Rio Bravo (1959)
John Wayne and Howard Hawks team up to make a response to High Noon (1952) which was an allegory for Hollywood black listing. The idea with the plot here is that everyone offers to help the sheriff but he turns down the offers of help from those who mean well but have little to offer rather than as in High Noon help is sought but none arrives.
As a stand alone western this is a fairly good film and Dean Martin's drunk is a refreshingly flawed character for a film of this era, although I am not sure offering someone beer to deal with their alcoholism is the best treatment. While the film is a little slow in places it does it's job in keeping the viewer entertained. Where I feel the film falls down is in it's supposed riposte of High Noon which I do not think really offers any answers to the problem of witch hunts and blacklisting that went on in Hollywood.
A decent effort even if it fails in it's aim 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment