RIO BRAVO (1959)

A Note on Epic
The question of definitions always irks me only because it is such a mug's game. We have to have a language to talk about whatever it is we talk about, and so we have legal language, medical language, sociological language, and so on and on. The study of the arts is no different. We have a language that is both consistent and inconsistent across the arts. Much of this language begins historically with literature (at least in western - that is, Eurocentric, cultures). Take, for example, "epic." This is a word that dates back to the Greeks who used the word to label long narrative poems on a grand scale (e.g. the Homeric epics, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY– and we all know that the former was recently made into a movie with Brad Pitt!). Epics were about the adventures and the deeds of warriors and heroes. Epics employed myth and folklore and legend and history (is this beginning to sound a bit like SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON?) The epic in the sense I am using it here also has a nationalistic aspect. Homer's ILIAD is about the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Later Virgil writes a national epic for the Roman Emperor; this is the AENEID and it recounts the beginnings of the Roman empire. In English, we have Spenser's THE FAERIE QUEENE which relates to Arthur and the so-called "matter-of-Britain" (as does LA MORTE D'ARTHUR even earlier). I could go on and mention, for example, Derek Walcott's OMEROS (1990), an epic from the Caribbean. In the early days the epic contained specific conventions: the epic simile (works only in writing), the catalogue (in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON this occurs when Nathan recounts or catalogues the names of the soldiers killed with Custer), the epic epithet (standard and repeated descriptors - "rosy fingers of dawn," "the wine-dark sea," etc.), and the trip to the underworld. Epic usually takes the shape of a series of adventures or encounters with obstacles (monsters, temptresses, natural disasters). The big thing is scale. The epic is large in its sweep. It relates to what we now sometimes call "high fantasy." The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in either fiction or film form is a prime example. Despite periods when epic has little cultural purchase, it has never fully gone out of fashion in literature; we can find examples right up to our own day. Epics tend to be nationalistic and so they appear at times of national crisis. “The Lord of the Rings” cycle appeared at a time of cultural desire for support (post WW 2 and in the first years of this century 2001-2005). But the epic has certainly lost its place as the premier narrative art. And it has passed from the long poem into fiction (WAR AND PEACE), cinema, and perhaps the opera. Epic is grand, large, and sublime as opposed to modest, small, and beautiful.

The epic does appear in non-western art, notably in the Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

In painting, we might include large historical canvases dealing with the likes of Hannibal or Napoleon and even Generals Wolf and Montcalm. I would probably include John Martin’s huge paintings or at least some of them in this category.

In cinema, epic has been around since the early days (see for example, Abel Ganz's NAPOLEON (1925) or D.W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE (1918)). It has usually been associated with "costume dramas" on a grand scale. Hollywood was interested in epic in the 1950s as a way of differentiating film from TV and keeping people coming to the cinema. Hollywood epic takes many subjects for its focus: the biblical epic, sagas of the Middle Ages and Knights of the Round Table and the Crusades and such, modern heroes such as Lawrence of Arabia, and other large-scale stories such as MOBY DICK or GONE WITH THE WIND. The one director most associated with the epic is Cecil B. DeMille who made many such films in the twenties and early thirties, including epic westerns (UNION PACIFIC, THE PLAINSMAN are two of these).

The western was also used for epic purposes. We have obvious examples: James Cruz's THE COVERED WAGON(1923), Raoul Walsh's THE BIG TRAIL (1930 and John Wayne's first starring role), THE BIG COUNTRY (1958), THE ALAMO (1960 and 2004). Not all westerns are epics. The films of Anthony Mann or Bud Boetticher, for example, are not epic. Films with or by Kevin Costner, however, tend to epic proportions – DANCES WITH WOLVES (199?), OPEN RANGE (2004). Epic needs grandeur and scale - HOW THE WEST WAS WON is a good example. In other words, most westerns are most likely not epic if we want to keep our definition strong. Our next film, for example, is not an epic. Hawks's RIO BRAVO is too internal and confined to be epic. Hawks and Ford are different in this way - Hawks is interested in individuals as they navigate small groups. He wants to understand something of their psychology. Ford, on the other hand, was interested in individuals as they merge into a group. He is less interested in psychology and more interested in the intersection between history and myth. In other words, Ford used epic conventions of myth, history, legend often on a grand scale - "guidons gaily flying, lusty men singing" and so on). Ford's visuals are carefully crafted to highlight shape and form and frame and the romance of land and animal and man. Hawks frames for more modest (and I do not mean any less "good") reasons.

SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON is, I think, epic in size and intention. So too is THE SEARCHERS, although this is a very different film from YELLOW RIBBON.

I mention opera somewhere in this blog, and I might as well note that the Italian western (e.g. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST) is unabashedly operatic. Epic and opera may go together, but not necessarily. Here, however, they do. “Spectacle” is important to opera. It too is grand and exaggerated, filled with colour and romance and broad action.

Now let me retreat: epic, like all categories is elusive and we may have films (e.g. THE WILD BUNCH) that may be or may not be epic. What do you think?

Howard Hawks and the western:
-Hawks made a few westerns. Although his output was modest, his influence was huge. He is also the director credited with making John Wayne an actor when he cast him in RED RIVER.
Hawks’s westerns:
Red River (1948)
The Big Sky (1952)
Rio Bravo (1959)
El Dorado (1966)
Rio Lobo (1970)
-the first two are epic; the last three are not, and they are usually thought to be a trilogy. I recommend EL DORADO, a film about aging and about pain.

Hawks’s themes:
-Hawks is probably thought to be a “western” director because of his interest in masculinity and male communities. See for example, the fliers in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) or the big game hunters in HATARI! (1962). Hawks was known for his realism; that is, he had his actors actually do the riding, herding, working, catching big game, pulling boats, and so on.

-professionalism – Hawks’s men are often professionals (in one case, they are actually professors)
-the strong woman – see below
-the individual – the rugged individual who fights through adversity
-action as opposed to thought (see BALL OF FIRE, 1941)
-unlike Ford’s characters, Hawks’ characters work out their identities in local and personal ways rather than in conjunction with “nation.” (See the verbal jousting between Hildy and Walter in HIS GIRL FRIDAY.)

Hawksian Woman:
-both Ford and Hawks take an interest in women. Ford’s women are more often than not keepers of the home fires. They are domestic, and they represent the stability of home and family and civilization. We have exceptions, of course (see Ford’s SEVEN WOMEN 1966) or MARY QUEEN OF SCOTLAND 1936), but more often than not the woman is associated with the garden, the house, the east, marriage and motherhood. Hawks’s women are notable for their toughness. They attempt to get inside the male community, to be one of the boys, as it were. See Jean Arthur in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS or Barbara Stanwyck in BALL OF FIRE (1941). In RIO BRAVO, the girl who infiltrates the male group is Feathers (Angie Dickinson). She discombobulates the Sheriff, Chance. She makes him uncomfortable. She also helps to protect him. She must, because she is a woman, remain to some extent outside the male group, but she proves her worth. In the end, she proves worthy to be a helpmate/sidekick to Chance. In the film she is associated with both Colorado (youth) and Carlos (the Mexican), and this is a familiar grouping of woman with the “other.” The point here, perhaps, is that these usually ineffective (and sometimes fearful or caricatured) others are necessary to the hero’s survival and safety. The hero cannot (or does not) stand alone.

RIO BRAVO:
-the film is a parody of HIGH NOON (1952). HIGH NOON was an anti McCarthy film in which a sheriff, on his wedding day, faces four very bad guys (Frank Miller and his 3 henchmen) who come on the noon train. Rather than flee, he stays, against the wishes of his new wife, to face the baddies. He tries, vainly, to find help among the towns people. They refuse to stand up for what is right. The sheriff faces the bad guys alone or almost alone. RIO BRAVO reverses this situation. Here the towns people come forward to offer the sheriff help, but he keeps turning them down because they are not professional enough. Despite turning them down, he gets help anyway!

-it is also something of an anti-western, taking place mostly in claustrophobic places: hotel rooms, bars, the jail, the livery stable. Like HIGH NOON, RIO BRAVO is not so much interested in the myth of the west as it is interested in the question of ethics. Who is right and who is wrong? How should a community act when faced with peril? What is the responsibility of the professional policeman? What kind of person does it take to be a law enforcer? The characters are cowboys, but we are less interested in them as cowboys than as people in a tight situation. Whereas Ford’s SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON is necessarily a story of the “west,” RIO BRAVO is a story that just happens to take place in the west.

The characters:
the hero – John T. Chance (John Wayne)
His name might suggest that he represents “fate” or some such thing. He’s a guy who will take a chance (on luck, on love, on friendship, on being able to stave off the bad guys until the Marshall arrives). He is big, confident, capable, stubborn, consistent, reliable, and like his hat – a bit battered. He is self- reliant. He is the hegemonic male – except that he is not as self reliant as he thinks he is.


the borrachin – Dude (Dean Martin)
The friend who has been jilted by a woman, and who has, as a consequence, descended into self-pity and abjection. As “abject,” he is outside community, a laughing stock, worthless, and weak. His story is the story of confidence regained. He needs an injection of self-respect.

the old man – Stumpy (Walter Brennan), one of a line of limpers. His limp associates his with infirmity but also with the earth, nature, old verities. He is as old and strong as the earth. Stumpy reminds us of change and mortality – human weakness that is itself a strength. He does, after all, save the day when he brings the dynamite.



the woman – Feathers (Angie Dickinson)

-Feathers, as her name might suggest, is the sexual focus of the film. She represents the libido just as much as she represents female strength. More often than not, we see Feathers and Chance in her hotel room (she is closely associated with hotels and what they represent in the world of the cowboy). The frame often shows them separated by distance and by the doorframe and the stove pipe in the foreground. This distance is what Feathers has come to displace. She has him cornered, boxed in. She takes on the moral stiffness of Chance and breaks through his tough exterior. He gives her masculine strength and she gives him feminine warmth. The sexuality we can assume they will enjoy has nothing, or appears to have nothing, to do with domesticity. Feathers is not out to tame Chance, but rather to participate with him in enjoying each other. Her change of clothes from what we see above to the dance hall garb she later wears (see picture below) signals her erotic motive.

the young man – Colorado (Ricky Nelson)
what to say about this character? [In passing, I note that films of this time made a habit of showcasing young pop stars from the music world. The most obvious example is Elvis Presley, but we also have films with the likes of Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Jerry Lee Lewis, and you can most likely think of one or two others (e.g. Pat Boone).] Colorado is reminiscent of Billy the Kid in that he is young, a fast gun, cocky, and associated with a big cattleman, Wheeler (Ward Bond). (Billy the Kid was involved in the Lincoln County Cattle Wars in New Mexico on the side of John Tunstall.) He is young, but principled. He tries to stay out of the fracas, but he finds he cannot when he sees Chance tricked into a situation in which he (Chance) will have to get himself killed. Rather than see a good man go down, Colorado helps out and thereby finds himself involved in the situation. Shades of U.S. non-involvement before the second world war? Where Stumpy is the past, Colorado is the future.

-these are the five main characters, but we have several other important characters:
hotel man – Carlos Robante (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez)
the friend – Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond)
the villain – Nathan Burdette (John Russell)
the villain’s brother – Joe Burdette (Claude Akins)

-the film works as a dynamic examination of the interactions of the characters. At the center is Chance.

The Hero:
Chance is mentor to Dude
Chance is caregiver to Stumpy
Chance is father figure to Colorado
Chance is nervous roué (or a roué manqué) to Feathers
Chance is cared for by Feathers, Colorado, Dude, Stumpy, Carlos
-the trick is that the hero appears to be in control and alone – one man standing against the collective might of the villain – but in fact he is aided by a rag-tag assortment of ostensibly weak characters – an old man, a drunk, a kid, a woman, and so on.

[Clint Eastwood’s THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES 1976 does something similar with its hero. And then we have John Carpenter’s ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 1976, a film that is clearly a homage to RIO BRAVO.]

Chance is the moral center of the film
-he stands for duty, justice, the law, and professional pride.
-his morality manifests itself in his relationship to Dude: friendship and strength (“Sorry don’t get it done, Dude”)
-his morality manifests itself in his sense of civic duty and justice: his refusal to bend to pressure from Burdette
-his morality manifests itself in his relationship to Feathers: his disapproval of her clothing and her means of making a living

Dude, on the other hand, is the psychological center of the film.
-he is clearly a temporary alcoholic. His alcoholism appears to be a result of self-pity. His self-respect has crashed because he was jilted by a woman – a no good woman, as Chance would have it. Dude needs to find self-respect; he finds it within the male group.

-the opening sequence in which Dude grovels for money shows us how low he has sunk. He is just about to put his hand into a cuspador when a foot appears and knocks it away. The camera looks down on Dude and up at Chance; the one character has fallen low and the other is morally upright, stiff as a board. Chance looks down at Dude with both disgust and friendship. Dude, for his part, is so abject that he strikes his best friend – probably for two reasons: 1) to get the drink he desperately wants/needs, and 2) to register is own self-disgust. Striking Chance is tantamount to striking himself.

Unlike EL DORADO in which the cure for alcoholism is physical, RIO BRAVO focuses on a psychological approach to alcoholism. Dude pours his drink back into the bottle when he hears the Deguello (the death song).

The Deguello: played by the Mexican army on March 6, 1836 before the attack on the Alamo by Santa Anna. The music means, take no prisoners. In RIO BRAVO, the Deguello reinforces the resolve of the good guys to hold out at all costs; it brings them closer together as a group. It also gives the bad guys an edge of “otherness.” The bad guys are a threat from outside (both literally and figuratively).

-the death song reminds Dude of what is at stake here: justice, freedom, democracy, but most importantly friendship.

Music is important in the film because it is a reminder of friendship/comradeship.

“My Rifle My Pony and Me” – the performance of this song (followed by “Cindy, Cindy”) serves as an interlude in the film. But it is not a throwaway. The scene enacts the relationships of the film. Stumpy, Dude, and Colorado form a trio (Stumpy plays harmonica), while Chance remains on the periphery. Dude, Colorado, and Stumpy are a group, but the hero remains outside the group, appreciating it but not participating in it. We might remember how often Chance refuses the help of others. He positions himself on the periphery here and in the town.

The song speaks of friendship between a rifle, a pony, and the singer. But it also speaks of a love to return to. In other words, the song ties into the plot. The plot gives us a hero who has a rifle and a pony, and who is in the process of finding a girl. The point is that in a strong film everything serves a plot and a thematic purpose. The song’s meaning is opposite to that of the “Deguello.”