes  . The scenes were relativly short, and weren't too intrusive. I thought it helped the story thematically. but once it got to that ending, i had a wee bit contempt for her.

[Tucumcari Bound]

I thought her part was a good addition to the story. It helps bring montgomery clift's character to age, make him become more of his own man, and most importantly, get rid of those bi-curiosity from the earlier scenes  . The scenes were relativly short, and weren't too intrusive. I thought it helped the story thematically. but once it got to that ending, i had a wee bit contempt for her.

I agree. I liked Joanne Dru's character. Without her, I don't think the story would have been as good. I dunno why people have a problem with her. I loved the arrow scene. It's one of my favorite sequences of the whole film.

[dave jenkins]

Yeah, the arrow scene is pure Hawks. His tough guys need tough women and this is where Dru shows her mettle. Hawks does this, less graphically, in other films--with Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings, for example. It's a kind of trademark.

[Tucumcari Bound]

Yeah, the arrow scene is pure Hawks. His tough guys need tough women and this is where Dru shows her mettle. Hawks does this, less graphically, in other films--with Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings, for example. It's a kind of trademark.

Yeah, I personally love Howard Hawks style. He is afterall one of my favorite director's. It doesn't hurt the fact that Joanne Dru was one beautifull woman. She's nice eye candy here.

Are you a Hawks fan jenkins?

[dave jenkins]

He has good ones and bad ones. I like him as well as I like Ford.

[Ben Tyreen]

I loved the arrow scene. It's one of my favorite sequences of the whole film.

  I always laugh at that scene, not in a good way, because she reacts like she just got a splinter, not an arrow imbedded in her arm/shoulder.  Although I guess a splinter could hurt a lot too.

[Atlas2112]

Nonsense, If she started crying then Clift wouldn't have loved her. He likes men...err...manly women 

[Tucumcari Bound]

Nonsense, If she started crying then Clift wouldn't have loved her. He likes men...err...manly women 

hahaha oh no, that's a stab at poor Montgomery.

[Ben Tyreen]

Nonsense, If she started crying then Clift wouldn't have loved her. He likes men...err...manly women 

  Cherry Valance would have been there to fall back on if Ms. Dru had started to cry.

[Dust Devil]

Watched this for the first time today, and boy, what a disappointment it was. I was struggling to stay awake during the first hour or so. Painfully boring vaqueros story, only partially alleviated by JW's character. And why the pathetic? Buying the red shoes for his wife? Go home! Somewhere in the last 40 minutes the story picks up a little but only to be depraved with that stupid love subplot. And that ending... that idiotic ending... What a insult for everyone!

Walter Brennan was OK. (I was always fond of these caricatured silly old characters, can't help it.)

Not a classic in my book.


5/10

[dave jenkins]

Walter Brennan? What film are you talking about?

[Dust Devil]

What, you don't like him?

[dave jenkins]

Yeah, but, he's not in RR.