Critics review: www.rogeregbert.com

I cannot say I agree with them however.
What Rio Bravo proved quite definitely to me is how much the classic western is aimed at men and boys, this is a topic we as a class have already discussed in depth in the first week of the semester when reading Tompkins' article 'The west of everything'. I found this evident from the sheer amount of violence exhibited in the film, in fact with in just the first five minutes there's one stand off, one dead and two incapacitated through being hit with either fists or the wrong end of a rifle and all with (at a guess) less than 100 words said. While I'm sure this appeals to some the violence with very little context at the beginning of the film (and then more as the movie progresses) seems rather pointless other than showing which men roughly dominate which other ones although this is susceptible to change. Maybe, if you're really perceptive, it will indicate good guys and bad guys in the film but with everyone shooting everyone else and everyone wearing similar things and pulling their guns all at once this is easy to miss.
An astonishing lack of female representation is indicative of this too, in the whole film I noted 2 women, including extras within which I saw no women. of the two female characters one of them had very little screen time and the other's main position seemed to be love interest to the main character whom did nothing in attempt to get this lady, simply a woman who's young enough to be his daughter just simply started falling all over him while he stood and plainly talked about his job, because that happens all the time in real life doesn't it?

First released in 1959, Rio Bravo is nearly, if not the most recent of the films I could have chosen for this task and I will admit it shows in the acting and the general quality of the special effects, sound and continuity in comparison to some of the other westerns we have watched in class. It is almost certain that Rio Bravo has more to be explored and hopefully some of that is more positive than what I have said here, and perhaps with a more experience of western films Rio Bravo appears more like the shining beacon of western cinema that the professional critics paint it to be. While I'd like to spend my time catching up on all the western films made between the 1930's and 60's in order to provide an educated comparison, I haven't the time; what i can provide is an outsiders opinion on the film which, as you have seen, is generally poor.
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