History Film / RedRiver

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Cherry's morality was always a little shaky [[spoiler:until his HeelFaceTurn at the end]]. And Mr. Dunson kept spiraling downward up until the very end.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: When Cherry tries to stop Dunson before the final showdown with Matt, he barely even slows him down]].

* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]]]] When noticing the friendly shooting competition Cherry and Matt engage in, Groot remarks that it's setting up an inevitable confrontation between the two. ([[spoiler: Turns out to be WrongGenreSavvy; Cherry supports Matt in the mutiny and becomes his effective second in command.]])

* IllKillYou: Dunson tells Matt this after the mutiny, [[spoiler: turns out to be nothing but hot air later.]]

* TheMutiny: ''Red River'' has been described as "''Literature/MutinyOnTheBounty'' on the prairie".
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The man who accidentally started the stampede making a clatter while trying to steal sugar from the chuck wagon, which leads to [[spoiler: Dan Latimer's death]].

** Later on, when [[spoiler: she shows up in his hotel room to warn him Dunson's coming]], it's followed by a BigDamnKiss...and then a fade to another scene.

* ShowdownAtHighNoon: [[spoiler:subverted]]
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Tom Dunson.]]
* SweetTooth: One of Dunson's men has a predeliction for stealing sugar from the chuck wagon, which has disastrous consequences when his clattering one night rouses the skittish cattle to stampede.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Cherry Valance [[spoiler: till his HeelFaceTurn anyway.]]

* WorthyOpponent: Matt and Cherry. When they first meet, they admire each other's guns and have a friendly bout of shooting. ''Everyone'' around them braces for the inevitable eventual confrontation. [[spoiler: Doesn't happen--their mutual respect leads to a kind of friendship.]]

* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]]]] When noticing the friendly shooting competition Cherry and Matt engage in, Groot remarks that it's setting up an inevitable confrontation between the two. ([[spoiler: Turns out to be WrongGenreSavvy; Cherry supports Matt in the mutiny and becomes his effective second in command.]])
* TheGunslinger: Cherry Valance is a well known gunman.
* FastestGunInTheWest: Cherry wants to go toe to toe with Matt, to see who's the best.

* TheMutiny: ''Red River'' has been described as "''Literature/MutinyOnTheBounty'' on the prairie".
* TheNarrator: Groot, [[ReCut depending on which cut of the film you're watching.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: This being a HowardHawks film, it's a WorldOfSnark. Everyone from Dunson to Groot to Matt to Cherry to Tess to Crow.

* DeadpanSnarker: This being a HowardHawks film, it's a WorldOfSnark. Everyone from Dunson to Groot to Matt to Cherry to Tess.

Not to be confused with the {{time travel}}ling [[AnatoliaStory Shoujo Manga]] of the same name.

* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] When noticing the friendly shooting competition Cherry and Matt engage in, Groot remarks that it's setting up an inevitable confrontation between the two. ([[spoiler: Turns out to be WrongGenreSavvy; Cherry supports Matt in the mutiny and becomes his effective second in command.]])

* TheNarrator: Groot.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Tom Dunson.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: When Cherry tries to stop Dunson before the final confrontation, he barely even slows him down]].

After the arrival in Abilene, Matt succeeds in selling off the entire herd, but then has to face up with Dunstan the following day. As Matt refuses to draw, Dunson can't bring himself to shoot him in cold blood and the showdown devolves into a fistfight, which is finally broken up by Tess. Says Dunston to Matt: "You better marry that girl."

* TheMutiny: ''Red River'' has been described as "''MutinyOnTheBounty'' on the prairie".

Many years later, Matt (Montgomery Clift) returns from the TheAmericanCivilWar at a time when Dunson and the other farmers are in trouble because there is no buyer in Texas for their cattle. So the farmers pool their herds together for a 10,000-head drive to Missouri on what will be known as the Chisholm Trail under Dunson's leadership. Since Dunson in the prologue had not hesitated to shoot off the rightful Mexican owner of part of his land, it comes as no surprise that he runs the drive a bit harshly when times are tough. Although there are plenty of dangers and hairy moments on the drive, including a big stampede, to make this ''somewhat'' understandable, Dunson does not exactly behave rationally after a while, for instance in his outright refusal to change the direction to Abilene, which is nearer and where a new railhead has just been opened.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheClash Hey, where did I see this guy?]]]]

A 1948 movie starring JohnWayne, the first [[TheWestern Western]] directed by Creator/HowardHawks. Perhaps the ultimate CattleDrive movie, it is based on the novel ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, which was previously serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Remarkable as the first movie in which John Wayne played a character with greater depth, an aging man, and a larger-than-life borderline {{Ubermensch}}. On first seeing it, Creator/JohnFord famously commented: "Hey, the S.O.B. can act!" Ford would go on to use Wayne in a similar way in ''TheSearchers'' and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''MobyDick''. Originally Creator/HowardHawks wanted to cast Gary Cooper in the lead, but Cooper demanded the screenplay be changed in order to make his character more sympathetic, so Hawks offered the part to Wayne instead. Which turned out a good thing, because not only could Wayne teach Hawks a thing or two about filming Westerns, but he also was instrumental to get the budget doubled to 1.5 million dollars.

In the prologue Tom Dunson (Wayne) and his sidekick Groot (Walter Brennan) set up a farm on the Red River in Texas. Dunson's lady love Fen is killed in an Indian attack on a wagon trek, but he picks up the sole survivor, Matt, and adopts him, using his cow as the first of germ of what is to become a giant cattle farm.

A 1948 movie starring JohnWayne, the first [[TheWestern Western]] directed by HowardHawks. Perhaps the ultimate CattleDrive movie, it is based on the novel ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, which was previously serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Remarkable as the first movie in which John Wayne played a character with greater depth, an aging man, and a larger-than-life borderline {{Ubermensch}}. On first seeing it, Creator/JohnFord famously commented: "Hey, the S.O.B. can act!" Ford would go on to use Wayne in a similar way in ''TheSearchers'' and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''MobyDick''. Originally Howard Hawks wanted to cast Gary Cooper in the lead, but Cooper demanded the screenplay be changed in order to make his character more sympathetic, so Hawks offered the part to Wayne instead. Which turned out a good thing, because not only could Wayne teach Hawks a thing or two about filming Westerns, but he also was instrumental to get the budget doubled to 1.5 million dollars.

A 1948 movie starring JohnWayne, the first [[TheWestern Western]] directed by HowardHawks. Perhaps the ultimate CattleDrive movie, it is based on the novel ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, which was previously serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Remarkable as the first movie in which John Wayne played a character with greater depth, an aging man, and a larger-than-life borderline {{Ubermensch}}. On first seeing it, Creator/JohnFord famously commented: "Hey, the S.O.B. can act!" Ford would go on to use Wayne in a similar way in ''TheSearchers'' and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''MobyDick''. Originally Howard Hawks wanted to cast GaryCooper in the lead, but Cooper demanded the screenplay be changed in order to make his character more sympathetic, so Hawks offered the part to John Wayne instead. Which turned out a good thing, because not only could Wayne teach Hawks a thing or two about filming Westerns, but he also was instrumental to get the budget doubled to 1.5 million dollars.

In the prologue Tom Dunson (Wayne) and his sidekick Groot (WalterBrennan) set up a farm on the Red River in Texas. Dunson's lady love Fen is killed in an Indian attack on a wagon trek, but he picks up the sole survivor, Matt, and adopts him, using his cow as the first of germ of what is to become a giant cattle farm.

Many years later, Matt (Creator/MontgomeryClift) returns from the TheAmericanCivilWar at a time when Dunson and the other farmers are in trouble because there is no buyer in Texas for their cattle. So the farmers pool their herds together for a 10,000-head drive to Missouri on what will be known as the Chisholm Trail under Dunson's leadership. Since Dunson in the prologue had not hesitated to shoot off the rightful Mexican owner of part of his land, it comes as no surprise that he runs the drive a bit harshly when times are tough. Although there are plenty of dangers and hairy moments on the drive, including a big stampede, to make this ''somewhat'' understandable, Dunson does not exactly behave rationally after a while, for instance in his outright refusal to change the direction to Abilene, which is nearer and where a new railhead has just been opened.

A 1948 movie starring JohnWayne, the first [[TheWestern Western]] directed by (HowardHawks). Perhaps the ultimate CattleDrive movie, it is based on the novel ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, which was previously serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Remarkable as the first movie in which John Wayne played a character with greater depth, an aging man, and a larger-than-life borderline {{Ubermensch}}. On first seeing it, Creator/JohnFord famously commented: "Hey, the S.O.B. can act!" Ford would go on to use Wayne in a similar way in ''TheSearchers'' and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''MobyDick''. Originally Howard Hawks wanted to cast GaryCooper in the lead, but Cooper demanded the screenplay be changed in order to make his character more sympathetic, so Hawks offered the part to John Wayne instead. Which turned out a good thing, because not only could Wayne teach Hawks a thing or two about filming Westerns, but he also was instrumental to get the budget doubled to 1.5 million dollars.

A 1948 movie starring JohnWayne, the first [[TheWestern Western]] directed by (HowardHawks). Perhaps the ultimate CattleDrive movie, it is based on the novel ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, which was previously serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Remarkable as the first movie in which John Wayne played a character with greater depth, an aging man, and a larger-than-life borderline {{Ubermensch}}. On first seeing it, JohnFord famously commented: "Hey, the S.O.B. can act!" Ford would go on to use Wayne in a similar way in ''TheSearchers'' and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''MobyDick''. Originally Howard Hawks wanted to cast GaryCooper in the lead, but Cooper demanded the screenplay be changed in order to make his character more sympathetic, so Hawks offered the part to John Wayne instead. Which turned out a good thing, because not only could Wayne teach Hawks a thing or two about filming Westerns, but he also was instrumental to get the budget doubled to 1.5 million dollars.

* TheGunslinger

* I'll Kill You!: Dunson tells Matt this after the mutiny.

After the arrival in Abilene, Matt succeeds in selling off the entire herd, but then has to face up with Tom Dunstan the following day. As Matt refuses to draw, Dunson can't bring himself to shoot him in cold blood and the showdown devolves into a fistfight, which is finally broken up by Tess. Says Dunston to Matt: "You better marry that girl."

Many years later, Matt (MontgomeryClift) returns from the TheAmericanCivilWar at a time when Dunson and the other farmers are in trouble because there is no buyer in Texas for their cattle. So the farmers pool their herds together for a 10,000-head drive to Missouri on what will be known as the Chisholm Trail under Dunson's leadership. Since Dunson in the prologue had not hesitated to shoot off the rightful Mexican owner of part of his land, it comes as no surprise that he runs the drive a bit harshly when times are tough. Although there are plenty of dangers and hairy moments on the drive, including a big stampede, to make this ''somewhat'' understandable, Dunson does not exactly behave rationally after a while, for instance in his outright refusal to change the direction to Abilene, which is nearer and where a new railhead has just been opened.

After the arrival in Abilene, Matt succeeds in selling off the entire herd, but then has to face up with Tom Dunstan the following day. As Matt refuses to draw, Dunson can't bring himself to shoot him in cold blood and the showdown devolves into a fistfight, which is finally broken up by Tess. Says Dunston to Matt: "Why don't you marry the girl?"