Year Released: 1948
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brenan, Joanne Dru
(Not rated, 127 min.)
Genre: Western

“Every time you turn around, expect to see me.” –Thomas Dunson (John Wayne)

In his first Western Director Howard Hawks captures the Wild West in a profound way. It’s not shootouts at the OK corral, but a desperate Texas cattle baron who will do whatever it takes to survive. If that means branding over a neighbor’s cows, shooting gunslingers who dispute his right to the land, or even horsewhipping his own cowboys and threatening to hang deserters, then so be it.

Here are the anti-hero roots of all those uncompromising tough guys John Wayne later created in his storied career.

And it was this classic Western that reignited the Duke’s career in 1948 and prompted one director to reevaluate him.

John Ford, who worked with Wayne on many films such as Stagecoach, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, was so impressed with Wayne's performance that he is reported to have said, "I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!”

The opening sets up the epic tale:

Among the annals of the great state of Texas may be found 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 and a boy - - Thomas Dunson and Matthew Garth, the story of the Red River D.

According to The American Film Institute Red River is the 5th greatest Western of all time.

It certainly has an iconic cast, featuring not only the Duke, but also Walter Brenan, a sizzling Montgomery Clift in his screen debut, and Western film greats such as Noah Beery Jr. as well as Harry Carey Sr. and Harry Carey Jr. in the only film in which they appeared together.

The film owes a lot to the Duke himself, who insisted Director Howard Hawks hire real cowhands and trained stunt professionals instead of the amateurs he had lined up.

But it was Hawks’ excellent decision to forego filming in color. Not only was it too pricey, but color filming as that time was “too garish,” as Hawks said. Today, of course, with so many lens filters we can create a very subdued look with color films, but not then.

But some of the most interesting tidbits concern hiring Montgomery Clift for the part of John Wayne’s adoptive son, Matt Garth. The young Clift, 26 at the time of the film shoot, had been solely a stage actor, working on Broadway since he was 15. As men and as actors he and the Duke were diametrical opposites – in type, personality, and political persuasion. Yet he was cast, not just as a supporting actor, but one who had to ultimately go mano e’ mano against the 6’4’’ Duke.

Although Clift was certainly no cowboy, he did know how to ride horses – he had learned at his military prep school. Not quite the same as rustling up “them doggies” on a cowpony. He didn’t dare ask John Wayne to help him out, but instead turned to another cast member:

He asked experienced Western actor Noah Beery Jr.. for help and worked hard to become convincing on screen. Beery later said, "The thing he enjoyed most was becoming a hell of a good cowboy and horseman.

During filming Clift kept to himself, refraining from the cast’s nightly card games and their “macho” drinking, and talking, which he thought was a bit put on.

Perhaps that personal tension came across on the screen to electrify the ultimate showdown between John Wayne’s Dunson and Montgomery Clift’s Matt Garth.

John Wayne walks a fine line here, and he does so well. Maybe that is why he impressed John Ford. He is headstrong and ruthless, even in the opening scenes when he is pretty young. He leaves the wagon train headed for California when he spots that piece of Texas just across the Red River, giving almost no explanation.

I signed nothing. If I had, I'd stay. You'll remember I joined your train after you left St. Louis. I'm startin' my own herd. I've watched the land south of here since we left the Salt Fork. It's good land, good grass for beef, so I'm goin' South where it is.

And he is equally stubborn when he refuses to let his sweetheart join him at that point, even though Fen (Coleen Gray) gives him a heck of a persuasive speech.

Fen: Please take me with you. I'm strong. I can stand anything you can.
Tom: It's too much for a woman.
Fen: Too much for a woman? Put your arms around me, Tom. (They hug and kiss each other.) Hold me. Feel me in your arms. Do I feel weak, Tom? I don't, do I? Oh, you'll need me. You'll need a woman. You need what a woman can give you to do what you have to do. Oh listen to me, Tom. Listen with your head and your heart too. The sun only shines half the time, Tom. The other half is night.
Tom: I've made up my mind.
Fen: Oh change your mind, Tom. Just once in your life change your mind.
Tom: I'll send for ya. Will ya come?
Fen: Of course I'll come. But you're wrong.

He quickly has reason to regret that decision, and it haunts and hardens him forever, even as he sees his dreams of a cattle ranch come true.

Give me ten years, and I'll have that brand on the gates of the greatest ranch in Texas. The big house will be down by the river, and the corrals and the barns behind it. It'll be a good place to live in. Ten years and I'll have the Red River D on more cattle than you've looked at anywhere. I'll have that brand on enough beef to feed the whole country. Good beef for hungry people. Beef to make 'em strong, make 'em grow. But it takes work, and it takes sweat, and it takes time, lots of time. It takes years. –Thomas Dunson (John Wayne)

***

His first meeting with Matt Garth (Mickey Kuhn playing the young Garth)) is equally dramatic, and it sets up the ambivalent relationship that flows throughout the film. The sole survivor of a wagon train massacre, the stunned young Matt is wandering around under a swarm of vultures, leading a cow behind him.

After Dunson slaps him twice to knock him back to his senses, the boy quickly draws his small-sized gun and warns: "I wouldn't do that again...Don't do that again!" In their initial meeting, Dunson fools the boy into letting down his guard and then quickly lunges toward him, slaps him again, and takes away the gun. He presents his first lesson to the boy: "Don't ever trust anybody until you know 'em" - advice that will be remembered during the final conflict between them:

All that is prologue, though, and we cut to his huge cattle operation 15 years later. The orphan boy he has adopted has grown to a fine young man just returned from the Civil War. But with the war’s end, the cattle market down south is in ruins, cattle selling for $4 a head in Texas but $40 a head up north and east.

The dangerous cattle drive that ensues tests everyone as they go up against Indian raiders, stampedes, but most of all, each other.

And Dunson, set in his ways when things are going well, becomes almost unhinged when the men who signed up want to forgo their pledges and give up.

It becomes, as author and screenwriter Borden Chase says, “Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) with saddles and stirrups.”

This classic is worth seeing several times, especially the interactions between Clift and Wayne, which anchor the film. You won’t regret it.

–Kathy Borich
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Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

During the arduous cattle drive things get worse and worse. They lose half their chuck wagon supplies in a stampede, and the men are reduced to eating what they have near. Beef, beef, and more beef. But it is the coffee that gets the worst wrap, since they have to make it with wheat kernels.

But John Wayne’s Dunson will have none of their whining.:

Teeler: A man can't eat this kind of food. After we lost another grub wagon, we should have turned back.”
Dunson: Well, we didn't turn back and we're not goin' to. And even if we had, I couldn't replace what we lost. I'm broke. Got nothin' to buy it with. So you're on short rations and bad coffee. And you're gonna be until we finish the drive. And you're gonna finish it...Like it or not, that's it.

***

Well, we can do a little better than that. Look below for a recipe for Cowboy Coffee that uses the real thing, coffee beans.

Or you might like your coffee Argentine style, the way the gauchos like it. It is called maté, and it’s even more involved than James Bond’s Shaken not Stirred Vodka Martini.

Maté is never stirred and the water is hot, but never boiled.

And check out a few of these other cattle drive recipes to go along with it:

Cattle Drive Cornbread
Hearty Bean Soup
Off the Grid Ham and Beans
Yaller Bread with Pintos
Roasted Corn with Cilantro Butter

Cowboy Coffee

Ingredients

1 gallon water

1 cup coffee grounds

1 cup cold water

Dash salt, optional

Directions

Special equipment: 1 gallon coffee pot

Fill coffee pot with water to the start of the spout. Bring water in coffee pot to a boil on high heat. Add coffee grounds and reduce heat to medium. Stir down with spoon if boil gets too high. Return to high heat and bring mixture to another boil, about 1 minute, or until froth is gone. Turn off heat and let coffee grounds settle. Pour cold water around the top of the coffee pot. If using salt, sprinkle on top, to taste. Keep coffee pot on low heat to keep warm. Do not allow to boil again.

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