Red River

Howard Hawks’ classic western about an epic cattle drive boasts memorably fine performances from John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.

  • Director

    Howard Hawks

  • With

    John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan

  • USA 1948. 133min

  • Digital

Hawks’ first western remains one of his greatest, its story of an epic cattle drive that established the Chisholm Trail serving as an examination of the changing relationship between the rough justice favoured by the increasingly authoritarian herd-owner and the more liberal ethos of his adoptive son. It’s also, of course, a typically witty and exhilarating Hawksian study of professionalism and group loyalties.