Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7930 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-12
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 133 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne's greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut), becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent--until Dunson's temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have: a sweeping sense of history, spectacular landscapes, stampedes, gunfights, Indian attacks, and, of course, Walter Brennan as Dunson's crusty old cook and comic sidekick, Nadine Groot. As a special bonus, the film also features the legendary Harry Carey (upon whom Wayne would base some of his gestures in The Searchers) and his son Harry Carey Jr, who became a fixture in Ford and Hawks' Westerns. Red River is essential for anyone who loves Westerns, or movies in general. This one's a real beaut. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
English
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Interactive Menu
Making Of Booklet
English

Synopsis
RED RIVER, Howard Hawks's masterpiece, is one of the greatest Westerns ever filmed, a saga of obsession and rivalry between a man and his adoptive son amid an epic struggle for survival in the Old West. Tom Dunson (John Wayne) journeys west to Texas to build a cattle empire and adopts Matthew Garth, a young boy orphaned by an Indian raid. Years later, Matthew (Montgomery Clift) returns from the Civil War and joins Dunson on a massive cattle drive north undertaken to avoid financial ruin. Stampedes and Indian attacks build tension, but it is Dunson's ironfisted leadership that causes the most problems, finally bringing the action to a boiling point that pits father against son. This bold canvas of the American frontier features stirring performances, including Clift in his first film and Wayne in one of his finest and most complex roles, stunning photography shot on location in Arizona, and a perfect balance of action, drama, romance, and comedy from one of Hollywood's greatest directors.

Customer Reviews

Respect for an old classic
Red River has long been a favourite of mine. Yes it has its flaws. Manco is right in that the ending is a little contrived. But then killing off John Wayne was akin to box office suicide at that time. And as with the slightly contrived ending to "The Searchers", the overall picture may have been too bleak for audiences at that time. Studios have this funny idea that films need to make money. Yes Borden Chase the writer was not a happy bunny. I cant say for Alan Le May who wrote "The Searchers" but then writers are often not happy with the screen versions of their work.
That aside lets look at the good points. They far outwigh the bad. Did John Wayne ever give a better performance. Perhaps in "The Searchers" where he ages in a similar way. The film hits all the criteria buttons for a true epic. The scale of the cattle drive and the time spans of the story. The film has been described as a Western version of "mutiny on the Bounty" with Wayne carrying off the Bligh character to good effect. A powerful performance in comparison to the strange casting of Montgomery Clift as Matthew Garth. The cattle drive has never been surpassed and who can dislike the scene where the cattle drive starts. Magnificent and quite rightly paid homage to by Peter Bogdanivich in his film "The Last Picture Show". Howard Hawks the director was at his peak which he maintained with "Rio Bravo". The less said about the later Westerns the better. He definitely fell away from his artistic heights with age. I will stop now before I begin to bore you, if I haven't already. Oh' but then you wouldn't be reading this, and so in that case I might as well go on. No only kidding its my bedtime now.
My recommendation is to buy this film and watch it. It is one of the great Westerns. You will yearn to be with them on the Chisholm Trail.

poor transfer
The importance and quality of this movie is beyond doubt. But the transfer of this dvd is rather poor. There are mistakes as in an old film-copy, and the resolution especially with bright landscapes ist rather low. The sound is so faint I had to turn the tv on maximum volume.

One of the best of the genre
Either you're into Westerns or you're not. I have a list, starting with "Western Union" and ending with "Red River," though not necessarily in that order.

"River" is the best film John Wayne made, and by far his best performance. Often compared to "The Searchers" by John Ford, "River" is along the same lines. When people use words like "monumental and sweeping" to describe this movie, they could not be more correct.

Life in the West, and on the Chisholm Trail--what could be a more perfect setting for a movie of this genre.