Rio Bravo (1959)

Réalisateur:

Howard Hawks

Scénaristes:

Jules Furthman (screenplay) and
Leigh Brackett (screenplay) ...

Date de sortie:

4 avril 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Romance | Drame

Accroche:

and Dean and Ricky sing, too! "Rio Bravo" "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" "Cindy"

Intrigue:

A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter...

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Sheriff | Jail | Texas | Gunslinger

Récompenses:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Avis des utilisateurs:

Western Tai Chi

Ensemble

John Wayne	...	Sheriff John T. Chance
Dean Martin	...	Dude ('Borachón')
Ricky Nelson	...	Colorado Ryan
Angie Dickinson	...	Feathers
Walter Brennan	...	Stumpy
Ward Bond	...	Pat Wheeler
John Russell	...	Nathan Burdette
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	Carlos Robante (as Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez)
Estelita Rodriguez	...	Consuela Robante
Claude Akins	...	Joe Burdette
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Jake (stage driver)
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Harold (scenes deleted)
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Sheb Wooley	...	Cowboy (scenes deleted)

Autre(s) titre(s):

Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Durée:

141 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais | Espagnol

Couleur:

Couleur (Technicolor)

Son:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Classification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:G | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved (certificate #19034) | South Korea:15 (2007) | Finland:K-16 | France:U (re-release) | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | UK:U (original rating) (cut)

Lieux de tournage:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Société:

Armada Productions

Anecdotes:

The sets in Old Tucson are built to 7/8th scale, so the performers look larger than life.

Goofs:

Révélant des erreurs: At night when Dude and Chance are making their rounds, the camera follows Dude as he walks briefly off the set. You can clearly see a huge concrete pillar he walks past.

Guillemet:

[first lines]
John T. Chance: Joe, you're under arrest.

Connexions De Film:

Référencé sur Disco Fever (1978/I)

Bande son:

Cindy

Western Tai Chi

When Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) murders a man on a whim, Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) arrests him and puts him in small Texas town's jail. The problem is that the U.S. Marshall is a week away from taking Burdette off his hands, and Burdette's brother, Nathan (John Russell), won't see his brother put away. Complicating the situation even further, Burdette is rich enough to hire a score of thugs, and the only support that Chance has is from a drunk, Dude (Dean Martin), and an elderly crippled man, Stumpy (Walter Brennan).

Rio Bravo is a sprawling pressure cooker. For anyone not used to the pacing of older films, this is not the best place to begin. Uninitiated audiences are likely to find it boring--the plot is relatively simple, and they would likely have a difficult time remaining with Rio Bravo for its 2 hour and 21 minute running time. It's best to wait until one is acclimated to this kind of pacing, so as not to spoil the experience. The film is well worth it.

John Wayne was an enthralling paradox, and maybe no film better demonstrates why than Rio Bravo. He had almost delicate "pretty boy" looks and a graceful gait that were an odd contrast to his hulking height and status as the "action hero" of his day. He speaks little, and doesn't need to, although he is the star and thus the center of attention. He tends to have an odd smirk on his face. Wayne's performance here interestingly parallels the pacing and tenor of the film--that's not something that one sees very often, or at least it's not something that's very easy to make conspicuous.

And he's not the only charismatic cast member. Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson are equally captivating. Even when the full blow-out action sequence begins (and that's not until about two hours into the film, although there are a few great shorter action scenes before that), the focus here is still on the interrelationships between these characters, with Brennan the continually funny comic foil, Nelson the suave, skilled youngster, Martin the complex and troubled but likable complement to Wayne, and Dickinson as the sexy, forward and clever love interest.

Director Howard Hawks seems to do everything right. He guides cinematographer Russell Harlan in capturing subtly beautiful scenery--like the mountains in the distance over the tops of some buildings, and a great sunrise shot--and asks for an atmospheric score (such as the repeated playing of Malaguena by a band in the background) that shows that plot points weren't the only element of the film that influenced John Carpenter (who partially based his Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) on this film). But most intriguing is probably Hawks' staging/blocking. You could easily make a study of just that aspect of the film. The characters are always placed in interesting places in the frame, and they're constantly moving in interesting ways throughout the small collection of buildings and streets that make up the town. There is almost a kind of performance art aspect to it. Wayne, for instance, repeatedly touches base at the jail, then picks up his rifle, circles around to the hotel and back, almost as if he's doing some kind of western Tai Chi.

Rio Bravo is nothing if not understated, and as such, it may take some adjustments from modern, especially younger, viewers. But it's a gem of a film, and worth watching and studying.