Red River (1948)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Red River (1948) – H. Hawks

I'd pretty much avoided John Wayne (except Stagecoach and The Searchers) up until this point, primarily because of his personal politics. But Hawks made me give him a chance and it paid off. Audience identification with Wayne is pretty ambivalent here (as in The Searchers) which suits me fine (Monty Clift is the real hero) and the directorial flourishes (love those yee-haws!) really make the picture. Only the script falters in places.