Red River is an epic but flawed western which loses focus when it introduces a love interest in the last third of the film which leaves it with an odd and almost absurd ending.
John Wayne (Dunson) plays a driven man who has built up a cattle empire in Texas and not through entirely legal means. He has taken land, cattle and killed for it.
Montgomery Clift (Garth) plays his adopted son who Dunson took in as a boy. Dunson is in financial trouble, to get the best price for his cattle he embarks on an epic cattle drive to Missouri. The trouble is Dunson is driven to the edge of insanity in his quest, he falls out with his men over the best route, his strict rules and his cruel punishment for rule breakers and deserters.
At one point Garth rebels against stubborn Dunson and relives of his herd and drives them successfully to Kansas, on route Garth and his men repel an Indian attack on a wagon train where he meets and falls in love with Tess Millay (Joanne Dru). All the time Garth knows Dunson is following and will want vengeance.
John Wayne plays a ruthless man, with a dark underbelly. It is hard to root for him when he his driving his men to question his abilities.
Clift in an early film role matches Wayne in his Oedipal struggle to supplant the father figure, get the herd into town and pay off his remaining men. The film should had got to a showdown between Wayne and Clift but it gets rather sidetracked.
John Wayne (Dunson) plays a driven man who has built up a cattle empire in Texas and not through entirely legal means. He has taken land, cattle and killed for it.
Montgomery Clift (Garth) plays his adopted son who Dunson took in as a boy. Dunson is in financial trouble, to get the best price for his cattle he embarks on an epic cattle drive to Missouri. The trouble is Dunson is driven to the edge of insanity in his quest, he falls out with his men over the best route, his strict rules and his cruel punishment for rule breakers and deserters.
At one point Garth rebels against stubborn Dunson and relives of his herd and drives them successfully to Kansas, on route Garth and his men repel an Indian attack on a wagon train where he meets and falls in love with Tess Millay (Joanne Dru). All the time Garth knows Dunson is following and will want vengeance.
John Wayne plays a ruthless man, with a dark underbelly. It is hard to root for him when he his driving his men to question his abilities.
Clift in an early film role matches Wayne in his Oedipal struggle to supplant the father figure, get the herd into town and pay off his remaining men. The film should had got to a showdown between Wayne and Clift but it gets rather sidetracked.