Sexy Angie Dickinson spices up this otherwise testosterone-heavy western starring John Wayne as a beleaguered sheriff in a lawless town. This film was Howard Hawks's response to Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon", with an identical premise, but diametrically opposite ideological point-of-view. While "High Noon" was a leftist cry in the wilderness bemoaning the lack of solidarity among human beings, ''Rio Bravo" is a right-wing allegory about experienced professionals doing their jobs without caring about anything else. In fact, both film could be seen as allegories about George W. Bush's presidency: "High Noon" about his unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to built an anti-Saddam coalition, and "Rio Bravo" about the efforts of his tiny "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.
May 19, 1970
Rio Bravo (1959) *****
Sexy Angie Dickinson spices up this otherwise testosterone-heavy western starring John Wayne as a beleaguered sheriff in a lawless town. This film was Howard Hawks's response to Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon", with an identical premise, but diametrically opposite ideological point-of-view. While "High Noon" was a leftist cry in the wilderness bemoaning the lack of solidarity among human beings, ''Rio Bravo" is a right-wing allegory about experienced professionals doing their jobs without caring about anything else. In fact, both film could be seen as allegories about George W. Bush's presidency: "High Noon" about his unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to built an anti-Saddam coalition, and "Rio Bravo" about the efforts of his tiny "coalition of the willing" in Iraq.
