- Rio Bravo is a fun, idealized Western that admirably allows its colorful characters to overshadow what they're doing. What they're doing, incidentally, is trying to keep a band of outlaws from rescuing a prisoner they're holding in jail. In practice, this amounts to a lot of time spent sauntering around town watching out for trouble and sitting around cooped up in the jail. While this might sound like a slow day in the Old West, the people and dialogue make it anything but dull.
- The always enjoyable John Wayne plays John T. Chance, the town sheriff who finds himself assisted by a semi-reformed drunkard (Dean Martin), a cantankerous old cripple (Walter Brennan), and a young hotshot (Ricky Nelson). Angie Dickinson gets thrown in as the Sheriff's love interest--a role that always seems implausible when Wayne is the Sheriff, but that in this case is entertaining nonetheless. Martin and Brennan are absolutely wonderful, and their combination with Wayne is rewarding enough to make up for the miscast Nelson (who must have been glad that the moniker 'Babyface' Nelson was already taken). Without a doubt, the best parts of this film involve simple interactions between characters who bicker a lot without saying much, but who obviously care about one another.
- When I watched Rio Bravo just a week after seeing High Noon, I had not intended to set the two films up in contrast with one another. That said, the two have obviously antithetical philosophies, and I have since discovered Howard Hawks' claim that he made Rio Bravo in part as a response to High Noon. Thankfully, the films' tones and looks are as different as their philosophies, and I find that both can be enjoyed without having to choose sides.
- This is one of Ricky Nelson's few acting roles.
