Review of Rio Bravo (1959) by Carl R — 01 Feb 2008

Directed by Howard Hawks, who also gave us The Big Sleep, To Have and to Have Not, one critic wrote "If I had to choose one film to justfy America, it would be "Rio Bravo". It was Hawks' and the Duke's response to "High Noon" which they did not like because the sheriff went begging for help from the town. In this film Sheriff John T Chance does the opposite, defending the jail from the bad guys with the help of a drunk, a lame old man, a very young cowboy(Ricky Nelson), a female card-sharp, and a Mexican hotelier (Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales). Dean Martin is a revelation as the alcoholic "Dude", fighting the shakes and sweats and agony of drying out to regain his self-respect. He symbolizes how we all can get side-tracked by life and fail while trying to become the person we know we can be. The banter between foxy Angie Dickinson ("Feathers") is reminiscent of Bogey and Bacall.

You'll laugh, you'll ache, you'll see a film with a great script with marvelous charcters in the hands of a superb director. Nearly perfect.