Discussion of "Red River"
Details
Red River (1948) is an American western film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, and Joanne Dru. The movie is based on The Chisholm Trail, first published in The Saturday Evening Post by Borden Chase. Chase co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Schnee. The cinematography was by Russell Harlan (To Kill a Mockingbird) and the music was by Dimitri Tiomkin (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).
Thomas Dunson (Wayne) wants to start his own cattle drive and establish a ranch in Texas. As he begins his journey, he learns that his girlfriend Fern (Colleen Gray) has been killed in an Indian attack. Dunson convinced Fern to remain with the wagon train to California instead of traveling with him which was her desire.
Dunson and Nadine Groot (Brennan) successfully fend off an Indian attack. Dunson finds his late mother’s bracelet on the writs of one of the Indians. The one he gave to Fern. The next day, they come across a boy named Matthew Garth (Mickey Kuhn) the only survivor of the wagon train, the same wagon that Fern was traveling with. Dunson adopts Matthew and the two work on the cattle drive together.
Time marches on and an older Matthew (Clift) and Dunson don’t always agree with each other and clash over their affection for Tess Millay (Dru).
Will the two men be able to come to terms with their differences and continue to work together raising cattle?
To learn more about the film and to review the discussion questions, click on the link to my blog post below.
https://classicmovieman.blogspot.com/2023/04/john-wayne-and-montgomery-clift-class.html
To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.
Discussion of "Red River"