Red River (1948 film)

In 1851, Thomas Dunson and long-time friend Nadine Groot leave St. Louis as part of a wagon train bound for the California Trail led by a pre-Civil War Colonel, their wagon master. After South Fork, north of Texas, Dunson departs south to establish his own cattle ranch. The Colonel warns he needs a good gunman like Dunson in Comanche Indian country. But Dunson is determined. Gifting his mother's bracelet, he tells his gal Fen to stay until he sends for her.

Later, they spot smoke from the wagon train, and kill a few Indians; Dunson recovers his mother's bracelet. Dunson takes the caravan's sole survivor, teenager Matt Garth across Red River into Texas. Dunson settles near the Rio Grande and creates his "Red River D" brand (two riverbank lines and "D" for Dunson), promising to add "M" when Matt earns it. Two men arrive from Don Diego who owns all surrounding land, south for 400 miles (640 km), but Dunson claims everything north of the Rio Grande. One draws on Dunson, who kills him, telling the other to inform Don Diego.

Fourteen years later : Dunson's ranch is successful but the Civil War left him broke. He opts to drive 10,000 head 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the Sedalia, Missouri railhead for the best price. Professional gunman Cherry Valance joins the drive, suggesting the railroad in Abilene, Kansas is much closer. But Dunson learns Valance heard it secondhand, and continues towards Missouri.

Drover Bunk Kenneally steals chuckwagon sugar, accidentally dropping pots which causes a stampede that kills drover Dan Latimer, widowing his wife. Dunson tries bullwhipping Kenneally, who draws his gun; Matt is faster, wounding Kenneally. Valance calls Matt soft for not killing him. Dunson drives the men hard. Wrangler Sutter, who survived a hundred-main raid at the Ouachitas on an earlier drive, says they should have followed the Chisholm Trail to Abilene. Pressed, Sutter cannot remember if the railway reached Abilene; Dunson is set on Missouri. Disgruntled, Mailer, Fernandez, and another try leaving the drive, instigating a shootout; Dunson, Matt and Valence kill them. Teeter, Bill Kelsey, and Laredo desert that night, stealing dwindling supplies. After fording Red River, Valance returns with Teeter and Laredo; Kelsey was killed. Dunson intends to hang them, but Matt finally stands up against Dunson, "No, you're not." Dunson moves to draw on Matt, but Valance wounds Dunson's hand. Supported by all the cowhands, Matt usurps the drive and heads for Abilene, leaving Dunson behind. Groot offers to stay with Dunson, who says, "Go on with them!" Dunson tells Matt he will catch up and kill him.

Matt and the drovers save a wagon train of gamblers and dance hall girls from an Indian attack. Tess Millay takes an interest in Matt. Weather worsens, raising the river, forcing Matt to ford at night. Eight days later, Dunson arrives with hired guns, surprised that Tess knows his name and wears his mother's bracelet. Confronted by her, he explains he wanted a son, and Matt would have inherited his ranch, but not now after he stole his herd. Dunson offers Tess half the ranch if she will bear him a son. She agrees on condition he stops pursuing Matt. Since he will not, she demands to accompany him.

Matt reaches Abilene, finding the whole town waited a long time to buy such a herd. He accepts an offer and finds Tess in his room. The next morning Dunson arrives and is challenged by Valance; both shoot, wounding each other. Dunson confronts Matt, who refuses to draw, even while Dunson fires, grazing Matt's cheek. Dunson throws his and Matt's guns away, and punches Matt, who does not fight back, until finally he does, knocking Dunson into a cart. Tess interrupts, forcing them to making peace at gunpoint. Impressed, Dunson advises, "You'd better marry that girl, Matt," who protests, "When are you going to stop telling people what to do?" Dunson adds "one thing more..." when they get back to the ranch, Dunson wants Matt to change their Red River D brand, adding an "M" to it. "You've earned it."

Red River was filmed in 1946, copyrighted in 1947, and widely released on September 17, 1948.^[1] Footage from Red River was later incorporated into the opening montage of Wayne's last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (Christian Nyby) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Borden Chase). 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!"^[10]

Hawks felt Dru's final speech after Dunson and Matt fight didn't work, wishing his original choice to play Tess Margaret Sheridan had been available. He felt Sheridan could have done a far better job of delivering the lines than Dru did.^{[11][verification needed]}

The film was shot in black and white rather than color, because director Howard Hawks found Technicolor technology to be too "garish" for the realistic style desired.^[12] But as with many remembrances of Hawks, he has also said the exact opposite to Peter Bogdanovich, to whom he claimed that he wished he had shot the picture in color, especially the sequence involving driving the cattle across the Red River. Had he done so, he thought it would have made a lot more money.^{[11][verification needed]} Second unit director Arthur Rosson was given credit in the opening title crawl as co-director. He shot parts of the cattle drive and some action sequences.^[13] The film's ending differed from that of the original story. In Chase's original Saturday Evening Post story, published in 1946 as "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail", Valance shoots Dunson dead in Abilene and Matt takes his body back to Texas to be buried on the ranch.

The song "Settle Down", by musician Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Frederick Herbert, was heard over the credits and at various places throughout the film score. It was later adapted by Tiomkin with a new lyric by Paul Francis Webster as "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" in the 1959 film Rio Bravo for an onscreen duet by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson as John Wayne and Walter Brennan look on.^[18]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a mostly positive review, praising the main cast for "several fine performances" and Hawks' direction for "credible substance and detail." He only found a "big let-down" in the Indian wagon train attack scene, lamenting that the film had "run smack into 'Hollywood' in the form of a glamorized female, played by Joanne Dru."^[19] Variety called it "a spectacle of sweeping grandeur" with "a first rate script," adding, "John Wayne has his best assignment to date and he makes the most of it."^[20] John McCarten of The New Yorker found the film "full of fine Western shots," with the main cast's performances "all first-rate."^[21] Harrison's Reports called the film "an epic of such sweep and magnitude that it deserves to take its place as one of the finest pictures of its type ever to come out of Hollywood."^[22]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 100% rating, based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10.^[23]

Roger Ebert considered it one of the greatest Western films of all time.^[24]

This movie was the last movie shown in the 1971 Peter Bogdanovich motion picture, The Last Picture Show.

In 1990, Red River was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Red River was selected by the American Film Institute as the 5th greatest Western of all time in the AFI's 10 Top 10 list in 2008.

In 2025, The Hollywood Reporter listed Red River as having the best stunts of 1948.^[25]

To commemorate their work on the film, director Howard Hawks had special Western belt buckles made up for certain members of the cast and crew of Red River. The solid silver belt buckles had a twisted silver wire rope edge, the Dunson brand in gold in the center, the words "Red River" in gold wire in the upper left and lower right corners, the initials of the recipients in the lower left corner, and the date "1946" in cut gold numerals in the upper right corner. Hawks gave full-sized (men's) buckles to John Wayne, his son David Hawks, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan, assistant director Arthur Rosson, cinematographer Russell Harlan, and John Ireland. Joanna Dru and Hawks' daughter Barbara were given smaller (ladies') versions of the buckle. According to David Hawks, other men's and women's buckles were distributed, but he can only confirm the family members and members of the cast and production team listed above received Red River D buckles.

Wayne and Hawks exchanged buckles as a token of their mutual respect. Wayne wore the Red River D belt buckle with the initials "HWH" in nine other movies: Rio Bravo (1959), North to Alaska (1960), Hatari! (1962), McLintock! (1963), Circus World (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), El Dorado (1966), The War Wagon (1967) and Rio Lobo (1970). The actor did this even when he wasn't filming under the direction of Howard Hawks, with one known exception: Apparently John Wayne didn't wear the Red River belt buckle in films of John Ford.

In 1981, John Wayne's son, Michael, sent the buckle to a silversmith, in order to have duplicates made for all of Wayne's children. While in the silversmith's care, it was stolen and has not been seen since. Red River D buckles, made by a number of sources, are among the most popular and sought after icons of John Wayne fans.^[26]

• Cimarron – 1931 film mentioned on poster
• The Covered Wagon – 1923 film mentioned on poster
• The Last Picture Show