RED RIVER [1948 / 2013] [The Masters of Cinema Series] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
One of the Greatest Westers Ever Made, and by One of Hollywood’s Greatest Filmmaker Howard Hawks!
One of Hollywood's most iconic westerns, Howard Hawks ‘RED RIVER’ launches cinema's grandest cattle drive, and one of the screen's most powerful father/son dramas. One of John Wayne's most intense roles inspired one of his finest performances, and in his debut leading role Montgomery Clift, instantly leapt to the forefront of Hollywood's young actors.
After the Civil War, ranch owner Thomas Dunson [John Wayne] leads a drive of ten thousand cattle out of an impoverished Texas to the richer markets of Missouri, alongside his adopted son Young Matt [Mickey Kuhn] and a team of ranch hands. As the conditions worsen, Thomas Dunson's control over his cattlemen gets ever more merciless, a rebellion begins to grow within the travelling party.
Filmed among the glorious expanses with no expense spared, and a roster of brilliant turns from greats including Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, John Ireland and Hank Worden. The film ‘RED RIVER’ is an all-American epic, a grand adventure yarn, and a profound psychological journey. Based on the original story by Borden Chase, which was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1946 as "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail." The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its first UK release on Blu-ray.
FILM FACT: Awards and Nominations: 1949 Academy Awards®: Nomination: Best Writing for a Motion Picture Story for Borden Chase. Nomination: Best Film Editing for Christian Nyby. 1949 Directors Guild of America: Nomination: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for Howard Hawks. 1949 Writers Guild of America: Nomination: Best Written American Western for Borden Chase and Charles Schnee. 1990 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry.
Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Noah Beery Jr., Harry Carey Jr., Chief Yowlachie, Paul Fix, Hank Worden, Mickey Kuhn, Ray Hyke, Hal Taliaferro, Lane Chandler (uncredited), Davison Clark (uncredited), Harry Cording (uncredited), Richard Farnsworth (uncredited), Paul Fierro (uncredited), George Lloyd (uncredited), Pierce Lyden (uncredited), Frank Meredith (uncredited), John Merton (uncredited), Jack Montgomery (uncredited), Ivan Parry (uncredited), Lee Phelps (uncredited), John Rice (uncredited), William Self (uncredited), Carl Sepulveda (uncredited), Ray Spiker (uncredited), Glenn Strange (uncredited), Tom Tyler (uncredited), Dan White (uncredited), Guy Wilkerson (uncredited) and Shelley Winters (uncredited)
Director: Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson (co-director)
Producers: Howard Hawks and Charles K. Feldman (uncredited)
Screenplay: Borden Chase (screenplay/ "The Saturday Evening Post" story) and Charles Schnee (screenplay)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography: Russell B. Harlan, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio and English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 132 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / EUREKA!
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: This was the first of Howard Hawks five western films and ‘RED RIVER’ is often credited as being his finest western of the 1940s, and, it is a very fine original cowboy film indeed.
Filmed in 1946, but not released until 1948, Howard Hawks ‘RED RIVER’ feels like it wasn't rushed. This is a lovingly crafted western and one of the John Wayne's finest outings. But don't take it for granted; ‘RED RIVER’ is set apart from The Duke's typical western fare thanks to the inspired casting of method actor Montgomery Clift who plays his adopted son.
Among the annals of the great state of Texas, may be found with the story of the first drive on the famous Chisholm Trail. A story of one of the great cattle herds of the world, of a man Thomas Dunson [John Wayne] and his adopted son Young Matt [Mickey Kuhn], and is the enduring story of the mighty Red River drive.
After the Civil War, ranch owner Thomas Dunson leaves behind his love interest Fen [Coleen Gray] and begins his journey to Texas in the hope of starting up a successful cattle ranch alongside his old trail hand, Nadine Groot [Walter Brennan]. Following an Indian attack, the men are approached by the young orphaned, Young Matt [Mickey Kuhn], the sole survivor of the wagon train, whom Thomas Dunson invites along on their search for cattle land. Fourteen year then passes by, in which time Thomas Dunson has established himself as the most successful cattle rancher in the area, with the help of his now adopted grown-up son, Matthew "Matt" Garth [Montgomery Clift] with a herd of over nine-thousand cattle.
Due to the widespread poverty following the Civil War the south can no longer afford Thomas Dunson’s beef, and struggling financially to maintain operation of his ranch, Thomas Dunson ambitiously decides to drive his vast 9000 strong herd hundreds of miles north, from an impoverished Texas to the booming markets of Missouri, assisted and protected by a group of newly hired cowboys. Though initially optimistic of the epic task in hand, the men soon begin to question Thomas Dunson’s leadership, and as the conditions along the journey worsen, and Thomas Dunson’s tyrannical control over his cattlemen grows increasingly more severe, a rebellion soon begins to grow within the group.
Sprawling in its scope and incredibly ambitious in its overall composition, Howard Hawks alluring atmospheric film is a far cry from the majority of run of the mill westerns produced around the time, and is fused with an intelligent and an intense brooding psychology drama, and ultimately quite profound father and son relationship drama which elevates ‘RED RIVER’ to the top tier of mid-Twentieth Century American western.
But when it comes to pure cinematic spectacle, ‘RED RIVER’ delivers the goods. There is no massive software computer generating the cattle. These animals are right there and stuntmen are not, there are men riding around and through them. This is a job that must have suited Howard Hawks and John Wayne's masculine worldview to a tee. I can't imagine many things more terrifying. Of course, you can't have a cattle drive film without a stampede and the event itself is thrilling and scary and vividly urgent.
Because you know that these are real animals running full pelt and real men riding horses trying to stop them, a level of realism is attained that kicks any suspension of belief off the table. You don't need to suspend your belief; you are seeing it for real. The only downside is the cutting to a studio-bound back projection work but with the composer Dimitri Tiomkin's fine Western composed film music score and you are in for a massive "Yee ha!" treat.
Performances are generally excellent, led by the great central pairing of John Wayne, in one of his most powerful roles, and Montgomery Clift, in his debut film role, and with a fine supporting cast featuring the likes of such character acting greats as: Joanne Dru, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery, Jr., Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix and the great three-time Academy Award-winning Walter Brennan. Presented in the original Academy aspect ratio of 1.37:1, and a new 1080p High Definition presentation delivers mostly impressive results, and although far from a perfect transfer, delivers significant improvement upon previous releases of the film. Welcome to the classic American western cinema.
RED RIVER MUSIC TRACK LIST
SETTLE DOWN (1947) (by Dimitri Tiomkin) (Lyric by Frederick Herbert) (uncredited) [Played during the opening credits]
BURY ME NOT ON THE LONE PRAIRIE (a.k.a. "The Cowboy's Lament") (uncredited) (Traditional American ballad) [Instrumental version is heard during burial scenes]
I RIDE AN OLD PAINT (uncredited) (Traditional American song) [Performed by Harry Carey Jr.]
TURKEY IN THE STRAW (uncredited) (Traditional American song)
SHE’LL BE COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (uncredited) (Traditional American song)
OH, SUSANNA (uncredited) (Traditional American song) (Written by Stephen Foster)
Blu-ray Image Quality – The Masters of Cinema Series brings us this stunning 1080p imagery with an excellant 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The ‘RED RIVER’ film is a beautiful example of 1940s black-and-white cinematography. Some of the film was shot in twilight, especially around the campfires, requiring good shadow detail and also especially shows the gloriously images of the ruggedness, desolation, and the raw beauty of the massive vistas of the landscapes and cloudscapes exhibiting marvellous levels of wonderful detail. The many long shots, showing the wagon train, galloping horses, and the cows moving across vast stretches of the open land shows very good fine detail to make their impact, and immersing us in the grit, grime, and unspoiled grandeur of the iconic American West. But at around Chapter 2 at 10:30, you get some fluctuation of light and dark quality image of the black-and-white print, but luckily only last about 30 seconds and you also experience a thin white line down the centre of the print, but luckily again this only lasts a short time. With the Second Unit Director Arthur Rosson was given credit in the opening scene of the cattle drive and some of the other action sequences in the film that adds to the atmosphere of the cowboys life style and the hardships they have to endure. This Blu-ray disc looks great from the mountains to the clothes and to the faces of the cowboys seen only in shadow. The only slight negative aspect of the image we view more visible damage at the start of the film, with a thin white line down the middle of the image, but after that it gives a very strong black-and-white image presentation. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The Masters of Cinema Series presents us with just one 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio experience and is exactly what it should sound like for a film of this period in time. It doesn’t try to sound like anything beyond an optical soundtrack from 1948. But it sounds like a pristine soundtrack of the era, which you would have heard played for the cinema going public. Also outstanding is the composed film music score by the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin that gives a rousing ambience flavour of the hard cattle drive across America. Also stable are the clear dialogue of the actors in all situations throughout the film and also the sounds of the realistic gun fire, especially when being attack by the Native Americans. But a 5.1 remix would certainly have beefed up the drama even more during the massive awesome stampede. But overall the sound quality is very good given the age of the material.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Optional music-and-effects audio track: Hear the majestic, awesome and stunning composed film music by the maestro Dimitri Tiomkin. Also hearing the sounds of the famous Chisholm Trail, and the great cattle herd drive across the plains of America is truly special. As well as hearing the might of the awesome cattle stampede and the realistic gun fire in scenes throughout the film.
Special Feature: Dan Sallitt and Jaime N. Christley Interview [2013] [1080p] [1.78:1/137:1] [45:32] Here we get an exclusive lengthy video conversation between Filmmaker Dan Sallitt and Film Critic Jaime N. Christley talk about the film ‘RED RIVER’ and the director Howard Hawks, that was filmed by Dustin Guy Defa and James P. Gannon, exclusively for The Masters of Cinema Series and was filmed at the Queens County Farm Museum, Glen Oaks, New York on 1st August, 1963. Dan Sallitt does most of the talking and there is no editing, so we linger over every pause, every stutter, every "Uh..." which could of instead been presented as an audio commentary track? It would have given the men some context to give their comments more contexts and made them sound a whole lot better and more professional. The bulk of their piece is viewed from a high angle shot looking down on the men on either side of a table, and one presumes is in one of the cattle museum's old fashioned rooms. With no disrespect intended to the filmmakers whom I'm sure were not working on any kind of budget, visually the presentation is slightly dull, cheap-looking I cannot think why it was done this way in the first place? Along with the terribly long running time there are some interesting points raised about the film ‘RED RIVER,’ but critically what annoyed me, is they tended to ramble on a bit too much, enthusing about the film to the point of me losing interest, as it got very confusing what they were actually talking specifically about the film ‘RED RIVER,’ but a lot of their talk tended to go off on a tangent and talk about other Western films, that were not related to the film ‘RED RIVER.’ But as they actually talk about the film ‘RED RIVER’ and especially specific scenes in the film, we get the actual clips from those scenes in the film they are actually talking about. Not wishing to strike a sour note a gift for John Wayne fans, I do wish cash strapped producers with this special feature could show a little more inventiveness. Ok, the start of this special feature showing us a couple of cows at the Queens County Farm Museum was a nice touch, but this idea was then thrown away with the conversation. Maybe a still shot of the two cows was the only visual image could have been more relevant special feature of the whole exercise, next time, shove the conversation on an audio commentary track.
Special Feature: The Lux Radio Theater presents RED RIVER [1949] [1080p] [1.78:1] [58:54] The Lux Radio Theater adaptation of the ‘RED RIVER’ film and is narrated by Walter Brennan. But it also features John Wayne, Joanne Dru and Walter Brennan, reprising their roles in the film and also heard is Jeff Chandler, Bernard Philip Ofner, Jeff Corey, Jimmy Ogg, Alan Reed, Herb Butterfield, Willard Waterman, Lillian Byeth, Luke Krugman, Jan Novello, Edwin Max and Eddie Marr and was broadcast on American Radio on the 7th March, 1949 and unsurprisingly Montgomery Clift is not in evidence in this radio broadcast. I am always wryly amused by American commercial radio in the 1940s and this one is totally hilarious for a macho man presentation, where they proclaim with a voice over advertising Lux soap but of course, especially with the fact that cowboys on a cattle drive, never washed, until the end of their journey, and this one is of course for enthusiast of this type of radio presentation, especially for The Lux Radio Theater presentation of the film ‘RED RIVER.’ Despite being laboriously scripted, it is after all of historical interest. Audio only.
BONUS: A wonderful printed 56 page booklet featuring a lengthy dossier of excerpts from vintage writing about the director Howard Hawks and the film ‘RED RIVER.’ A lecture on Howard Hawks by Andrew Sarris entitled HOW MOVIES BECAME CINEMA: SARRIS ON HOWARD HAWKS. An extract from Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues BFI monograph on the film ‘RED RIVER,’ entitled A HOWARD HAWKS WESTERN. An interview with Editor CHRISTIAN NYBY by Ric Gentry. An excerpt from the infamous Film Comment interview with screenwriter Borden Chase and Interviewed by Jim Kitses entitled THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN WEST. Also an article about Howard Hawks own response to Borden Chase’s 1974 interview. An article on the two versions of the film entitled EPILOGUE: THE TWO VERSION by Peter Labuz and lots of rare archival black-and-white promotional imagery relating to the film ‘RED RIVER.’ Plus NOTES ON VIEWING, explaining the incorrect and correct aspect ratio.
Finally, ‘RED RIVER’ gives us the big expansive of the western scenery, that is stunningly shot and there are some wonderful moments, especially the point in the film that immediately comes to mind is the moment in which Thomas Dunson [John Wayne] proclaims “Take ‘em to Missouri, Matt…” and a series of close-ups show cowboys whooping and screaming and especially the awesome and thrilling cattle stampede, all accompanied by the legendary Dimitri Tiomkin’s rousing composed film music score. On top of all that, the film ‘RED RIVER’ includes the breakout performance by the wonderful actor Montgomery Clift. This really is among those cowboy films that deserve a Blu-ray release, because Russell Harlan’s cinematography is superlative, and Howard Hawks directs his regulars with professional expertise as usual, and it is as entertaining as it is exhilarating all the way across the American prairie, Yee-haw! Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
