Watch Rio Grande For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Wonderful mix of family story and insight in every day's life of an soldier in the old west. Beautiful shots in black and white and good acting of Wayne and O'Hara! Not to forget the sentimental music of Victor Young!

Released in 1950 and directed by John Ford, "Rio Grande" stars John Wayne as a cavalry officer posted near the Rio Grande where he must deal with Apaches who cross the border to raid and then escape back to the protection of Mexico. The situation is complicated by the arrival of his son, who enlisted after failing at West Point (Claude Jarman Jr.), not to mention the youth's mother, the officer's separated wife, who wants to take "Johnny" back home (Maureen O'Hara).How do you review an old Western like this when you can't stand B&W or old-fashioned scores and hokey antiquated songs, not to mention the incongruent campy elements and slapstick (non)humor Ford is known for? Basically you have to ignore all these factors and focus on the story and the actors. If you can do this, "Rio Grande" is worth checking out. Wayne was lean & mean at almost 43 (during shooting) and O'Hara was striking and curvy as ever at almost 30. It's also cool seeing Ben Johnson & Harry Carey Jr. when they were so young. Amazingly, the film utilizes real Native Americans for the cast and the movie gets extra points for this and their respected portrayal.The film runs 105 minutes and was shot in Utah (e.g. Monument Valley) and Kayenta, Arizona. The screenplay was written by James Kevin McGuinness from a story by James Warner Bellah.GRADE: B-

. . . which Jessie Film, Inc. and Lamberti Productions Corp. originally churned out in 1993 for TV or a VHS tape, and which Artisan Entertainment threw onto its 1999 RIO GRANDE disc release. This MAKING OF is written and hosted by Leonard Maltin. Michael Tetrick and Bill Coggon direct this 21 minute, 15 second piece. John Wayne's son Michael is one of three guys offering interview snippets here, sandwiched between clips from the feature film. The other two Reminiscers are RIO GRANDE cast members Ben Johnson ("Sandy") and Harry Carey, Jr. ("Travis"), who each spent two weeks mastering "Roman Riding" for this Western, which involves a horseman standing up on two of these equine critters at the same time (with one foot balanced upon the back of each steed) and galloping in this position as fast as feasible. (Johnson and Carey say it only took Tinhorn actor Claude Jarman, Jr., who plays "Jeff," the son of Wayne's character, 10 minutes to become a proficient Roman Rider, since Jarman's feet were as large as Ben and Harry's combined.) We learn here from film critic Leonard Maltin . . .. . . that the Mexicans call our Southern Border River "Rio Bravo," while its Real Name is the Rio Grande (which still sounds pretty Spanish to me). Evidently, President Obama and All of his predecessors have politely asked Umpteen Million citizens of Mexico NOT to cross the Rio Grande without going through the proper channels. However, about 11 million current Mexican Citizens have simply shrugged their shoulders and muttered (presumably in Spanish), "Well, they didn't say anything about wading over via the 'RIO BRAVO.'" This kind of willful misinterpretation will be short-circuited once and for all by President Trump's Great Wall. Hopefully, they will model this upon the classic lines of the historic Chinese Tourist Attraction. Even though Americans probably won't be allowed to trek into Mexico to traipse atop it, CGI improvements by Hollywood's technical wizards should allow 20th Century Fox to make a sequel to THE CONQUEROR, in which John Wayne posthumously reprises his role as Genghis Khan, and maybe throws in a little bit of Col. Kirby Yorke from RIO GRANDE to boot, as he patrols along the Great Wall of Trumpville.

. . . Wayne's film career, once again sums up the primary aspect of his "Col. Kirby Yorke" character in John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" Capper, RIO GRANDE. Yorke's son is described here as being "under-aged" as a military enlistee, meaning that he's 17, at most. Since he hasn't laid eyes on Dear Old Dad for at least 15 years, it's likely Daddy disappeared when it was his night to change diapers and offer the bottle. Yet at the end of RIO GRANDE Pops Yorke grudgingly admits from his litter that Junior turned out okay. The upshot of all of this seems to be that if you want your son to thrive, do NOT let him within a mile of any male "role model" remotely resembling John Wayne. This theme of father\son estrangement making the youngster's character grow stronger is borne out in picture after picture starring Mr. Wayne. But since American schools are carefully crafted to "dumb down" their students, the U.S. suffers from the Uncommon Sense that EVERY day is Opposite Day. Therefore, each time that there is a mass shooting, sales of the deranged killer's weapon-of-choice hit All-Time Highs. Similarly, despite director Ford's best efforts, a majority of America's Dads (during the 1900s, at least) strove harder "to be like John" each time they saw a Wayne flick!