Review of Rio Bravo (1959) by Kate P — 24 Nov 2007
Howard hawks is the man! what an unexpected gem of a film. there I was thinking I had two hours of strutting testosterone to struggle through and I enjoyed every minute of it. hawks took wayne's stoic, saggy persona and breathed a little twinkle into it.
angie dickinson was perfect as his less than perfect gal, though I did want to gaffer tape her mouth by the end, and dean martin found the perfect place between drunken melancholy and wise-cracking sidekick.
the sharp dialogue between the men cooped up in the jail house didn't really belong in a western, but at the same time it summed up their long and eventful relationship exactly. wayne's trouble with dickinson was genuinely funny and the pace didn't slacken with the dodgy pyrotechnics (can you blow up a house by shooting at a stick of dynamite?) there was even time for a little sing-a-long.
is there any film genre that this man can't manage as effortlessly?
This review of Rio Bravo (1959) was written by Kate P on 24 Nov 2007.
Rio Bravo has generally received very positive reviews.
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