Rio Bravo

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Jeff
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Rio Bravo

#1 Post by Jeff » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:28 pm

From DVD Times:

Rio Bravo: Special Edition and Ultimate Collectors Edition
Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River. He does it here again, capturing the legendary West with a stellar cast in peak form. Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, a small-town lawman enlisting the help of a ragtag team to hold a murderer in jail until the state marshal can arrive. On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing the murderous cohort from jail. On the other are Chance and his two deputies: one a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin), the other a crippled codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ranks are an unseasoned, trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a past (Angie Dickinson) – and her eye on Chance. Rio Bravo will feature a new digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

* Remastered feature film
* Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel (Renowned director Carpenter and film critic Schickel explore how this legendary Western was an extension of Hawks' own personality and why it's considered such an influential classic today)
* Wayne trailer gallery

Disc Two

* The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973 documentary)
* Two All New Featurettes:
o Commemoration: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo
o Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked

Ultimate Collector's Edition includes everything in the Rio Bravo Special Edition plus the following collectible memorabilia:

* Press book
* Dell comic book
* Lobby cards

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Via_Chicago
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#2 Post by Via_Chicago » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:47 pm

Unless this Rio Bravo disc is an enormous improvement on the first edition (which I don't see how it could be), I'll pass. Now, if it had a Robin Wood commentary, I'd be tempted to buy.

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What A Disgrace
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#3 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:45 pm

Funny how Warner sees it fit to release that Howard Hawks doc twice, but has yet to put out the Raoul Walsh doc from the same series. Bah.

I'll pick up Rio Bravo SE, anyway. I never bought the old disc, and the new one is pretty inexpensive.

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Jeff
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#4 Post by Jeff » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:51 pm

Via_Chicago wrote:Unless this Rio Bravo disc is an enormous improvement on the first edition (which I don't see how it could be), I'll pass. Now, if it had a Robin Wood commentary, I'd be tempted to buy.
I agree that Wood would be the ideal commentator, but I'm interested to hear Carpenter's take, considering his affection for the film and its influence on Assault on Precinct 13.

Including the Hawks doc again strikes me as padding the set to justify two discs and the larger price tag.

Still, I love the film (and I'm a sucker), so I'm sure I'll bite.

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Via_Chicago
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#5 Post by Via_Chicago » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:14 pm

Jeff wrote:I agree that Wood would be the ideal commentator, but I'm interested to hear Carpenter's take, considering his affection for the film and its influence on Assault on Precinct 13.
Have you heard any of Carpenter's commentaries before? Are they generally good, bad, excellent, etc.?

While I love the movie too and already own the first disc, I'm poor; so unless this is a substantial improvement, I'm not going to shell out the cash for this one (a disc that reeks of laziness on Warner's part, IMO).

broadwayrock
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#6 Post by broadwayrock » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:49 pm

Via_Chicago wrote:Have you heard any of Carpenter's commentaries before? Are they generally good, bad, excellent, etc.?
I would rate Carpenter's commentaries for his own films as amongst the best and most entertaining dvd commentaries i have heard, but the quality of this commentary will depend on the chemistry that he and Richard Schickel have.

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Highway 61
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#7 Post by Highway 61 » Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:34 pm

Seconded. Carpentar's commentaries are excellent, both insightful and entertaining. Still, a Wood commentary would have been fantastic.

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bjeggert82
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#8 Post by bjeggert82 » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:47 pm

Is it me, or is the cover art for the Ultimate Edition of Rio Bravo not included on the DVD Times page?

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Gregory
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#9 Post by Gregory » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:09 am

I agree with all those above who'd hoped for a Wood commentary for Rio Bravo, but I wasn't expecting to see that happen. He told me once that no company has ever approached him to discuss his doing a DVD commentary -- not one. [EDIT: I should clarify that he was not griping about this at all; it came up because I was curious about it.] The only DVDs he's ever appeared on even briefly (aside from booklet essays) were a few of the Universal Hitchcocks where his words were apparently needed to fill up a little time. He just reached 76 years old and is now all but retired from teaching and writing about film, so it was definitely a wasted opportunity. I may suggest to Criterion that they tap him for a forthcoming Ophuls release.

I'll try to give the Carpenter commentary a fair chance, but of course, since I like so few commentaries, I'm not going to expect any magic.

I'm amazed that they're charging a $19 higher SRP for a press book, comic, and lobby cards. It will be interesting to see how it's packaged. I don't see how a full comic book reprint would fit unless they've shrunk the pages way down.
Last edited by Gregory on Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tryavna
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#10 Post by tryavna » Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:59 am

Gregory wrote:It will be interesting to see how it's packaged. I don't see how a full comic book reprint would fit unless they've shrunk the pages way down.
Yep, this is how it was done with Warner's "Ultimate Edition" of The Searchers, which was the only version available in the Wayne/Ford boxset. Their reprint was about 1/2 the size of an average comic book, if I remember correctly. It was interesting to see what they cut out and added for the comic book, but it was by no means essential. Since I'm not terribly interested in the other titles in this collection, I'm not sure I'll spring for anything more than the "Special Edition." (Although, Tycoon is an interesting, if flawed, film, and Without Reservations is fun if you're in the mood.)

Anonymous

#11 Post by Anonymous » Wed May 16, 2007 8:20 pm

Here's the first review of the new Rio Bravo Special Edition.

patrick
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#12 Post by patrick » Thu May 17, 2007 2:56 pm

I've actually never seen any of the movies in the Wayne Collection, are they worth seeking out? I'm looking forward to seeing the new versions of Rio Bravo and The Cowboys.

I also somehow missed the new edition of The Searchers that came out last year, I'll definitely be picking that up.

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tryavna
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#13 Post by tryavna » Thu May 17, 2007 5:46 pm

patrick wrote:I've actually never seen any of the movies in the Wayne Collection, are they worth seeking out?
It depends entirely on how much you like Wayne as an actor, since most of them trade solely (or at least very heavily) on his star power. The notable exceptions are Without Reservations, which is really a Colbert vehicle, and Reunion in France, which is really a Crawford vehicle. I've seen all of these films at some point or another, and while none of them come close to being as good as, say, Rio Bravo, only one of them is truly terrible: Big Jim McLain (possible Wayne's worst movie after The Conqueror, but without the camp appeal). Trouble Along the Way has a charm, especially since it gives us the opportunity to catch Wayne in one of his few straight comedies. (Same goes for Without Reservations.) In my opinion, the only one worth owning/re-watching regularly is Tycoon; as I put it a few months ago, it's a flawed but very interesting film for its U.S.-South American angle and for its cast.

Personally, I won't be purchasing anything except Rio Bravo.

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Belmondo
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#14 Post by Belmondo » Sun May 20, 2007 4:37 pm

There is also a new SE of TRUE GRIT with a good commentary track and a couple of brief bonus features. The commentators are three western experts, and they agree that this is an unusually accurate portrait of the west. The dialogue (from the highly regarded novel by Charles Portis) is wonderful, and filled with genuine period words and phrases that you will never hear anywhere else. John Wayne signed up the moment he read the screenplay, even though the woman who adapted the screenplay had previousely been blacklisted.

The movie was filmed in 1968, when the women's rights movement was on the rise, and the behind the scenes issues between Wayne and Kim Darby reflect both the old west and contemporary America.

There are plenty of western fans who do not really like this movie, and I'm damned if I can figure out why. It ain't THE SEARCHERS, but it's a hell of a lot better than RIO (bloated) BRAVO.

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tryavna
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#15 Post by tryavna » Mon May 21, 2007 2:26 pm

davidhare wrote:True Grit is barely watchable and totally formulaic, and for genuine bloat, Hawks very last film Rio Lobo which just seems like a poorly conceived project which came when he was simply too old.
While I agree that Rio Lobo is no masterpiece, it's one of my top "guilty pleasures." Despite (or perhaps because of) all the bad acting, the needlessly convoluted storyline, and the lack of seriousness towards violence, it's still a perfect example of mindless entertainment. It's also got to represent the apotheosis of the John Wayne persona (as opposed to the actor himself). And what other movie in history gives Jack Elam such a large role?

I guess I also like True Grit for similar reasons, but I really wish that a better actress than Kim Darby had played Mattie Ross. She almost unbearably bad in it.

Nevertheless, there's no question that Rio Bravo is a vastly superior film to either -- for all the reasons David cites.

Anonymous

#16 Post by Anonymous » Mon May 21, 2007 4:40 pm

Rio Bravo is indeed a masterpiece, Hawks' finest. It addresses such deep emotional truths and does it all with graceful simplicity. I advise anyone who hasn't read it yet to pick up Robin Wood's BFI Film Classics study of this film.

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Highway 61
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#17 Post by Highway 61 » Wed May 23, 2007 8:10 pm


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Gregory
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#18 Post by Gregory » Wed May 23, 2007 8:46 pm

Rio Bravo certainly doesn't need me to defend it, and that's not my intention, but I was a little baffled by the reviews at the top of that comparison. The TimeOut review contrasts Rio Bravo to the "liberal homilies of Hign Noon," without explaining what the liberal homilies are or what they mean in comparison to Rio Bravo. It's discouraging how often this kind of capsule review recycles the same received opinions that simply reinforce people's preconceptions. I realize they're short reviews but they could do more to challenge or explore the "common knowledge" about a film instead of doing things like referring to "pride, prejudice and professionalism" that don't really say anything about the film.
As for Gary's comments: The nicknaming was a very conscious decision that gave an important dimension to the Hawksian group -- I don't see how noting all the nicknames is a criticism. I also don't understand how the "ever present studio association" made it "contrived." Contrived in what way? And what can it mean to call Hawks a "master tactician." This seems very different from acknowledging him as an artist. Is it to suggest he didn't put enough of himself personally into his work? A final reaction: I had never considered Rio Bravo as an excessively star-powered film. Wayne, Martin, and Brennan seem like a typical combination for an a-list western film. Nelson and Dickinson were famous, of course, but I've never seen any of their other work (might watch Point Blank eventually but otherwise nothing has struck me as very interesting) so their star images have never really affected their performances in Rio Bravo for me.

filmfan
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#19 Post by filmfan » Thu May 24, 2007 4:46 am

Could someone tell me the marketing logic of ALL of these John Wayne releases at once ?

I understand the date significance but what about the marketing importance ?

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tryavna
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#20 Post by tryavna » Thu May 24, 2007 11:50 am

Gregory wrote:As for Gary's comments: The nicknaming was a very conscious decision that gave an important dimension to the Hawksian group -- I don't see how noting all the nicknames is a criticism. I also don't understand how the "ever present studio association" made it "contrived." Contrived in what way? And what can it mean to call Hawks a "master tactician." This seems very different from acknowledging him as an artist. Is it to suggest he didn't put enough of himself personally into his work?
Frankly, I'm surprised that you actually try to read Gary's reviews of the content of the films. For all the enormous help he provides us with his site, Gary has never had a very great felicity with language. (Just look again at his choice of a winner for the Setsuko Hara competition he held a few months ago.)

I'm much more interested to see what Glenn Erickson has to say about the film when (and if) he gets around to it at Savant. After a fairly bad slide in quality during the previous year and a half, his reviews have become fairly interesting again this year.

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Matt
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#21 Post by Matt » Thu May 24, 2007 1:24 pm

filmfan wrote:Could someone tell me the marketing logic of ALL of these John Wayne releases at once ?

I understand the date significance but what about the marketing importance ?
Fathers Day. Gramps just loves the Duke.

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Gregory
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#22 Post by Gregory » Thu May 24, 2007 1:51 pm

tryavna wrote:Frankly, I'm surprised that you actually try to read Gary's reviews of the content of the films.
I almost never do, but those two paragraphs caught my eye this time, possibly because they're at the top and it was taking awhile for the page to load all the way.
Anyway, I was just responding to the canard from TimeOut as well as to Gary's assortment of remarks the same way I might if someone posted similar things on this forum.

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starmanof51
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#23 Post by starmanof51 » Thu May 24, 2007 2:09 pm

Gregory wrote:As for Gary's comments: The nicknaming was a very conscious decision that gave an important dimension to the Hawksian group -- I don't see how noting all the nicknames is a criticism.
Well, the names are more than a little silly, and put me in mind of an old Sgt. Rock comic. Some people are distanced by it, most I suppose are not. Personally I just titter, especially whenever The Duke says "Colarrodda". Oh, and "Feathers" too - an entire feature length comedy could have been constructed out of unexpected words coming from John Wayne's mouth. Rio Bravo only gives us a partial tantalizing taste of what such a film might have been like!

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Gregory
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#24 Post by Gregory » Thu May 24, 2007 5:22 pm

That would be funny. John Wayne was a bit of a joke in a good portion of his movies, if not most of them. I don't think this was his fault; it was a result of directors and producers thinking that once they cast him, his unique presence would be enough of a draw that the film didn't really have to have anything else to offer. The results, especially in his later films, were often unseemly. One of the things that astonishes me about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Rio Bravo is how some combination of ingredients came together in these works that enable me to be completely convinced and captivated by Wayne's performances. There are a few other films with Wayne that I like and find richness in, but I still can't quite take him seriously in them. I'm rambling, I guess -- mostly out of feeling the anticipation of watching Rio Bravo again this weekend for the first time in over a year.

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Belmondo
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#25 Post by Belmondo » Thu May 24, 2007 6:39 pm

I suppose I can agree with Gregory that John Wayne was a bit of a joke in some of his movies, but he is such a larger than life figure that he cannot be dismissed. I never agreed with his politics and I do not even agree with his screen persona which I view as an overly simplistic effort to show us that real Americans are real men - but I still love the guy; how can you not?
By the way, I earlier compared RIO BRAVO unfavorably to TRUE GRIT, and concluded that RIO BRAVO was "bloated". I took the thoughtful criticism of that comment to heart and watched it again, and am ready to kind of sort of back off.
Yup, Coloradda, it's pretty damn good and I bought the new two disc edition. On the other hand, it is two hours and twenty minutes long (bloated?) and ends with one of the most preposterous showdowns ever seen with sticks of dynamite being thrown through the air and exploded by shot from the hip six-guns (yeah, THAT happened). I understand that RIO BRAVO was designed as something of a reaction to HIGH NOON, in which the sheriff was perceived as a bit weak and scared stiff, but Coop still faces down the bad guys and he does it in real time, and he does it in less than ninety minutes. No bloat there.

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