Conquering the Chisholm Trail or the Men Who Conquered It?
Erotic power and harsh reality renders Howard Hawks’ “Red River” brilliant in every way.
I never knew the big son of a bitch could act!” said John Ford when he saw John Wayne in Howard Hawks’ 1948 Western, “Red River.” Ford was right. Wayne is exceptionally masculine and exceptionally vulnerable in this film that tells a dramatized story of the very first cattle drive through the Chisholm Trail. Wayne plays Tom Dunson, a man from Texas who, over the course of 14 years, has grown his cattle herd from one bull and a cow to 9,000.
Things are not working out in Texas economically, and Dunson decides to make his way to Missouri. The journey seems impossible. But he’s not alone. Joining him are his adopted son, Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift), loyal trail hand Groot (Walter Brennan), and many hard working men invested in a safe crossing into Missouri with the entire cattle herd.
Dunson is a man haunted by an uneasy past. The woman he loved and left behind was murdered in an Indian massacre. All that was left from this ill-fated trek was Matt, a boy who somehow survived the raid, and whom Dunson took in. These two men provide a window into two separate masculinities the film explores their respective visions and how they illuminate the decisions they make as men.
Dunson is a stubborn man and completely unlikeable. His determination to bring the cattle into Missouri is noble, but it also causes him to see nothing else but that. He’s full of contradictions and interior conflicts. He considers himself “the law” and has no problem quickly shooting anyone who gets in his way, but then reading the Bible over their bodies. As one trail hand said in the film, “Fill ’em full of lead, stick ’em in the ground, and then read words at ’em.”