The Student Surpasses the Master

Saddle up, y’all…

When a genre is soaked with titles, it can take a lot for a movie to stand out. Westerns are probably the most saturated in this regard, because they were often cheap to make, didn’t need a lot of sets, and there was always a ready crowd of real cowboys waiting outside the studios looking to work.

That, of course, means that when something stands out, it really stands out, and 1948’s Red River, which featured John Wayne and an up-and-comer, Montgomery Clift, in his third movie, is one of those. This taut father figure movie is considered one of the heavyweights of the western genre and I’m not just saying that because it seems to be a staple in college film classes.

The movie opens in 1851 with a wagon train heading west, and Tom Dunson (John Wayne) is about to break off and do his own thing. He wants to start a cattle ranch, and Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan) is going to help him. Tom’s lady friend Fen (Coleen Gray) begs him to stay, or at least take her with him, but Tom gives Fen his mother’s bracelet and promises to send for her when things get more settled.

Unfortunately Tom and Fen’s future gets upended when a band of Native Americans attack and murder everyone in the wagon train, and Tom finds this out when the Native Americans attack them and Tom notices one of them is wearing Tom’s mother’s bracelet. Of course Tom takes it back.

The massacre has only one survivor, Matthew Garth (played as a teenager by Mickey Kuhn), who feigns mental illness until Tom and Nadine get close, and then he pulls out a gun. Tom’s faster, though, and Matt is forced to concede. He also agrees to be Tom’s protogee.

Time passes, of course. The Civil War happens, and Matt goes off to fight for the Confederacy, and Tom soon finds that he’s broke, because in Reconstruction South no one has any cash. Then he hears that Missouri is a good cattle-selling market, so he mounts a giant cattle drive, promising everyone who helps get the cattle to Missouri a hundred dollars apiece.

As time goes on, though, Matt has other ideas. He hears that the real gold mine is in Abiliene, Kansas, and he disagrees with Tom about how the train should be run. He’s not above taking a detour if he thinks he and the men can help a wagon train in trouble, or if the men are dying for a decent cup of coffee. After a while everyone gets so fed up with Tom that there’s basically the equivalent of a mutiny,

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Matt gets the herd and the men who didn’t die or desert to Abilene, and it’s a good thing he’s made a name for himself as a marksman, because people would probably be a lot less friendly and more likely to charge him through the nose. As it is, Matt meets a friendly cattle broker, Mr. Melville (Harry Carey, Sr.) who gives him a good price for the cattle and a cash advance so he can pay the men.

Speaking of charges, Tom is in hot pursuit and there will be a showdown, because we all know there often is in a western, and the one in Red River is pretty iconic.

I first saw Red River in a film class at Sierra College and hadn’t seen it since, probably because I’ve always felt a little jaded about westerns, seeing as I saw so many with my dad and after a while they began to run together. What makes Red River unique, while containing a lot of the usual tropes, is the play between Tom and Matt, with Tom having to accept that maybe he doesn’t know best about everything and thaand whit Matt can contribute something besides manpower and a quick draw.

There are so many good points to this movie besides the relationship between Tom and Matt. Walter Brennan is wonderful, although I don’t know why this guy had to be without his false teeth all the time. Maybe it was an inside joke. The scenery is fantastic as well, and the cattle drive does look legit.

That said, the movie does run a wee bit long, and the romance at the end seems slightly tacked on, but on the other hand it gives Matt a future beyond just cattle ranching, so it’s no big deal.

To say Red River made a huge splash, no pun intended, is putting it mildly, and the competition was stiff, because it was up against such heavyweights as Hamlet, The Red Shoes, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Red River pulled in $11.8M at the box office, or almost $350M in today’s money, and it also spawned a Lux Radio Theater play. Naturally, the publicity surrounding the movie was glowing.

Well, mostly. We all know critics are a funny lot, and while the reviews were mostly positive, with many of them pointing out Montgomery Clift’s star-making performance. The vast majority pointed out the film’s immense entertainment value. Modern Screen opined, “Long before the cattle reach the railroad, or Wayne and Clift face one another with guns in their hands, you’ve had your money’s worth of entertainment. You’ve seen cattle stampedes, and Indian fighting, and a cast including toothless Walter Brennan, Noah Beery, Jr., and the late Harry Carey.”

Equally complimentary were the reviews in Showman’s Trade Review, which called Red River “a super western,” and the Catholic Film Society, which said, “Clift is a new-comer to the screen, and combines all manner of prowess with charm and good looks. I fancy the public will want to see more of him.”

There’s something about a good movie that really sticks in the mind, and it’s not hyperbolous to say that Red River is quite the powerhouse. It’s no wonder this movie is a staple for western fans and movie fans alike.

For more Legends of Western Cinema, please see Heidi at Along the Brandywine, Rachel at Hamlette’s Soliloquy, and Olivia at Meanwhile In Rivendell. Thanks for hosting this, ladies–it’s always a blast when you bring this blogathon back! Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you Thursday for another review…

---

Red River is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon. It is also free to stream on Prime, Pluto, Roku, and Tubi.

~Purchases made via Amazon Affiliate links found on this site help support Taking Up Room at no extra cost to you.~

If you’re enjoying what you see on Taking Up Room, please subscribe to my Substack page, where you’ll find both free and paid subscriber-only reviews of mostly new and newish movies, documentaries, and shows. I publish every Wednesday and Saturday. You can also subscribe to my Club 15 Tier, which gives you at least one extra Taking Up Room post every month for a small fee.