Rio Bravo

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Pat Wheeler: A game-legged old man and a drunk. That's all you got?
John T. Chance: That's WHAT I got.

In 1952, Fred Zinneman directed High Noon, an excellent Western that snagged a number of Oscars -- but numerous awards didn't keep Western legends John Wayne and Howard Hawks from thinking the idea of a Sheriff running around town and begging people to help him face a couple of outlaws looked un-American unprofessional, so in 1959, the duo made Rio Bravo.

Hawks and his collaborators switched the story of High Noon to a professional's point of view: if people offered John Wayne their help, he would reply, "If they're really good, I'll take them. If not, they'll only cause me more trouble." Hawks' idea saw Wayne's sheriff take the opposite route of High Noon's sheriff in every critical decision and position from High Noon while remaining successful in his task. (As Howard Hawks explained to the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, he didn't like the idea, especially since High Noon's sheriff eventually proved a little luck -- and some help from his bride -- made him perfectly capable of doing his job alone.)

John T. Chance works as the sheriff of a small Texas town, but he can't even use a sixshooter properly -- and to add to his problems, the brother of the local rancher who pretty much runs the town sits in his jail. The rancher sends plenty of hired guns to get his brother out of jail, and the only people Chance can count on for help include his old, crippled deputy, Stumpy and a washed-up drunk called Dude (or Borrachón, Spanish for "drunkard", by the Mexicans). Along the way, Chance also receives help from a youngster named Colorado Ryan -- but will his help be enough to help the other three men deal with the hired guns until the Marshal arrives to handle the rancher's brother?

John Carpenter remade this film in 1976 as Assault on Precinct 13 by placing the story into a contemporary setting. (Precinct 13 ended up being remade in 2005.)

The movie was named to the National Film Registry in 2014.

Tropes used in Rio Bravo include:
  • Book Ends: The film opens and closes with a shot of the same spot -- the opening shows sunrise, and the closing shows sunset.
  • Chekhov's Wagonload of Dynamite
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Dude at the start of the film.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Grumpy Old Man: Stumpy.
  • Humble Pie: At the beginning of the film Dude is reduced to begging to pay for his drinking. Then comes the painful moment when one of the saloon's patrons throws a coin for him - into a half-full spittoon! Luckily Chance intervenes before Dude actually picks it out. And of course there will be payback later.
  • The Power of Friendship: Becomes especially evident as Chance keeps rolling cigarettes for Dude. This evolved during shooting, when Dean Martin asked how come in some scenes Dude was supposed to be fumble-fingered, yet in others he is shown rolling cigarettes.
  • Rain of Blood: Actually just a few drops dripping into a glass of liquor. But it shows where a wounded gunman is hiding.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Feathers invites Chance to stay in her room as the Big Bad's mooks won't think to look there. She claims that she can sleep in the rocking chair. Later Chance is shown picking her up out of the chair where she has been standing watch and carrying her up the stairs to the rooms. The scene ends and we pick up the next morning with Chance walking down the street and giving a cheery hello to Dude. Later Chance and Feathers have a conversation where both say they are not sorry about what happened the night before.
  • The Siege
  • Source Music: While High Noon uses "Do Not Forsake Me" heavily during voice-overs, here the characters themselves provide the "significant" music. Burdette asks the saloon band to play "Deguello" non-stop to unnerve the holed-up lawmen, and both Colorado and Dude (played by professional singers) sing to pass the time.
    • Dimitri Tiomkin scored both High Noon and Rio Bravo, for the record.
  • Take That: Rio Bravo serves as one to High Noon.
  • To Win Without Fighting: Kind of. Chance is impressed with young Colorado because the latter is so confident in his ability that he does not have to demonstrate it to him.
  • Young Gun: Colorado Ryan
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