Red River, 1948

(Dunson played by John Wayne)
Mission: Dunson and Garth must lead a cattle drive all the way to Missouri. They will not stop at anything due to financial issues, and the difficulty of the mission. Then after Garth takes on the mission of herding the cattle without Dunson, Dunson makes it his mission to kill Garth.

Plot: Rancher Thomas Dunson (played by John Wayne) has built the largest herd of cattle in the state of Texas. He started with one cow and one bull, and has created a herd of over 10,000 steers. Now he, and Matt Garth (played by Montgomery Clift), a kid he practically raised as his own, must herd all of his cattle across the state border to Missouri for money to save his ranch. Along the way Dunson believes his men become weak, so he continues to push them until they can no longer take it. Finally after Dunson becomes more of a dictator than a leader, Garth takes over the herd. Dunson swears to catch up to Garth, and kill him once they meet. The men driving the cattle have heard tales of Abilene, Kansas, so Garth drives the herd in that direction. Along the way Garth's buddy, Cherry, finds a group of women heading towards Nevada. One of whom is particularly smitten with Garth, so much that she doesn't even flinch when she is pinned to a wall with an arrow. Garth leaves her to take the cattle and shortly after, Dunson reaches the group of women. The smitten woman, Tess, offers Dunson anything he wants in exchange that he won't kill Garth. He doesn't take the bait and continues his new mission to find Garth. Garth reaches Abilene with the majority of the cattle, and the Tradesmen of the town agrees to pay a price no man can refuse. He signs the contract, and then proceeds to wait until Dunson catches up to him. Once Dunson reaches the town of Abilene, he kills Cherry, and proceeds to Garth. But do to their father/son relationship, he can't go through with it.

Significance: Howard Hawke's first western defines the way cattle drives are portrayed for years to come. This was a new way to approach making movies because he spent 3 million to make the movie, which went way over budget, but the film ended up being one of the top grossing films of the year. The way he depicts the character's throughout the film, reflects society's view of men at the time. The men were always aloof to anything that didn't involve work, or something that would broaden their masculinity in the eyes of everyone else. Hawke also makes the close relationship between Dunson and Garth prominent. If it hadn't been for the hyper-macho tension, the relationship would have seemed almost too homoerotic and the film would have faced rejection from its intended audience.
(Tess played by Joanne Dru)

Discussion: Our class examined the more romantic relationship between the men. Garth and Dunson have a very tight bond due to the fact that Dunson raised Garth like a son. Then there is the relationship between Garth and Cherry. They are best friends but this is where the romanticism comes into play. In one scene, Cherry and Garth exchange guns, which we have examined to be extremely phallic and homoerotic. They take about five minutes to admire each others guns, slowly feeling and looking. Finally one of them spots a can, and they shoot using the other one's gun. After they admire the power and strength each others guns have, which tightens their bond, and creates a sense of comfort between them. Women were also portrayed in a more leading role in this movie. Tess took her wound like a man, and she acted almost like one too, except for the fact that she was completely smitten, which most western women were depicted as.
(Garth played my Montgomerey Clift)