Release Date: June 5, 2007
Film Rating:  /
Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan and Ward Bond
Screenplay by: Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett
Directed and Produced by: Howard Hawks
Rio Bravo is Howard Hawks’ famous answer to High Noon, a straight-ahead Western with the standard characters and a solid cast to play them. Hawks also responds to the onset of television programming here, by incorporating no less than 3 plots within the main narrative. One story follows Dean Martin as the fallen, drunken town deputy and his path to redemption. Another story follows a fanciful romance between John Wayne’s sheriff and a young Angie Dickinson. Both stories are played out within the main idea – the sheriff locks up a local hoodlum for murder and has to battle the hoodlum’s rich brother and an army of bad guys who want to free their man. It is interesting to see the film today as a period piece – it shows John Wayne settling into middle age and Howard Hawks reaffirming his stature as one of the top Hollywood directors of his day. The movie definitely takes its time along the way, and there aren’t too many suprises here, but this is a great way to experience solid Hollywood filmmaking circa 1959.
Rio Bravo was released in May of this year as a 2-Disc standard DVD special edition with the film on one disc and almost 2 hours of special features on the other. An “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” was also released at the same time, containing lobby cards, a press book and a comic book along with the discs. Warner Brothers has now released the film as a single-disc Blu-Ray, which contains all the features of the 2-disc standard release without the extra paper goods from the Ultimate edition. The difference for the Blu-Ray release, obviously, is the new 1080p VC-1 transfer, which is the best the film has ever looked for home video release.
 VIDEO QUALITY: 4/5
Rio Bravo is presented in a very nice 1080p VC-1 transfer which brings out the rich colors of the film, from the costuming to a picturesque sunset. One area where the transfer really shines is the detailing of Angie Dickinson’s costumes: Her initial checkered outfit comes across as a solid image without the quivering that would happen in a 480p transfer. (Going back and forth on that costume alone between the 1080p feature and the 480p featurettes immediately makes this clear.)
The print itself is a bit dated and grainy. The cross-faded transitions particularly show a drop in print quality. However, these are simply issues of the print itself, which has clearly been restored – and the Hi-Definition transfer brings out the best qualities of the restoration. The grain in the print limits some of the detail, but the transfer still succeeds in many areas, especially the costume details.
AUDIO QUALITY: 3/5
Rio Bravo is presented in what sounds like the original mono mix in both English and French. Voices and music are mostly clear, although the source audio still has dropouts here and there. John Wayne’s arrest of Claude Akins has one such dropout that makes his first line hard to understand. This is not a fault of the audio quality of the disc – simply a problem of the track itself. Other than that, there isn’t much to speak of in this area.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 4/5
The Blu-Ray presentation of Rio Bravo includes all of the special features from the standard DVD edition, presented in standard definition.
- Audio Commentary with Richard Schickel and John Carpenter – The feature commentary from the 2-disc edition has been included here. Essentially, we are presented with the views of a reliable historian on the one hand, and the film’s biggest fan on the other. The two men have not recorded this track together – instead, they have each watched the film separately, recording scene-specific comments that have now been spliced together. This isn’t a bad thing – the perspective on the film simply shifts back and forth, which provides a nice variety. Both men clearly have a lot of affection for this film, and it shows.
- Commemoration: Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (33:24) (480p anamorphic) – This newly-created featurette (included from the 2-disc edition) is a loving look back at the film, using interviews with various directors, including John Carpenter, Peter Bogdanovich and Walter Hill along with film historians and the only surviving member of the cast, Angie Dickinson. Howard Hawks is present in audio clips from interviews conducted before his death in 1977. The central issues of the film and its production are addressed, including Hawks’ dislike for High Noon, and his inclusion of similar material to that of To Have and Have Not in this film for the romantic scenes. The only aspect that goes unaddressed is Hawks’ remakes of this film in the following years.
- Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked (8:35) (480p anamorphic) – This is another newly-created featurette also included on the 2-disc standard release. This time the focus is the Arizona backlot where the exteriors of Rio Bravo were filmed. There is a little information here on the various films that have been produced at the simulated Western town, but much of this plays as an extended commercial for both movie producers and tourists to come visit the site. (It’s more likely to attract the latter these days, given the various western towns and ranches available in the Los Angeles area within a short drive.)
- The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (55:03) (480p full-frame) – As on the standard definition 2-disc edition, the Blu-Ray disc includes this 1973 television documentary on the career of Howard Hawks. It is interesting to note that the documentary was put together by the same Richard Schickel who contributes to the commentary on this disc. The documentary primarily consists of 1973 interview footage with Hawks, intercut with clips from films directed by Hawks over the years. The last film discussed in the documentary is Rio Bravo, effectively stopping at the final peak of Hawks’ career. (The documentary refers to Hawks as involuntarily retired at this point, and Hawks died within a few years of participating.)
- John Wayne Westerns Trailer Gallery (9:59 total) (480p full-frame) – As on the standard definition 2-disc, a series of 5 movie trailers for John Wayne westerns are included here. Four of them are for films from 1932 and 1933, featuring a shockingly young Wayne riding his white horse Duke! The fifth one is for Rio Bravo and shows a lot less color and detail than the 1080p transfer seen on the feature presentation.
Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish for the film itself, but not for the special features. The usual Blu-Ray pop-up menu is accessible during the film, this time in the form of a western-themed wooden horse hitch.
IN THE END...
Rio Bravo is an old-fashioned Western that wears its heart and its values on its sleeve. For John Wayne or Howard Hawks fans (or both), getting this film is a no-brainer. For film buffs who don’t know the film, this is a good way to experience it and then learn about it from the same disc. Yes, it’s a bit slow and there aren’t a lot of twists or turns here, but there is an undeniable amount of heart on display, not to mention a pretty good story. Given the superior 1080p transfer and the presence of all the disc extras from the 2-disc standard release from a month ago, it’s a very attractive Blu-Ray indeed.
Kevin Koster
June 18, 2007.
|
VIDEO QUALITY: 4/5 
