Red River

Red River (Harold Hawks 1948) is an early western film starting John Wayne, ostensibly the most known cowboy figure in classic western depictions. It is a movie about everything from cattle drives to the importance of family. Red River is a classic Western film with a bit of a twist. You have the bad Indians, the classic hard-ass cowboy, the search for money, the treacherous adventure, and the ignorant "injun". The Western genre of film is one of understood stereotypes and plot structure, and without these things, I don't believe that a movie can truly call itself a Western. What Red River does is achieve these stereotypes and fulfills this plot structure, while maintaining the all-important "myth" of the West.

Made in 1948, Red River was made at a time when American pride and heritage was at an all-time high with the close of World War II and the United States victory. This may have had an impact on the film industry, resulting in a surge of Western films. These films emphasize the myth of the American West and the man's conquering of a desolate wilderness and savage peoples to spread America's influence. This is much like what we accomplished in Western Europe in World War II, where it was American freedom and values that drove the savage German's from a land meant for the civilized, moral nations of the region.

The film Red River starts with John Wayne in a confrontation with two Mexican desperadoes over a piece of land they claim is owned by their boss. In the comparison between the West and World War II, John Wayne would be America, strong and defiant in the face of overwhelming odds, and the two desperadoes would be the Germans. This is all speculation, of course, but the idea of the American frontiersman conquering the West is an obvious theme throughout the movie.

Red River is a dramatic Western focusing largely on the heroic and hardworking cowboy Dunsen. The movie contains all of the classic elements, from the cattle drive to the wagon train to the Indian confrontation. What the movie also does, though, is contrasts the heroic cowboy image by including the character Timothy, the son of Dunsen. Timothy plays a much more light-hearted, softer image of a cowboy. He has little backbone, is caught up in a relationship with a woman, Tess (Joann Dru), and is at one point believed to be incapable of replacing his father's role as the head of the cattle herd. It is this relational conflict that drives the movie and ultimately brings about its ending, with Dunsen returning to the cattle drive in Red River and fighting his son. This fight is also important to the tone and feel of the film, which combines the myth and ruggedness of the west with the concept and necessity of family.

The events of this film are largely over-dramatized, with the stereotypical aspects of western life being sensationalized in a way common in the westerns of the time. From the dramatic aspects of the cattle drive to the Indian raid on the wagon train, Red River fulfills all of the fantasy of a good classic western. Some aspects, such as the choice of characters, were quite accurate, though. Just about every cultural identity, from Irish to Chinese to Indian and