STACK #232 February 2024

MOVIE FEATURE

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John Wayne and Dean Martin.

Iconic horror director John Carpenter ( Halloween, The Thing ) is a fan of the western genre, and has made many of his films with the sensibility of a western director. In 1970 he wrote an Oscar winning short film called The Resurrection of Bronco Billy and would go on to make horror films that could be considered as

westerns in disguise. His love for director Howard Hawks is evidenced in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), which was a loose remake of Rio Bravo ; and his remake of Hawks’s The Thing (1982), which also adopts many western tropes. Other clear examples include

Escape from New York (1981), Vampires (1998), and Ghosts of Mars (2001), all stories which could easily be retold against a western setting.

Words Bob J

T he western Rio Bravo (1959) was born out of film director Howard Hawks’ ingrained disgust of Fred Zinnemann and Carl Foreman’s highly acclaimed 1952 western High Noon . The latter was a simple tale of a middle-aged, small town sheriff who asks for help from the local citizens when faced with the return of four

Subsequently, when Hawks contacted Wayne to star in a western

in search of help. He just does his job, stoically and without fuss. In

DYK?

Quentin Tarantino cites Rio Bravo as one of his favourite films, and has admitted to

to correct what he thought was High Noon ’s

the process, his few friends respond. They are the talkative and

measuring relationship prospects based on his date’s like or dislike of the movie.

misleading image of Americans, the keen actor immediately replied, ”Sign me on.” The Rio Bravo script basically took scenes from

toothless Senior Deputy Stumpy (the wonderful Walter Brennan); the shabby, forlorn, alcoholic

Dude (Dean Martin) who has no self-esteem and is quite

willing to fetch silver dollars from spittoons; a deceptively callow-looking young cattle driver named Colorado (Ricky Nelson); a sultry card shark named Feathers (Angie Dickinson); and a wagon full of dynamite. Basically, Hawks’s Rio Bravo is very much a movie about American manhood. Colorado grows to maturity, Dude redeems himself from his degenerate state and old Stumpy proves he is still worthwhile during the final shootout. Rio Bravo may now appear conventional on the surface, yet its characters and relationships were observed with great insight and wit, which helped make it a smash hit at the box office. For millions of moviegoers, over the years Wayne had come to represent the mythic American individualist: the man of action, the eternal cowboy, who could resist society’s dictates and triumph on his own terms. But now, half a century old, Wayne finally accepted and grew to enjoy his more mature characterisation - so much so that he would portray similar elder characters in a number of his following westerns (which imitated the Rio Bravo theme) such as El Dorado, Big Jake, Rio Lobo , and an Oscar-winning performance in 1969’s True Grit .

revenge-minded outlaws. All of the townsfolk refuse to help the lawman. Hawks also hated Delmer Dave’s 3.10 to Yuma (1957), which depicted a similarly warped portrayal of bravery. As it happened, an angry John Wayne also loathed High Noon , particularly the final scene of Gary Cooper throwing his tin star into the dirt – which Wayne deemed ’un-American’. At the time, Hawks and Wayne had not made a film together for over a decade, since the 1948 classic western Red River . Furthermore, both director and star had not had a hit movie for almost five years, so much so that the then 50-year-old Wayne feared his career may have passed the point of no return.

High Noon that Hawks disliked, and turned their attitudes inside out. It presented Wayne’s character, Sheriff John T. Chance, holding the brutal Joe Burnett

L to R: John Wayne, director Howard Hawks, and Angie Dickinson.

(Claude Akins) for murder, until the territorial marshal can take him away for trial. (Keen western fans will note Wayne’s amiable in-joke by wearing a belt buckle that sports the cattle brand of Tom Dunson – Wayne’s character from Hawks’s film Red River .) But Joe’s brother Nathan, a wealthy landowner, offers to pay anyone who springs his brother from custody. Into town ride waves of hired gunmen, intent on doing just that. Chance does not decry his fate, nor scour the town

• Rio Bravo is out now on 4K Ultra HD

14 FEBRUARY 2024

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