RED RIVER

At the end of the Civil War, Tom Dunson (John Wayne) abandons the caravan he was leading to become a cattle farmer. Soon after, the Indians kill all the members of the caravan, except for young Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift) whom Dunson decides to adopt. Fifteen years later, Dunson decides to undertake a feat never before accomplished: to move 10,000 head of cattle 1,000 miles along the Red River from Texas to Missouri, where he can sell them at a higher price. He is accompanied by young Matthew, with whom relations are initially very good, but Dunson soon reveals himself to be authoritarian and almost ruthless with those who dare to oppose him. Matthew rebels and takes away his command…

Howard Hawks’ first Western is revolutionary in its development of the story, the first example of a ‘be of age Western’, in the words of the director, in which the epic breath of life is mixed with the Oedipal relationship of the two protagonists.