The good outweighs the bad in Hawks macho movie. Filmed by Howard Hawks as a response to what he saw as none macho cinema in Gary Cooper's acclaimed High Noon, Rio Bravo has moments of brilliance that are sadly coupled with failings that are not Hawksian peccadilloes. The macho plot is simple but wholly effective as our heavily out numbered heroes (John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan & Ricky Nelson) defend a jail house against a marauding mob trying to release an incarcerated friend. This alone sounds grand but the truth is, is that it takes the film nigh on close to 100 minutes to ge…
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