briangetmail-70510 Dean Martin should have gotten an award for his part in this film. I like how the two team up to fight the bad guys, you can see there's a real friendship here. A bit slow in parts but some good action scenes. My only disappointment was John Wayne didn't take on John Russell, he's a big man, a bit taller than Wayne. That would have been quite a fight to see.

alexanderdavies-99382 "Rio Bravo" is a Western that's typical of John Wayne. He plays a squeaky-clean, upstanding law enforcer, someone who is quite easy-going until provoked and always believes in doing the right thing. That was the image John Wayne stuck with for most of his career and it works in "Rio Bravo." There is plenty of fun in this film, thanks to some good dialogue, being quite lighthearted in places, the story being pretty good and also for featuring some great action near the end. Dean Martin gives a better than average performance as the former sheriff who deals with his own demons via the bottle. He eventually finds his courage and regains some of his former glory. Old hands like Walter Brennan and Ward Bond give their usual sterling support, they were veterans of the Western genre. The running time is a bit long at 130 minutes but I personally don't find that a problem. In a town not far from the Mexican border, an outlaw is being held in the town jail. For John Wayne, that means the entire gang of which the outlaw is a member, shall be riding into town with the intention of springing their comrade. Wayne only has a drunken former sheriff, a deputy with a crippled leg and a young and inexperienced gunfighter for support. The direction from Howard Hawks keeps the film ticking along at a good pace. Wayne's movies with Hawks are equally as good as the ones he made with John Ford.

Fred Schaefer John Wayne detested HIGH NOON and Howard Hawks thought even less of it, the sight of Sheriff Gary Cooper humbling himself by asking cowardly townspeople for help against a vicious outlaw seems to have deeply offended their concept of who and what constituted a hero in a Hollywood western. So like good Americans, they didn't just bitch and complain, they made their own movie and told the story their way, the result being RIO BRAVO, and the big winners were us movie buffs and western fanatics.The plot of RIO BRAVO is simplicity itself: Sheriff John T. Chance locks up brutal outlaw Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) on a murder charge and awaits the arrival of the Marshall in a few days. Nathan Burdette (John Russell), Joe' wealthy rancher brother, hires a gang of killers with the intention of freeing his brother, at the same time making sure the good citizens of Rio Bravo get the message that if they try to come to Chance's aid, it won't be pretty. Wayne's John T. Chance is a true professional, who does not bemoan his fate or beg for help, he stands for the rule of law and won't be intimidated, going about his job calmly and without without any outward fear. But the script (co-authored by Leigh Brackett) makes it very clear that as good as John T Chance. is, he does need help in this tight spot and gets from a most unlikely group: Walter Brennan's crippled old deputy, Stumpy; Ricky Nelson's young gunfighter, Colorado; Angie Dickinson's dance hall girl, Feathers; Pedro Gonzales Gonzales's hotel operator, Carlos; and most significantly, from Chance's alcoholic deputy, Dude, played by Dean Martin in what is surely his finest hour. This typical rag tag band of misfits come together for a common good, and prevail over the villains by being loyal to each other and exhibiting competence in a crisis, thus earning the respect of Chance and the esteem of the others. Courage is defined not as the absence of fear, but as the willingness to confront danger in spite of it. All of these are some of Hawks's favorite themes, thus making RIO BRAVO intensely personal while at the same time, deliberately commercial. There are great touches of humor and lots of great dialog, while each scene appears to be laid out with great care, especially the famous wordless opening in a saloon; the positioning of the actors, the laying out of the sets (mostly the dusty streets, the town's hotel and the jail) appear to have been done with an eye that knew how to tell a story visually. Few reviewers note how well the night time scenes are done.John T. Chance is probably the finest realization of a John Wayne hero in any film, a compliment from Chance is the highest honor a man could receive, and I think Wayne smiles more in this movie than any other, often at the antics of Brennan, in the kind of role he played better than any other. Martin's performance as Dude, a role originally offered to Montgomery Clift (who worked with Wayne, Brennan, and Hawks in RED RIVER), is a revelation; nothing much tops the scene where he pours the whiskey back in the bottle when the band starts to play the "cutthroat" song, which Santa Anna used in an attempt to frighten the defenders of the Alamo. Angie Dickinson's Feathers (with her stunning legs on display) has to give the sexiest performance of any of Wayne's leading ladies, we even get inside her bedroom, a rarity for westerns at the time. Many think Ricky Nelson was out of his depth in this movie and was cast only for box office appeal, but I think he more than holds his own. RIO BRAVO is the last pairing of old pals and frequent co-stars Wayne and Ward Bond.At two and a half hours, RIO BRAVO moves along very leisurely by modern standards; maybe Hawks should have copied HIGH NOON's tight pacing.In the end, I think HIGH NOON told us much about contemporary America and the degradation and corruption of civilization; while in RIO BRAVO, Wayne and Hawks give us the heroic myth of the Old West at its finest. Both films are equally valid in what they say and are enduring classics in their own right. Want to see how relevant RIO BRAVO is, go see GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

utgard14 Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) arrests a man for murder but the man's powerful brother is dead set on breaking him out. Chance must hold off the brother and his hired guns until the federal marshal arrives. Helping him is a cantankerous old man named Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a deputy with a drinking problem named Dude (Dean Martin), and Colorado, a young man new in town but good with a gun (Ricky Nelson).Duke is excellent. Contrary to some of the negative reviews here, he's not "just playing John Wayne." But he always was an under-appreciated actor, especially among certain types. As for his love interest Angie Dickinson, despite the age difference he has great chemistry with her. Dino has probably his best acting role here. Walter Brennan is always fun. The most surprising part of the cast is Ricky Nelson and how good he was alongside these more experienced actors. The cast works well together and there's a real sense that these people like each other that comes through in their performances, making it all the more believable.The plot is deceptively simple but it just goes to show that stories don't have to be complex to be interesting. It's a great character western, slow but well-paced. Howard Hawks shows why he is one of the all-time greats with how well he handles these characters and their actors, the flaws and strengths of each, and tells a simple but powerful story. The Furthman and Brackett script is great. I read some of the negative reviews here and all I can say is that I feel sorry for those people. Most of them seem to either have an ax to grind with Wayne and Hawks or they just don't like westerns to begin with. The good reputation of this film has lasted decades. It's inspired directors from John Carpenter to Quentin Tarantino. It's a genuine classic. On my top ten westerns list for sure.