Flawlessly cast, complex, amusing and exciting, the film integrates multi-layered themes into a unified and satisfying whole.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:32
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.2/10
Runtime: 4 hrs 7 mins
Genre: Westerns
Synopsis: John Wayne stars as the sheriff of a small western town who arrests a murderer and then must contend with the aggressive efforts of the killer's brother to free him before the state marshall... John Wayne stars as the sheriff of a small western town who arrests a murderer and then must contend with the aggressive efforts of the killer's brother to free him before the state marshall arrives. Surrounding the town, the villains make repeated runs at the tiny jailhouse where their comrade is incarcerated. The sheriff is left to defend the territory almost single-handedly -- his only aid being a rag-tag crew of misfits, including a drunk, an old cripple, a saloon woman, and a singing teenager. The plot's tensions build to one of the most explosive finales in cinema history. [More]
Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson
Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, John Russell, Claude Atkins
Director: Howard Hawks
Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Howard Hawks
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Reviews for Rio Bravo
Wayne, of course, walks off with the show -- not by doing anything in particular, but simply by being what he is: at 51, still one of the most believable he-men in Hollywood.
Despite its slickness, virility, occasional humor and, if it may be repeated, authentic professional approach, it is well-made but awfully familiar fare.
Texecution is superb in every department, making this one of the classics of the genre
A comic western that ambles through its two hours and 21 minutes, it always has time to pause for a joke, a song or banter among the characters.
Rio Bravo may not be a perfect film, but it's close enough as to not matter.
A definitive piece of Americana by way of Howard Hawks, Rio Bravo is what the late 1950s studio system was all about.
The action-oriented, straight-up good vs. evil, moral- ambguity-be-hanged, Western star vehicle has never been done better than this.
Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo as a conservative response to the liberal High Noon.
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