Red River

Pros: Walter Brennan and Montgomery Clift. Superb Direction and Cinematography.
Cons: Them women-folk. Tiomkin score overbearing at times.

"That's a good looking gun you've got there... can I see it?" - Cherry (John Ireland) to Matt (Montgomery Clift) On May 26th, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Wayne, our local media asked us Average Joes for ...

Pros: Great acting from JOHN WAYNE, direction, script, and general story...
Cons: Tacked-on romances at beginning and end

As part of my continuing crusade to remain the Favorite Son-In-Law, I've been borrowing John Wayne movies from Big Jim, and as I watch them, posting my reviews here. Sometimes, that results in the pain of sitting through "The Man From Utah," but more...

Pros: Wayne, Clift, Screenplay, Photography, Score, Direction, Supporting actors
Cons: What, No Oscars?

Red River (1948)

Montgomery Clift made his acting debut in this classic Howard Hawks western, one of the very best of the genre. Clift stars as "Matthew Garth" an orphaned boy picked up on the plains by "Tom Dunson"...

Pros: Acting, story, direction...
Cons: Slightly optimistic ending

Over Christmas, I received a Christmas present which presented me with 1001 movies that I needed to see before I die. Given that the book consists of films from 1902 right the way through to 2003, I quickly realised that there were a lot of films that I ...

Pros: Great performances, great direction, great writing, great score, just…great!
Cons: One or two sentimental touches, and somebody needs to release a new DVD!

DVD Verdict provided probably the best summation of the classic Western Red River: They said it was “The quintessential western: lot of cows, big sky, big men, little women.”. Indeed it does have all of that. Besides being an outstanding western- ...

Pros: A movie that comes close to defining a genre
Cons: Some of it is pretty wooden

My father often tells me that John Wayne never made a bad movie...and while I cannot attest to this statement in it's entirety (mainly because I haven't seen 75% of his films) I can certainly tell you that Red River holds true to that statement.
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Pros: script, direction, cast, cinematography, editing
Cons: Joanne Dru slightly miscast

Officially, Red River was based on "The Chisholm Trail", a novel by Borden Chase that had been published in the Saturday Evening Post. Chase also collaborated on the script, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story. The...

Pros: Good classic western with a touch more character than most.
Cons: Wayne didn't make many flops

Put two fine actors together that have absolutely nothing in common and you'll get a great movie every time. Montgomery Clift and John Wayne could be compared to John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter in the Searchers.
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