Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Rio Grande

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Rio Grande

Apollo Score:

Readers' Rating: 89/100

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Rio Grande

John Ford directed nearly 12 dozen films during a career that lasted more than half a century. He directed many of the biggest Hollywood stars: Jimmy Stewart, Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Jimmie Cagney, Will Rogers, Lack Lemmon, Walter Pidgeon and many others. His films include classics such as The Searchers, How Green Was My Valley, Mister Roberts and The Grapes of Wrath.

Despite this impressive résumé, Ford is probably still best known for the cookie-cutter westerns that he pumped out at an incredible rate from 1917 right through to the 1960s. These varied in quality, ranging from classics to entirely forgettable films.

Among the better of these westerns is Rio Grande, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Here, the standard western story is supplemented with a more complex relationship theme. Wayne plays Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke, a brilliant cavalry officer doing battle with the Apache Indians in the 1860s. Kirby is the strong silent type (as if Wayne ever played anything else), and he's been apart from his family for more than 15 years. Enter new recruit Trooper Jeff Yorke (Claude Jarman Jr.), Kirby's long-lost son. Jeff doesn't even remember his father and has no illusions about starting a relationship with him. He's ended up at his father's detachment purely by coincidence. Not far behind him comes Kathleen Yorke, Jeff's mother and Kirby's estranged wife. Ever since tragic events of 15 years earlier, Kirby and Kathleen have been apart. Now she's back in his life, trying to extricate her son from the army.

Amidst these personal complications, Kirby leads his men into a daring and not entirely legal venture across the Rio Grande River to attack the Apaches. The outcome of this assault will likely determine the future of his career and his family.

The story is delivered in a typical format for westerns made in the mid-20th Century: two parts action for every one part dialogue. Some of the acting is stiff, but the battle scenes are impressive, as is the riding. In addition, Rio Grande features excellent mood-setting songs written by Dale Evans, Tex Owens and Stan Jones.

Many modern sensitivities will be offended by the racist portrayal of the Apaches, although that's not something that sets Rio Grande apart from other westerns of its era.

If you like an old time western, you'll probably enjoy Rio Grande.

Brian Webster

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