Critics' Pics: Selections from AFI and Sight & Sound
Howard Hawks helms one of the greatest Westerns of all time, featuring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan, and Angie Dickinson. 65th anniversary screening.
Howard Hawks directs an all-star cast, including the legendary John Wayne, in this classic western set in the eponymous Texas town. There's a showdown at Rio Bravo when courageous Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne) throws the brother of evil cattle baron Nathan Burdette in jail for murder (the Burdette brothers played by John Russell and Claude Akins). When Burdette's men lay siege to his jailhouse, Chance holds on until the arrival of a U.S. Marshal with the help of his drunken deputy, Dude (Dean Martin), cranky old man Stumpy (Walter Brennan), a young gunfighter (Ricky Nelson), along with the beautiful, long-legged Feathers (Angie Dickinson). Although considered a somewhat middling film upon first release, it later went on to be top the second highest-ranking Western ever in that year's Sight and Sound poll and selected for the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. [141 min; drama, western; English]
"To watch Rio Bravo is to see a master craftsman at work. The film is seamless. There is not a shot that is wrong. It is uncommonly absorbing, and the 141-minute running time flows past like running water." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"Howard Hawks' direction is almost flawless with a tempo that injects humor—some dry some raucous—as a handy antibiotic for the story's frequent feverish outbursts of violence." — George Bourke, Miami Herald
"The glue of the film may be the supporting performances. There is no way Rio Bravo would be as good if not for Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, and Angie Dickinson." — Keith Garlington, Keith & the Movies
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