Review of Red River (2011) by Panayiota K — 06 Aug 2016

Greatest of Westerns and most American of all films.

This greatest of Westerns and most American of all films is so famous as to hardly need a formal review as a movie, and at any rate discussion of it is easily found in countless printed and on line sources. For those who've never seen it, I'll only say that this 1948 Howard Hawks epic of John Wayne, with his adopted son Montgomery Clift and sidekick Walter Brennan undertaking the first major cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail is one of those supreme classics, like Hitchcock's Vertigo or Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, which is as appealing as entertainment for a general audience as it is impressive as a work of art to critics. It's also undoubtedly John Wayne's best role -- reportedly John Ford upon seeing it exclaimed, "I didn't know the son of a ----- could act!" Noted film critic David Thomson has written that this is his favorite movie.

Criterion has recently (2016) put out an excellent 4-disc package, which includes both the theatrical release and the more tightly edited director's cut, both on Blu-Ray and on standard discs, in an immaculate transfer of a wonderfully clear print, with interesting and valuable extra printed and video materials.