John Wayne Centenary: The '40s - Fort Apache, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Sands of Iwo Jima - Page 2

Just as he did with Stagecoach, Ford created the perfect balance of character and spectacle and in so doing made a film that is as involving today as it ever was.

Red River (1948)

An epic western that gave Wayne a chance to stretch himself as an actor, Red River tells the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas. Wayne is Thomas Dunson, a cattle baron who faces ruin unless he can make the cross-country journey to get his cattle to market. Along for the ride are his adopted son Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift) and long-time friend 'Groot' Nadine (Walter Brennan) and an assortment of hired hands, including notorious gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland).

Wayne starts the film playing his real age, as Dunson picks the land on which he’ll build his ranch and takes in Garth, the only survivor of a wagon train massacre. We then jump forward fourteen years with Dunson making preparations for the cattle drive. Duke was so convincing as the aging rancher that John Ford allegedly remarked "I never knew the big son of a bitch could act.” There is much more to Dunson than just his age though, and Wayne conveys the man’s single-minded obsession so well it’s almost scary. It foreshadowed the equally obsessive Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, with the two characters having more of an edge than any of the actor's other roles.

Wayne first worked with Walter Brennan in two of the quickie westerns he made in the '30s and the pair had a great on-screen chemistry. It’s easy to write off 'Groot' Nadine as mere comic relief but such would be a disservice to Brennan. Yes, he provides the film with some light relief but he’s also the middleman caught between the tyrannical Dunson and Garth.

Of the three leads, it’s Clift who lets the side down, not through lack of ability but simply from miscasting. My Dad was no fan of Clift as an actor and consequently Red River was not one of his favourite Wayne films and growing up I think I inherited some of his prejudices but it’s something I’ve striven to conquer in later years.

Yet a recent reviewing of the film still left me unconvinced by Clift; he lacks the physical presence to stand alongside Wayne. He’s so small in fact that had he been a steer, Dunson would doubtless have taken him behind the barn and shot him. Maybe it’s because Wayne’s character is such a strong presence, both physically and mentally, that it’s hard to accept Garth standing against him. I’m always left wondering if Dunson gets shot prior to the final fistfight with Garth because Hawks realised that an audience wouldn’t accept Clift putting up much of a fight against Wayne (even wounded it’s a stretch).

Article Author: Ian Woolstencroft

Ian Woolstencroft was brought up on a diet of John Wayne movies and Marvel Comics and still has a passion for both. Now as a blogcritic he finally understands what Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben meant when he said ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ …

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