Review of Rio Bravo (1959) by Harry W — 21 Nov 2013

Rio Bravo was a film I only picked up on when upon reading that it was John Wayne's response to High Noon, and when I came to the realisation that it was an influence over such quality action films as the John Carpenter classic Assault on Precinct 13 and the Arnold Schwarzenegger comeback The Last Stand I just had to see it for myself.

But really I was let down in certain areas. I found that for a film with a similar concept to High Noon which got its message across in 85 minutes which had finished its buildup of serious drama with a coup de grace of the one and only shootout in the film which made it awesome and memorable, whereas Rio Bravo took 141 long minutes, sub-intense drama, two short boring shootouts and the stereotypical slow pace. For a film with such a high-concept plot, really the key plot line1 sounds Better than it was actually executed since it's buried beneath a load of boring drama, western traditions and hilarious moments with Walter Brennan. Rio Bravo has an important story to tell and some interesting subplots, but it has way too many of them which prevents audiences from being easily able to connect with them or take interest in what is really going on with them.

For a film with such a high concept dramatic plot, I just found Rio Bravo to be a little too childish at the intro due to the way its musical score made so many moments into being cartoonish slapstick jokes, moments such as when people are getting injured or killed. It just isn't gritty, and grit is what John Wayne westerns are all about. I mean, one of his most famous is called True Grit, and there isn't much true grit in Rio Bravo. It falls under the more somewhat comedic category of his poor quality film Rooster Cogburn, and that's what it foreshadows the film to be. That's not what Rio Bravo turns out to be about, but even then that's a misleading intro. There are comedic elements.

The drama of the story really surrounds the final shootout, but it fails to live up to all the buildup and hype that the characters put on it and frankly it's just dull and generic. It isn't intense, and really by that point with all the colours and humour it's been brought down to a family friendly level that it's more reminiscent of a cartoon with Road Runner and Elmer Fudd than a legitimate western. I mean elements of it are serious and some are fun, but director Howard Hawks fails find a balance between these or to balance the themes or pacing well, and so Rio Bravo is left as a film that you really have to save time to watch.

But visually, Rio Bravo is great because it's well lit and well shot with strong cinematography, and it's very colourful since the visual quality of the camera captures everything in each ground of the screen, and it breathes a good amount of colour into elements such as the tones of wood on the fence and the life in the grass of the background. It prevents Rio Bravo from falling into a visually dull quality that many other westerns before it have. Plus it's sufficiently scripted by ______ and _______, and so the drama the characters experience is explained well by them or to them, and therefore to the viewer.

And John Wayne does make a powerful lead again. At 51 he never stops the heroism on screen and gives a strong performance which ties the scenes together. His natural western charisma is one of the best strengths of Rio Bravo.

But Walter Brennan gives the standout performance, one which is so comedically befitting that either the Academy Awards or Golden Globes should have been willing to recognise it. His stereotypical hillbilly character Stumpy is both strong and even more importantly, hilarious. For the man with 3 Academy Awards for Best Supporting actor, he again reminds us what makes him an excellent man of the supporting role by keeping the charms of Rio Bravo alive with a performance which is so goddamned funny that he saves Rio Bravo from being a generic western and makes it a comedic romp with hilarious voice articulation and line delivery. He is a man worth a million laughs, because half the time it's not what he says, it's how he says it. And sometimes it's even the fact that he is saying it. He alone is what makes Rio Bravo a positive quality film in my eyes, and he should have gotten a lot more screen time. Stumpy is an iconic western character thanks to Rio Bravo.

Angie Dickinson was also a good mix of seductive and swift in her sexual appeal and line delivery respectively, and even though she was inconsistent at times and her character had some poorly written lines.

Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson were also good, Ricky Nelson in particular.

So Rio Bravo is overrated and overlong, but it's well acted and largely benefits from the comedic efforts of Walter Brennan, as well as being a very influential film.