History Film / RedRiver

Not to be confused with the {{time travel}}ling [[Manga/AnatoliaStory Shoujo Manga]] of the same name. Film debut of Montgomery Clift, although the long delay after production wrapped meant that Clift's second film, ''Film/TheSearch'', actually came out first.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Without quite saying so, the film makes clear that Tess and all the girls in the wagon train that our heroes encounter are prostitutes. They are, after all, strangely attractive and dressed suspiciously well for a Wild West wagon train.

After the arrival in Abilene, Matt succeeds in selling off the entire herd, but then has to face up with Dunson 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."

* TheNarrator: Groot, [[ReCut depending on which cut of the film you're watching.]] The cut commonly available in latter days has pages from a diary instead of spoken narration.

In the prologue, Tom Dunson (Wayne) and his sidekick [[GenderBlenderName Nadine]] 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 Garth, and adopts him, using his cow as the first of germ of what is to become a giant cattle farm.

* BadBoss: Thomas Dunson was a pretty abusive boss during the drive. He locked his men in a contract bind where none of them could quit, forced them to drive the ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country for countless laborious, frustrating days without allowing any of his men to have food, water or rest. And then he also tried to whip one of his men just for causing some of the cattle to be lost and/or killed, executed three men who tried to abandon the drive (although Matt and Cherry also took part.) and eventually going after his adopted son.

* BadBoss: Thomas Dunson was a pretty abusive boss during the drive. He locked his men in a contract bind where none of them could quit, forced them to drive the ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country for countless laborious, frustrating days without allowing any of his men to have food, water or rest. And then he also tried to whip one of his men just for causing some of the cattle to be lost and/or killed, executed three men who tried to abandon the drive and eventually going after his adopted son.

* BadBoss: Thomas Dunson was a pretty abusive boss during the drive. He locked his men in a contract bind where none of them could quit, forced them to drive the ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country for countless laborious, frustrating days without allowing any of his men to have food, water or rest. And then he also tried to whip one of his men just for causing some of the cattle to be lost and/or killed, executed three men who tried to abandon the drive and

* BadBoss: Thomas Dunson was a pretty abusive boss during the drive. He locked his men in a contract bind where none of them could quit, forced them to drive the ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country for countless laborious, frustrating days without allowing any of his men to have food, water or rest.

* BadBoss: Thomas Dunson was a pretty abusive boss during the drive. He locked his men in a contract bind where none of them could quit, forced them to drive the ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country for countless laborious, frustrating days without allowing any of his man to have food, water or rest.

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.

-->Dunson: Cherry was right. You're soft. You should have let 'em kill me, 'cause I'm gonna kill ''you''. I'll catch up with you. I don't know when, but I'll catch up. Every time you turn around, expect to see me, 'cause one time you'll turn around and I'll be there. I'm gonna kill you, Matt.

* SpiritedYoungLady: Tess Millay, the ladylike, elegant ... and ''sassy'' ProfessionalGambler who doesn't bat an eye when ''shot by an arrow''.

* ChekhovsGun: One of the cowboys has a habit of stealing from the sugar supply. Eventually he knocks over a bunch of pans while stealing sugar, causing the cattle to stampede.
* CoolTrain

* JustAFleshWound: Tess barely reacts to having a arrow pierce her shoulder. Though it appears to hurt a lot more coming out.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The man who accidentally started the stampede making a clatter while trying to steal sugar from the chuck wagon, which leads to Dan Latimer's death.

* {{Retirony}}: Harry Carey's character talks about what he's going to do with the money he gets when the cattle drive is over. He talks about buying a home and getting his wife a pair of fancy red shoes. He's dead five minutes later.
* RetiredGunfighter

* ShowdownAtHighNoon: subverted
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Tom Dunson.

* SweetTooth: One of Dunson's men has a predilection for stealing sugar from the chuck wagon, which has disastrous consequences when his clattering one night rouses the skittish cattle to stampede.

* RecycledINSPACE: The writers admitted that the film was ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'', with cows.

* GenreSavvy: [[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. (Turns out to be WrongGenreSavvy; Cherry supports Matt in the mutiny and becomes his effective second in command.)

Many years later, Matt (Montgomery Clift) returns from the UsefulNotes/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.

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 ''Film/TheSearchers'', and it is perhaps significant that critics have likened the Duke's character in both these films to Captain Ahab from ''Literature/MobyDick''. Originally Hawks wanted to cast Creator/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 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 in getting the budget doubled to $1.5 million.

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

* RecycledINSPACE: The writers admitted that the film was ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'' with cows.

* SexyDiscretionShot: Tess and Matt meet up when he's on night watch, they have a heart-to-heart...and then we fade to them laying back and flirting.
** Later on, when 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.

* SpiritedYoungLady: Tess Millay, the ladylike, elegant...and ''sassy'' ProfessionalGambler who doesn't bat an eye when ''shot by an arrow''.

* SweetTooth: One of Dunson's men has a prediliction for stealing sugar from the chuck wagon, which has disastrous consequences when his clattering one night rouses the skittish cattle to stampede.

* ChekhovsGun: One of the cowboys has a habit of stealing from the sugar supply. Eventually he knocks over a bunch of pans while stealing sugar, causing the cattle to stampede;.

* CampCook: Goot, though ''some'' may disagree.

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

* TheMutiny: ''Red River'' has been described as "''Literature/MutinyOnTheBounty'' on the prairie". Dunson's increasingly erratic and tyrannical behavior leads to Matt taking control of the cattle drive and going to Abilene instead of Missouri. The last straw is when Dunson says he's going to hang three men who tried to leave the party.

* {{Rancher}} Tom Dunson.

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

* TheNarrator: Groot, [[ReCut depending on which cut of the film you're watching.]]