#58: Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo (Hawks, 1959)

Rio Bravo is campy, artificial, a strictly for fun Western that showcases the star personalities of the likes of John Wayne and James Dean. It's a very fun movie to watch. The plot is pretty stereotypical for a Western. (So much in fact, it's the basis of that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the holodeck characters were all replaced with Data.) A man murders another in a bar for no reason. The sherriff arrests him and has to hold him until the county prosecutors arrive. But, his rich brother shows up with a team of hitmen to get him out. A team of quirky personalities, including a drunk and a crippled old man are greatly outnumbered and their only leverage is that they can 'Accidentally' shoot the murderer at any time. The plot is strictly cliche and only works because the actors carry it well and the plot is structured competently. If that's the sort of thing you go for, I recommend it to you.

Rating: *** / 5

54/101