Rio Bravo

BFI Film Classics

by Robin Wood

This volume is a study of the classic western film Rio Bravo, which, according to the author, remains "beyond politics, as an argument as to why we should all want to go on living."

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2003

About the author

Robert Paul Wood, known as Robin Wood, was an English film critic and educator who lived in Canada for much of his life. He wrote books on the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Arthur Penn. Wood was a longtime member - and co-founder, along with other colleagues at Toronto's York University - of the editorial collective which publishes CineACTION!, a film theory magazine. Wood was also York professor emeritus of film.[2]

Robin Wood was a founding editor of CineAction! and author of numerous influential works, including new editions published by Wayne State University Press of Personal Views: Explorations in Film (2006), Howard Hawks (2006), Ingmar Bergman (2013), Arthur Penn (2014) and The Apu Trilogy (2016). He was professor emeritus at York University, Toronto, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'd say he's so good, he doesn't feel he has to prove it." -- John T. Chance (John Wayne) in RIO BRAVO.

That line sums up the entire film. This is a motion picture made by a director at the top of his game, where even the most done-to-death western traditions are given fresh treatment, and by a group of actors who never have been better. It was immensely enjoyable to read an academic treatment of one of my two favorite westerns -- one of the warmest and most accessible films in all the genre. Rarely has a movie so effectively interwoven tension and humor, often simultaneously. As to the book itself, Robin Wood's reading of the most aspects of RIO BRAVO is astute (although he reads perhaps too much into some scenes) and he highlights the most luminous part of the film: Angie Dickinson's performance as "Feathers." As with most of the monographs published in the "BFI Film Classic" series, I recommending watching the subject film, then reading the book, then watching the film again; it will be like watching it for the first time.

[Druss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quentin Tarantino said that if a prospective girlfriend doesn’t like Rio Bravo he ends the relationship. It’s an excellent movie that I understand a lot better now. Some analysis I feel is a little off the mark but much in context with other movies gives food for thought and a motivation to watch it again, not a hardship. So, what’s your make or break movie?

[Nick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was fifteen I watched Francois Truffaut’s Les quatre cents coups and I found it stunning. I became entranced by the French New Wave…or maybe I became entranced by the idea of the French New Wave, none of the other films I saw over the next few years quite had the same impact. And I became aware that they loved and championed the films of Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. I found this a little odd. I liked the films of Hawks and Hitchcock, but it never occurred to me that they could be taken seriously in the way an earnest film with subtitles could be taken seriously. But when I was twenty I began to think about films in new ways and watch them in new ways, not just following the stories and characters, but noting the way they expressed themselves visually. It suddenly clicked why Hawks and Hitchcock were major figures. Then one day I noticed Rio Bravo, perhaps Hawks’ most respected movie, was coming up on TV and I got very excited. I sat down to watch and was then nonplussed when I recognised it as that old John Wayne Western I had watched more than once as a child. Forty years later I still watch Hitchcock films with a constant enthralment, but I am less certain about Hawks. There is something static about the Hawks’ world: his films provide many variations on his world, but there was never any great development.

Robin Wood wrote the first full length critical study of Hawks back in the 1960s, this essay in a final expression of his continual love of Hawks’ films. He sees Rio Bravo as Hawks’ greatest film and one of the greatest movies. Unlike a lot of the essays in the BFI series, Wood does not give us much background to the film. He does not attempt a complete ‘reading’, rather he makes a series of critical observations; and he does not pretend to be objective, he brings his own love of the film and emotions into his response: if the essay is a critical response to Rio Bravo, it doesn’t try to disguise that it is a personal critical response.

Not long after reading the essay I watch the film again. Did reading the essay add to my appreciation of the film? I’ve always loved the scenes between John Wayne and Angie Dickinson: they work as a form of romantic comedy. Wood, however, made me think more about the relationship between the four men, the growing respect between them, especially the growing self-respect of the alcoholic character played by Dean Martin. I don’t find this quite as remarkable as Wood does, but I saw more in it – I had never noticed, for instance, that Dean Martin never speaks to Ricky Martin and therefore had never thought about the implications of this. I share Wood’s soft spot for the singalongs. Personally, I find one of the weaknesses of the film is the opposition of Wayne and his companions with the Burdettes: I find it too easy to reduce it to a good guy/bad guy dichotomy. Wood finds it more powerful than this in its symbolic impact, the Burdettes being a fascistic force…or maybe we can say the anti-Hawksian force, the negative to everything positive in the sense of respect that grows within the group. I also find the final violent confrontation to be a little glib: I find, for instance, the way the bad guys being blown up is shown as comic fun to be callously unpleasant – Wood, however, sees it as an acceptable within the generic rules…but I am not fully convinced.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read-- along with typical Robin Wood flourishes: lists, Marxism, and autobiography.

[Matthew Elfenbein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small little book packs a considerable punch when it comes to understanding the "philosophy" of Howard Hawks, as presented through brief discussions of his filmography and the in-depth play-by-play of Rio Bravo. Some of the sections in the monograph follow the basic narrative and exposition. In contrast, others stand out by providing insights into nuanced readings of the film and cinema history in general. I am particularly moved by his section on political correctness, identification, and the way that the characters interact with each other, which subsumes a homoerotic reading of the otherwise right-leaning film. This book also helped teach that political films deal with human beings and their relations with one another, which brings humanity to an otherwise non-personal medium. While this book is about Rio Bravo, it is also about the figure of Howard Hawks and how he is understood in the large scheme of cinema as an auteur, yet in a manner that, as Wood demonstrates, is not so straightforward.

[FromTimetoTime · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid, easy to read, analytical work. I particularly enjoyed Wood linking this film to two others in Hawks oeuvre and how they form a loose trilogy of sorts. Some of the theories presented regarding character relationships are more than a bit far-fetched but overall the book is a welcome compliment to the movie.

[David Klingenberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robin Wood—one of the great film critics—thinks this may be the best movie ever made, and he tries to make that argument in this book, but after ten viewings, “Rio Bravo” still seems just pretty good to me.

[Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting essay about a memorable film. And yet… I was somewhat disappointed. Despite its suggestive structural and formal analysis, it is burdened by an excess of ideology – a quite outdated Marxism – which is very unconvincing and tiresome, sometimes even far-fetched. He tries desperately to accommodate his ideology with the content of the movie, but fails flatly in his effort, as he sees everything from his ideological prism, thereby amputating miserably the richness of the work under discussion. Well written, entertaining and sharp, but ends up being tiresome and redundant. Given other works of this acclaimed critic – Robin Wood (1931-2009) – that I found excellent, this little piece seems to me not to do any justice to the film he aims to pay tribute. Leave it on the shelf and read something else instead.

[GJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read this short book / long essay in 2024 ten years after I first read it in 2014, and it’s unironically one of my favorite books, not just one of my favorite books about movies (even though I wouldn’t ever call Rio Bravo one of my favorite movies). This isn’t even my favorite Robin Wood book, but it’s a good first book to read of his (even though it’s also one of his last). Robin Wood does it for me in ways few writers do. His sentences and ideas and passion sing—the “leaps off the page” cliche about good writing is apt here for me. He models a way of living life and experiencing art with more generosity, self-respect, and political conviction. And he does that by—of all things—writing in detail about a Howard Hawkes movie.