Rio Bravo (film)

Joe Burdette, the spoiled younger brother of wealthy land baron Nathan Burdette, taunts town drunk Dude by tossing money in a spittoon. The sheriff, John T. Chance, stops Dude from reaching into the spittoon, prompting Dude to lash out and knock him unconscious. Joe starts to beat up Dude for fun, shooting and killing an unarmed bystander who attempts to stop him. Chance recovers and follows Joe into Nathan Burdette's personal saloon, and with help from a penitent Dude, overcomes Nathan's men and arrests Joe for murder.

Pat Wheeler, an old friend of Chance, attempts to enter town with his usual wagon train of supplies - mostly dynamite - and has to force his way through Nathan Burdette's men. Chance tells him that he, Dude (who used to be a deputy before he was a drunk) and his old crippled deputy Stumpy are all that stand between Nathan's small army and Joe, whom they wish to free. Chance notices young gunslinger Colorado Ryan in Wheeler's wagon train, but Colorado promises he doesn't want to start any trouble.

Carlos, the owner of the local hotel, warns Chance that Wheeler is trying to recruit fighters. Chance tries to stop him, not wanting anyone to get hurt on his account. Wheeler asks if Colorado could help, but Colorado politely declines, feeling that it's not his fight.

Chance notices that someone is cheating at cards during a hotel game. Recognizing one of the players as the wanted woman "Feathers", the widow of a cheating gambler, he confronts her as the suspected cheat. However, Colorado reveals another player is the cheater.

Out in the street, Wheeler is gunned down. Chance and Dude pursue the killer into Nathan's Saloon, and Chance allows Dude to prove himself and confront the killer, earning the respect of Nathan's men. Colorado and the rest of Wheeler's men are forced to stay in town until a court order comes down from the County seat, and the wagons are left behind the Burdette warehouse. After Feathers secretly stays up all night with a shotgun to guard him, a frustrated Chance orders Feathers to leave town for her safety, but she refuses, and the two begin to bond.

Nathan Burdette himself rides in to town. Stumpy, having old grudges with Nathan, threatens to shoot Joe if any trouble starts around the jail. In response, Nathan has his Saloon musicians play El Degüello, the Cutthroat Song, to warn Chance he will give no quarter. Chance gives Dude back some clothes and guns he left behind when he became a drunkard, and Dude gets a haircut and shave, trying to start afresh. Unfortunately, Stumpy doesn't recognize Dude when he returns and shoots at him, shattering Dude's nerves.

The next day, Dude is still shaky and finds himself ambushed by Burdette's men, who threaten to kill him unless Chance lets Joe go. Colorado and Feathers distract the men long enough for Chance to get his rifle, and he and Colorado between them shoot down the men and free Dude. Dude thinks about quitting and letting Colorado take his place, but he hears the Degüello being played and he resolves to see the thing through to the end.

Dude and Chance go to the hotel so Dude can take a bath, but Burdette's men have captured Carlos' wife Consuelo and use her to lure them into a trap. Dude tells Chance to take the men to the jail, under pretext that Stumpy would let Joe out. However, as he knew, Stumpy simply opens fire. In the chaos, some men drag Dude off to Nathan, who demands a trade - Dude for Joe. Chance agrees, but brings Colorado as backup. Dude and Joe brawl during the trade, and a firefight ensues. Stumpy throws some sticks of dynamite from the wagons into the warehouse where Burdette and his men are holed up, and Chance detonates them with his rifle, abruptly ending the fight.

With both Burdettes and the few surviving gunmen in jail, Chance is able to finally spend some time with Feathers and admit his feelings for her. Colorado volunteers to guard the jail, allowing Stumpy and Dude to enjoy a night-out in the town.

John Wayne and Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo

• John Wayne as John T. Chance
• Dean Martin as Dude
• Ricky Nelson as Colorado/Ryan
• Angie Dickinson as Feathers
• Walter Brennan as Stumpy
• Ward Bond as Pat Wheeler
• John Russell as Nathan Burdette
• Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez as Carlos Robante
• Estelita Rodriguez as Consuelo Robante
• Claude Akins as Joe Burdette

Malcolm Atterbury and Harry Carey Jr. also receive a screen credit in the film's opening, but their scenes were deleted from the final film.[7]

Ricky Nelson performing the song "Get Along Home, Cindy" in Rio Bravo

Exteriors for the film were shot at Old Tucson Studios, just outside Tucson.[8] Filming took place in the summer of 1958, and the movie's credits gave 1958 for the copyright; the film was released in March 1959.

Rio Bravo is generally regarded as one of Hawks' best, and is known for its long opening scene which contains no dialogue. The film received favorable reviews, and was successful, taking in over US$5.5 million.

A brief clip from Rio Bravo was among the archive footage later incorporated into the opening sequence of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character.

As was often the case in a John Wayne Western, Wayne wore his "Red River D" belt buckle in the movie. It can be clearly seen in the scene where Nathan Burdette comes to visit his brother Joe in the jail where he is being held for the U.S. Marshal about 60 minutes into the film.

The story was credited to "B.H. McCampbell." According to Todd McCarthy's 1997 biography, "Howard Hawks: The Silver Fox of Hollywood," this was actually Hawks' eldest daughter, Barbara (McCampbell was her married name).

The musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. His score includes the hauntingly ominous "El Degüello" theme, which is heard several times.[9] The Colorado character identifies the tune as "The Cutthroat Song". He relates that the song was played on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Texans holed up in the Alamo, to signify that no quarter would be given to them. The tune was used in Wayne's film The Alamo (1960). Composer Ennio Morricone recalled that director Sergio Leone asked him to write "Dimitri Tiomkin music" for A Fistful of Dollars. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin's "Degüello" (the Italian title of Rio Bravo was Un dollaro d'onore, A Dollar of Honor).[10]

Because the film starred a crooner, Martin, and a teen idol, Nelson, Hawks included three songs in the soundtrack. Before the big showdown, in the jail house, Martin sings "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" (which contains new lyrics to a Tiomkin tune that appeared in Red River), accompanied by Nelson, after which Nelson sings a brief version of "Get Along Home, Cindy", accompanied by Martin and Brennan. Over the closing credits, Martin, backed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, sings a specially composed song, "Rio Bravo", written by Tiomkin with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. Nelson later paid homage to both the film and his character, Colorado, by including the song "Restless Kid" on his 1959 LP, Ricky Sings Again.

Members of the Western Writers of America chose "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[11]

The film was made as a response to High Noon,[12] which is sometimes thought to be an allegory for blacklisting in Hollywood, as well as a critique of McCarthyism.[13] Wayne would later call High Noon "un-American" and say he did not regret helping run the writer, Carl Foreman, out of the country.[14] Director Howard Hawks went on the record to criticize High Noon by saying, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him."[15] According to film historian Emanuel Levy, Wayne and Hawks teamed up deliberately to rebut High Noon by telling a somewhat similar story their own way: portraying a hero who does not show fear or inner conflict and who never repudiates his commitment to public duty, while only allying himself with capable people, despite offers of help from many other characters.[16] In Rio Bravo, Chance is surrounded by allies—a deputy who is brave and good with a gun, despite recovering from alcoholism (Dude), a young untried but self-assured gunfighter (Colorado), a limping "crippled" old man who is doggedly loyal (Stumpy), a Mexican innkeeper (Carlos), his wife (Consuelo), and an attractive young woman (Feathers)—and repeatedly turns down aid from anyone he does not think is capable of helping him,[15] though in the final shootout they come to help him anyway. "Who'll turn up next?" Wayne asks amid the gunfire, to which Colorado replies: "Maybe the girl with another flower pot."

In the United Kingdom, Rio Bravo was not originally even reviewed for Sight & Sound;[17] Leslie Halliwell gave the film two out of four stars in his Film Guide, describing it as a "cheerfully overlong and slow-moving Western" that was nevertheless "very watchable for those with time to spare".[18] The film was taken more seriously by British critics such as Robin Wood, who rated it as his top film of all time and wrote a book on it in 2003 for the British Film Institute, publishers of Sight & Sound. Pauline Kael called the film "silly, but with zest; there are some fine action sequences, and the performers seem to be enjoying their roles."[19]

Rio Bravo has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating[20] and was the second highest-ranking Western (63rd overall) in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.[21]

In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Western Films list.[22]

• "My Rifle, My Pony and Me"—sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson
• "Cindy"—sung by Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin and Walter Brennan
• "Rio Bravo"—sung by Dean Martin (end credits)

• Dell Four Color #1018 (June 1959)[23][24]

• List of American films of 1959
• John Wayne filmography

• Byman, Jeremy (2004). Showdown at High Noon. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4998-4.
• McCarthy, Todd (2000). Howard Hawks. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3740-7.
• Roberts, Randy (1997). John Wayne. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8970-7.
• Wood, Robin (2006). Howard Hawks. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3276-5.
• Wood, Robin (2003). Rio Bravo. London: BFI Pub. ISBN 0-85170-966-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rio Bravo.

• Rio Bravo essay by Michael Schlesinger at National Film Registry
• Rio Bravo at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Rio Bravo at IMDb
• Rio Bravo at AllMovie
• Rio Bravo at the TCM Movie Database
• Rio Bravo at Rotten Tomatoes