Review of Red River (2011) by Dave H — 10 May 2013

It's a bit fascinating just how terrible this movie can be at times. The older character actors are horribly cheesy and gimmicky, but the younger ones tends to be a lot more natural. Worst of all is John Wayne himself, whose range is strictly limited to the foolishly determined cattle driver. Whenever forced to play the father figure or the lover, however, he is dreadful. Like many of the older actors, he spits out his lines (usually sounding like a first take) and walks from marker to marker as if rehearsing. The inter-titles are completely pointless since the dialogue is awkwardly expository anyway. There are a few good shots in the film, but I got really tired of looking at the same ridge. They probably shouldn't have picked so distinct of a ridge to have in the background of so many of their shots. Lastly, the music is your standard migraine-inducing melodramatic droning that was so popular in most films at the time.

Oh, right, but I did like the movie, I should mention that. Montgomery Clift steals the movie. The plot is actually pretty interesting, but there just isn't much to say other than Clift is good. So there.