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Daren in Brief - KINDA RED RIVER
by Daren Foster

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Daren in Brief
Kinda Red River

by Daren Foster

Watching Red River recently, I was reminded of the cultural-political divide that has emerged in Hollywood lately. Outspoken conservative critics like Andrew Breitbart claim that movies like Red River (1948) would not get made in Hollywood these days because of its non-liberal values. Starring arch-conservative John Wayne and directed by another hero of the right, Howard Hawks, it is an old school western that trumpets traditional American virtues like self-reliance, hard work and the pioneer spirit that tamed the Wild West.

Except that it doesn’t, really. Wayne plays Thomas Dunson, a gunslinger who violently stakes a claim on some land in Texas from a Mexican landowner. He kills anyone who comes to take the property back. His dream is to build a massive cattle ranch and 14 years on he has, but the Civil War has decimated the south and there’s no market there for beef. So Dunson forms a cattle drive with his right-hand man and adopted son, Matt Garth played by Montgomery Clift.

At which point of time, Red River veers from your standard western epic into an adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty. Assuming a Captain Bligh persona, Dunson single-mindedly pursues his goal of taking the herd 1000 miles to Missouri through dangerous Indian territory, rife with murderous border gangs. Dunson brooks no dissent, killing any of his own men who try to desert when things get dicey. Even when the possibility of an easier route to a new destination in Topeka comes up, Dunson adamantly refuses, pressing on with a maniacal obsession and little regard for his men’s welfare. When he threatens to hang two escapees, Garth steps in and with the help of another young gun, deposes Dunson and redirects the herd toward Topeka. Left behind, Dunson vows that he will track down and kill the ‘soft’ Garth.

With the angel of vengeance behind him and an uncertain destination ahead, Garth tentatively forges on, determined but not unwavering. He stops along the way to help out a wagon train that’s under attack from Indians and falls in love in the process. His benevolence -- the softness -- in dealing with his crew elicits support and admiration rather than derision. They eventually make it to a grateful Topeka and the herd of cattle secures more money than they would’ve in Missouri. The coup is an unqualified success.

When Dunson and his vigilante posse arrive in town, they are less concerned with the outcome of the drive and more about meting out justice. Dunson beats on Garth who refuses to defend himself. His unwillingness to fight back seems to drain the ire from Dunson to such a degree that a girl(!!) intercedes to finally break up the fisticuffs. Order is restored and the guard has changed.

None of which smacks of the old school, white hat, black hat, how the west was won triumphalism of the traditional Hollywood Western. In Red River, community trumps the individual, adaptation wins out over inflexibility and there’s nothing admirable in John Wayne. Hardly the values supposedly espoused during the Golden Age (read: conservative) of Hollywood. Sometimes, it seems, a good story well told simply transcends political sensibilities.