Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5195 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-01
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 136 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, Hawks' Red River and John Ford's The Searchers. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River, a sweeping cattle-drive drama, Rio Bravo is a much calmer film. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T Chance (Wayne), his alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black coffee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. If the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. The film achieved additional notoriety in the 90s when Quentin Tarantino revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
No-nonsense Texas border sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) fights off ruthless mercenary gunmen in order to keep a murderer in custody. A ragtag band of volunteers, consisting of a singing kid, a toothless old man, a recovering alcoholic, and a spunky woman, assists. Contains an interesting sing-along interlude among the group, and yes, the Duke participates.

Customer Reviews

Hugely over rated
It had been a long time since I first watched this on TV when I picked up this DVD. Quite frankly, I think it's nowhere near as good as other reviewers here suggest. I'm in my 40's a grew up on films like this so it's not as if there's some sort of generational gap involved in me not rating it.

First off, there is little or no chemistry between the leads. Dean Martin is likeable and I enjoyed his scenes most of all. Walter Brennan turns in his usual effective old-man performance. The Wayne-Dickinson romance is unconvincing and rather turns my stomach at the thought of it. He was not a credible romantic lead at this stage in his career. He looks like a somewhat fat old man in this film- and that hat! It's got to be the silliest looking hat in a cowboy film.... ever.

There's no real tension - there's no sense that the good-guys are really trapped and alone. You never think for one moment that they're really under any sort of threat and no build up of tension. The final battle is highly anti-climatic. Again, no sense of threat to the good guys. There are far better westerns out there- the Magnificent Seven was made only a year later than this but still stands up extremely well. Rio Bravo must have seemed dated and rather stale even in 1959.

Terrific Slam-Bang Western from Howard Hawks
Hawks was a director who could turn his hand to any kind of movie. Westerns (Red River), screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby) even science fiction (The Thing From Another World). Whatever the genre though, Hawks' films tended to explore the same themes. In Rio Bravo, a small close-knit group of men are forced to confront personal demons and overcome differences, in order to defeat the villains who outnumber them. The plot concerns a sheriff (John Wayne) and his fight to stop a powerful rancher springing his brother from jail. Wayne has only a crippled old deputy (Walter Brennan), a green kid (Ricky Nelson) and a drunk (Dean Martin) to rely on.

This is ostensibly John Wayne's film, as he's the star, but the film's main character is really Dean Martin's drunken ex-deputy. His efforts to regain his pride and lost standing, both in his own mind and in the eyes of his friend (Wayne) make up the backbone of the story. Dean Martin, who was never taken seriously as an actor, here gives a terrific performance. His sweaty, humiliated 'Dude' is touching without ever being sentimental. Dude's eventual redemption, when he pursues a wounded gun-man into a bar crowded with men who'd previously laughed at him, is thrilling.

The film nicely undermines Wayne's iconic masculinity. In several scenes, the sheriff finds himself gently mocked by Angie Dickinson's attractive gambler (the one person in the film he can't get the better of). It's also the only film I can think of in which John Wayne kisses another man (a slight peck on the top of Walter Brennan's bald head).

The Best Western Ever? probably.....
This film is usually regarded along with The Searchers and Red River as the pinnacle of film in the Western genre.The combination of Howard Hawks, John Wayne and Dean Martin lift this way above all others.
The interplay between Wayne and Martin is very good. But the exchanges between Wayne and Angie Dickinson really stand out as being very risque considering this was made in the late fifties.
It is quite long but this is in its favour as the story and characters are given time to develop. Both Unforgiven and Open Range owe a lot to this film.