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Rio Bravo
(1959)
Dir: Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks is a master filmmaker, which explains why so many people copy him. The recent film, Assault on Precinct 13, directed by Jean-Francios Richet, is a remake of the John Carpenter film of the same title. Carpenter wrote Precinct by taking basic story elements and more importantly characterization from Rio Bravo. Carpenter, being a pretty good filmmaker himself, did a swell job of making a modern day western by keeping his characters at the center of the story instead of getting caught up in the action. But nothing beats Hawks’ original. When you have John Wayne playing John T. Chance, a ruff sheriff and a great leader, followed by Dean Martin playing, The Dude, a straight shooter turned drunkard after a girl destroyed his pride, you’re in for a great movie.
Rio Bravo is about a sheriff and his deputies doing the right thing, even when it may cost them their lives. The villain, Joe Burdette, has murdered an innocent bystander so Chance arrests him with the help of the town drunk. The drunk then becomes The Dude, he is now deputized and does his job with as much pride available to him after a long run of shame. Chance knows that the problem with having Joe under arrest is that his older brother, Nathan Burdette, is willing to wage war on the prison to free him. Chance also knows that that war can come at any moment as they wait for the Marshall to arrive and take the prisoner away, which is a six day wait.
This is beautiful writing too, anytime you can implement a time restriction, like waiting for the sun to rise in From Dusk Till Dawn, or Lola reaching Manny before noon in Run Lola Run, it will add a wonderful layer of suspense to the film. So Chance, the Dude and an old man named Stumpy are faced with the decision: is Joe’s arrest worth dying for; is justice worth dying for?
Sadly the theme of justice-in-an-unjust-world dissolves more and more with each remake of this film. Carpenter tried to keep it, and Richet lost it altogether. Humor took a hard blow in Richet’s version after Wayne and Martin showed us a great time with their fun talks, and jovial way about life. Darwin Joston, the Joe Burdette character, in carpenter’s version, had some good laughs while Lawrence Fishburne, as the same character, wasn’t fun to watch at all. Watch all three but admire the original.
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