Red River
Directed by Howard Hawks • 1948 • United States
Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan
No matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart RED RIVER. In it, John Wayne found one of his greatest roles, as an embittered, tyrannical Texas rancher whose tensions with his independent-minded adopted son—played by Montgomery Clift, in a breakout performance—reach epic proportions during a cattle drive to Missouri. The film is based on a novel that dramatizes the real-life late nineteenth-century expeditions along the Chisholm Trail, but Hawks is less interested in historical accuracy than in tweaking the codes of masculinity that propel the myths of the American West. The unerringly macho Wayne and the neurotic, boyish Clift make for an improbably perfect pair, held aloft by a quick-witted, multilayered screenplay and Hawks’s formidable direction.
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Red River
Directed by Howard Hawks • 1948 • United States
Starring John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter BrennanNo matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart RED RIVER. In it, John Wayne found on...
Extras
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RED RIVER: The Prerelease Version
There are two versions of RED RIVER: the 1948 theatrical version, which director Howard Hawks preferred, and a longer, prerelease cut of the film, presented here. Although there are a number of differences—for example, the earlier version contains extra shots and dialogue, and has a prologue scro...
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Peter Bogdanovich on RED RIVER
In this interview, conducted in 2014, filmmaker and critic Peter Bogdanovich shares his memories of director Howard Hawks and discusses RED RIVER and the differences between the two versions of the film.
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Molly Haskell on RED RIVER
In this 2014 interview with critic Molly Haskell, the longtime champion of Howard Hawks discusses RED RIVER in relation to the western genre and gender politics and expresses her appreciation for the filmmaker.
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Lee Clark Mitchell on RED RIVER
This interview with scholar Lee Clark Mitchell, author of “Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film,” delves into the cultural history and trademarks of western genre literature and film, framing RED RIVER and the novel’s author, Borden Chase, within these terms.
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Borden Chase on RED RIVER
RED RIVER novelist and screenwriter Borden Chase discusses his feelings about Howard Hawks’s film adaptation of his work in these audio excerpts from a 1969 interview, conducted by western scholar Jim Kitses, author of “Horizon's West.”
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RED RIVER on Lux Radio Theatre
This Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of RED RIVER was originally broadcast on March 7, 1949, and features John Wayne, Joanne Dru, and Walter Brennan reprising their film roles.
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Hawks and Bogdanovich on RED RIVER
In April 1972, director Howard Hawks sat down with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich for an interview in Palm Springs, California. These audio excerpts from their conversation feature Hawks’s memories of making RED RIVER.
