Description: One of the finest westerns ever made, this "monumental, sweeping and powerful" masterpiece (Variety) features impassioned performances, stunning cinematography and adventure on a grand scale. Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift (in his screen debut), Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, Sr. and Noah Beery, Jr., Red River is a hard-hitting, action-packed adventure that captures the grandeur, majestyand dangerof the wild American West.Wayne gives "one of the best performances of his career" (Cinebooks) as Tom Dunson, a self-made cattle baron who'll do anything to protect his way of life. So when plummeting livestock values demand that he drive his herd through thetreacherous Chisholm Trail, Tom proves that he'll risk anything to reach his destination even his own sanity.
Amazon.com essential video: Talk about epic grandeur! This magnificently photographed account of the first cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail has everything you could ever want in a western: gunfights, stampedes, Indian attacks, hangings, betrayal, revenge, romance, glorious scenery, and a towering performance by John Wayne that prefigured his definitive portrayal of the bitter Ethan Edwards in John Ford's The Searchers eight years later. Tom Dunson (Wayne) adopts a young boy, Matt (brilliantly played as an adult by Montgomery Clift), whose family has been massacred by Indians. Years later, after Dunson has become a successful rancher, mentor and protege have an acrimonious falling out during a grueling cattle drive and go their separate ways, with Dunson vowing to kill Matt. Red River is a true classic and unquestionably one of the greatest westerns of all time. --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Any Who Says John Wayne Couldn't Act Is An Idiot
An epic masterpiece filled with some of the greatest character actors of all time..Like Charlton Heston, John Wayne was cheated out of many honors because of his poltics...
Any who sees The Quiet Man, True Grit,Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Long Voyage Home, The Shootest and naturally The Searchers must recognize that the Duke was much more than a movie star but a fantastic actor who could create unique characters..(granted, there was no way he could have portrayed a weakling anymore than Tracy or Gable could..it just wasn't in their natures..)
Like Maureen O'Hara, ... Read More
Rating: - Good western
A great genre film is not necessarily a great piece of cinema, for the dictates of genre often run counter to the dictates of art; namely that genre demands familiar elements (aka clichés). As good an example of this dictum that can be found is director Howard Hawks' 1948 (although filmed in 1946) black and white western Red River. There is great debate amongst western aficionados as to who was the greater director of westerns, John Ford or Howard Hawks? Well, if one compares the two westerns most consider the two directors' apexes in the genre, Ford's The Searchers and this film, it's no contest. ... Read More
Rating: - Great movie
One of J. Wayne's best, but not a typical role for him. Very dark characterization.
Rating: - Still fun to watch after 60 years
This is one of John Wayne's better roles, mostly because he is given a more complex character to portray. The film was released in 1948 and directed by Howard Hawks. I used to think someone did a poor job of casting women in these Hawk/Wayne films, but after re-watching this movie, I now believe that the scriptwriters just didn't know how to write realistic dialogue for women. It wasn't how they said their lines, it was that their lines were inane. Too bad. It's the only flaw in this otherwise classic western.
At the beginning of this century, Red River enjoyed a mini-revival after City ... Read More
Rating: - A great western
I love Red River. It is another classic John Wayne western, with excellent acting, wonderful story, and great scenery. Montgomery Clift was superb, as well as John Wayne, Joanne Dru, and Walter Brennan. An excellent western.
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