SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 135 - Rio Bravo

So I spent the first thirty minutes thinking: huh?! Turns out these movies hold up better to me dubbed. At least I knew what people were saying. Made me realize I'd never actually heard JW speak himself. I'd learned to recognize the mimicry when someone imitated him, but had never actually been exposed to his attempt at speaking while acting.

I was shocked to realize he is not a very good actor :eek:. It had been a long time since I watched the movies where he was speaking clearly in Spanish. It is like someone in Hollywood decided he would be the Duke, put him in movies, presented him as such, and everyone was like yeah!

Nah!

Stumpy I could not understand either. Comprehension would hit my mind on delay, so I felt like I was constantly asking what or just making out the gist while the action had already moved on. I really struggled with my listening comprehension.

Feathers was awesome. Loved her. She shoulda hooked up with Colorado or with Borrachón. NO way she woulda been attracted to that mush mouth. It was fun watching her toy with him... very much cat playing with a developmentally disabled mouse.

Borrachón definitely stole the show. Loved all his scenes.

I enjoyed the movie - enjoyed-ish..... It did flow. Some of the dialogue was witty. I liked that JW's character made mistakes.

I also thought it was too long. Glad I watched it though. I now have an authentic viewing of a John Wayne flick under my belt.
 
Where do you fellers watch this at? I've been wanting to check it out for awhile.

Rio Bravo is on Amazon Prime movies for $2.99. I thought it was free, but its not.
 
I can see it really got under his skin and that he he got upset because of it and that’s when your memory can do tricks to you regarding small details. I think he was kind of right though. The church scene was what turned me slightly against the movie on the whole. It might have been realistic turn of events if portrayed with care, but right there the script turned preachy and yet somehow simplistic. It clogged the movie.

Your remark about the treachery of an angry man's memory is spot on.

That said, I don't think Wayne disliked it because it was preachy. I think Wayne disliked it because if showed frontiersmen serving their self-interest instead of acting heroic.

Believe it or not, this was only the second John Wayne movie I've seen. The first being Circus World, which I watched for Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth. It's not good.

I was going to say that Circus World is probably the most random movie that you could possibly have mentioned... then I remember you and Claudia Cardinale.

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I've seen her in Big Bad Mama (1 & 2 lol)

Yeah, I'm just going to assume that Claudia Cardinale was tied to this one as well somehow.:D

The stunning barren landscapes which adorn the screens during almost all good westerns, were almost non-existent here.

Yeah this was no John Ford film, that's for sure. Hawks really wasn't a Western director. He was much more of a Noir one. There is a lot of skulking down darkened alleyways in this movie, entering seedy places with disreputable people. The quick-witted dialogue is also more of a noir hallmark. I think that Hawks just transplanted his Noir-style onto a Western-setting, and ignored a lot of the Western hallmarks. When he does employ them (like the ending shoot-out) it's not really done very well.

EDIT: shit moreorless87 basically already said all this:D

American Westerns just can't compare to Spaghetti Westerns when it comes to aesthetics.

That's classic Hollywood for you. Our films and stars have to look prestigeful and glamorous:D

Chance, Dude, Colorado, Stumpy, and Feathers. Don't they got regular names in the old west?

Nicknames, bruh! They make people seem more familiar!

That and he probably hooked up with my girl Dickinson, who was just smoking hot.

Nah. Look at this picture. They're clearly just friends. Nothing to worry about.:cool:

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Exaybachay (He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing), but nobody has ever gotten the reference.

Just post the song, bruh. That'll get it through their thick skulls!



And should I have a Sonny Chiba triple feature

WHO ARE YOU!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL BULLITT!!!?

I was shocked to realize he is not a very good actor :eek:.

<DontBelieve1>

It was fun watching her toy with him... very much cat playing with a developmentally disabled mouse.

Not to sound like a degenerate or something, but I wished more romance movies would be like that. Straight out cat-and-mouse tales. Cunning beautiful people manipulating and toying with each other in the name of love. Basically, I want more Gilda (though maybe not that extreme).


 
That said, I don't think Wayne disliked it because it was preachy. I think Wayne disliked it because if showed frontiersmen serving their self-interest instead of acting heroic.
I think the scene is about a turning point in society, when people with frontier spirit get lulled by the security their work has earned them and get hesitant to take risks to deal with a dangerous situation that might just pass. It was not badly written scene in itself, but still it interupted the flow of the movie. There was just too much expressed in words for an action western.

Wayne didn’t think it was believable, that a frontier community would lose their courage so fast and compromise the safety by turning a blind eye. He didn’t see the parallel the film was trying to make. I didn’t figure it out either until I read the backstory of the production a bit. High Noon’s screenwriter Carl Foreman knew he was probably going to get blacklisted because of the anti-communist senate hearings. He tried to make a pro-American movie that would still address the situation. I think High Noon is about a society that’s sacrificing fundamental principles (freedom of speech) because of an outside threat (Soviet Union).

Hawks’ and Wayne’s response to that was of course a bit silly.
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Good luck with that against another nuclear power!
 
Rio Bravo is a classic western, so I'm glad to watch it over again. I had forgotten how funny it was.

I always enjoy the "defend the castle" type westerns when the heroes get assailed by massive forces and hold them off.

I did not know that they built the sets slightly smaller, and that's a brilliant design choice. It was not noticeable, and yet it really was as the character felt larger and more imposing. Must have been a pain with measurements but it was totally worth it.

As for the characters, Dude was the best. He had depth, he had demons, and he had a lot of character. Meanwhile, Stumpy was a cartoon character, but that's ok. What do we expect from a hobbled, crazy old man with a shotgun that also serves as the deputy and sleeps in the bed in jail? He's exactly what he needed to be. If anything, it wasn't Chance that was the weak character, but Colorado. He was too clean for the west and just felt a little out of place. He felt like he was written to be too slick to capitalize on his fame outside of the film, to be like "you've seen Ricky Nelson play music, now see him in a western opposite John Wayne!" They call that a "vehicle."

It must have been exhausting holding a rifle for the entire time, because I swear he never put it down. Not in the jail, not in the saloon, not in the hotel, not anywhere.

I want to note something, just to make sure I've got it right. The film starts with Dude being a drunk, and he can't afford booze. The Burdette guy mocks Dude and Chance steps in, after a scuffle the Burdette guy kills an unarmed man. So why is it that the evil brother is dying to get his brother out of jail, since he killed a guy for no reason in a bar fight? I guess I shouldn't try to analyze these from a reasonable person standpoint and instead from a western shootout mindset, but still. He's the villain and sends out contract killers to shoot Chance's buddy in the middle of town and all that, so he must be defeated. If he's a bigtime rancher and landowner, you think he shouldn't be shooting up the town that has a lot of his potential customers, right? Or become a wanted man, etc, and essentially throwing away his previous life. What would happen if he won? He'd have killed a sheriff, a couple deputies, and basically everyone in town just to save his good-for-nothing brother. Then, his name would be on a poster outside a neighboring town's jail, and he'd have been pursued by John Marston (and the main character in the next game, who I don't know who that is since I haven't picked up RDR2 yet). Point is, he'd be a true outlaw and not just a villain people knew about. The US Marshals would be after him too. Just a zero sum game for that villain. WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST POST HIS BAIL?

The romance between Feathers and Chance seemed necessary but not particularly desirable for me. She was about 28 to his 52, so it wasn't quite as bad as the 28-year difference between Roger Moore and Tanya Roberts in View to a Kill, but almost.

I do not remember this film being as long as it was. I'm no master director, and this is a high level film, but it feels like they could have easily chopped out 10 minutes of standing around and waiting, or slowly walking somewhere. And I'm a fan of musicals, don't get me wrong, but the whole "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" and "Get Along Home, Cindy" songs could have been cut and we wouldn't have lost anything. It was nice but it ground things to a screeching halt. The guys were just rallying back together, the villains probably weren't far away, Dude's shakes stopped, and now it's time for a musical interlude! It felt like a commercial for Ricky Nelson more than anything. Yes, yes, vehicle.

9/10 all day long.
 
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