Rio Bravo is almost my favorite Western movie. Sure, The Searchers, Lonesome Dove, High Noon, and The Magnificent Seven are also contenders. But John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, and Walter Brennan bring gravitas to Rio Bravo that the other Westerns don’t quite match. An army of gunmen plan on springing a murderer from jail. Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne), his deputy with a drinking problem (Dean Martin), and the hobbling Walter Brennan are the only ones ready to defend the jail.
Director Howard Hawks elevated the Western movie genre with Red River. Hawk delivers a lean, incendiary story filled with suspense and thrills in Rio Bravo. Oh, and by the way, my very favorite Western is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. What’s your favorite Western movie? GRADE: A
My favorite would be The Wild Bunch followed by The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I always thought Rio Bravo overrated. Ricky Nelson can’t act and Dean Martin doesn’t look right to me in a western. Not all actors do. Cagney and Bogart never looked right in westerns either.
Steve, Rick Nelson attracted plenty of fans to the movie theaters at the time. It was a marketing move.
I don’t have one favorite, but RIO BRAVO would certainly be up there in the top 10. It was a favorite of Bill Crider’s too.
Jeff, I liked your comments to Bill: https://billcrider.blogspot.com/2007/07/rio-bravo-great-western.html?m=0
“Rio Bravo” is it for me. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen it, and it never gets old. The most amazing thing about it for me is how much fun it is even when not much of anything is going on. It just sort of lollygags along for nearly 2 1/2 hours, yet there’s never a dull moment.
Michael, Howard Hawks knew how to keep things moving in his movies!
I don’t have a favorite Anything — I love different movies, books, music & people for different reasons. But I do watch RIDE LONESOME once a year.
Also, in the synchronicity sweeps, I posted a shot from another Howard Hawks movie on my FB page the same day you posted this.
Dan, great minds think alike!
Whatever an eff-bee page is…
As students in the 1960s we often watched Westerns (especially Spaghetti Westerns …) Sunday mornings or in late shows (11 pm) as well as horror films by Hammer productions – sometimes even smuggled a beer into the cinema. 🙂
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and High Noon were my favourites, Rio Bravo comes third.
PS:
There was a special price for these shows, much less than the regular price which we couldn’t afford too often.
Wolf, I attended a movie theater near my College in the 1960s. Movies were a dollar (with a College ID). That’s where I saw plenty of Spaghetti Westerns!
Some favorites:
Rio Bravo
Stagecoach (1939)
The Searchers
Lonesome Dove
Unforgiven
The Magnificent 7
Support Your Local Sheriff
Jeff, I’m big fan of Two Mules for Sister Sara, too!
No love for “Blazing Saddles”?
Btw, George, you have the word “debut” when I think you mean “deputy.”
Deb, WORDPRESS is up to its sneaky spell-checker antics. WORDPRESS changes words without regard to context sometimes. Annoying!
that’s why you need to read and edit…
Rick, you’re right. But when I type “deputy” and WORDPRESS capriciously changes it to “debut” while I’m already typing the next sentence, it’s maddening!
Hawks and Wayne liked it so much they remade it 2 more times. EL DORADO and RIO LOBO.
Ray, good points! Clearly, RIO BRAVO was the template for EL DORADO and RIO LOBO. Go with a winning formula!
And Leigh Brackett (one of my favourite authors …) wrote the scripts – at least she was part of the team.
Wolf, and Leigh Brackett went on write THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, too.
Another thing. Watched RIO GRANDE last week on dvd
Watched the dvd of RIO GRANDE last week and in a making of extra Leonard Maltin said the original title was RIO BRAVO.
Jackie wants me to mention that this is one of her all-time favorites.
Jeff, Jackie has excellent taste in Westerns!
Correction: Dean Martin wasn’t Wayne’s deputy! Dean was the sheriff and Wayne a friend who helped him out, and was sworn in as a deputy! I don’t have a favorite Western movie because there are so many good ones! Rio Bravo would be in my top ten favorites, though!
Bob, you and Bill Crider had similar tastes in Westerns.
Also, forgetting to mention Walter Brennan is bad form!
Don’t know who will see this, since I’m posting it so late, but one I love — I can’t call it my favorite — is 1930’s The Big Trail, a very early John Wayne picture. It’s about a trip along the Oregon Trail, and the only way they knew how to film it was to build Conestoga wagons (not quite full size) and recreate the trip. The story’s not bad, but the real treat is watching the actors and crew wrestle these unwieldy things across the desert. It’s fascinating.
Jeff, THE BIG TRAIL sounds fascinating! I’ll try to track down a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!
Rio Bravo is in my top ten which changes frequently. Once Upon a Time in the West is often on top of the list.
Scott, I need to rewatch ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST after watching ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD!