Rio Bravo: the one where they are friends

Rio Bravo is regarded by many as the best Western ever made. Even if you don’t agree, it is up there with the greats.

The idea for the plotcame from Fred Zimmerman’s High Noon. In that film, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, the Sherriff asks for help to fight off criminals coming to town. Everyone says no. It is filmed in real time and it won six Oscars.

Hawks wanted a Sherriff who refused help and just got on with his job. Rio Bravo didn’t win any Oscars but it is a far better than Zimmerman’s offering. That is because Hawks tells his story without pandering to the audience or trying to get an emotional response at the end of every scene. That doens’t mean Rio Bravo lacks emotion or drama, it just achieves it in a very differnt way.

At its heart, the film is about different forms of friendship. There is the love and care that John T. Chance (John Wayne) has for the alcholic Dude (Dean Martin), Dude’s need for friendship from Chance and the others, Feathers’(Angie Dickinson) refusal to compromise and to be accepted for what she is, Colorado’s (Ricky Nelson) eagerness to join the group and the wonderful Stumpy (Walter Brennan), who is… well you have to see the movie to appreciate why Stumpy is such a great character. In different ways, all these characters like each other too and we watch that develop over the two hours and twenty minutes.

Friendships and relationships are themes that run through Hawks’ films whatever the genre (Westerns, private eye, screwball comedies, war and musicals) and whether the relationship is antagnostic, romantic or fun. At times, it could be all of those or more.

Rio Bravo is probably Hawks’ best film because it brings all those things together effortlessly with strong performances from everyone. While it has dark themes (death, murder, alcholism) it is joyous and the final scene is celebratory.

You can watch the film many times and never get tired of it. It is just like having an old friend…