Rio Bravo

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Buy This Item Rio Bravo by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $4.97  on 8-27-2008     When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's <I>The Searchers</I>, Howard Hawks's <I>Red River</I>, and Hawks's <I>Rio Bravo</I>. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while <I>The Searchers</I> is an epic quest for revenge and <I>Red River</I> is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), <I>Rio Bravo</I> is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made <I>Rio Bravo</I> as a rebuke to <I>High Noon</I>, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of <I>Pulp Fiction</I>, <I>Reservoir Dogs</I>, and <I>Jackie Brown</I>) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade <I>Rio Bravo</I> two more times--as <I>El Dorado</I> in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as <I>Rio Lobo</I> in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. <I>--Jim Emerson</I> Reader Reviews Very good movie and the quality was excellent. I've been very impressed with the quality of HD-DVDs, especially with older movies. (Note: you need an HD-DVD Player to view movie)

Rio Bravo Available from Amazon Price: $4.97 Updated on 8-27-2008.

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