Director: Howard Hawks
Plot: Tensions flare on a cattle drive.
Excerpts from our roundtable discussion:
RAPP: What about Red River?
LEAGUE: It’s a little too ham-handed. The complexity of issues in The Searchers is more interesting.
BLOOM: But John Wayne is a meaner son of a bitch in Red River. Even Walter Brennan doesn’t like him, and Walter Brennan likes everybody. But I get the impression that if a western makes this list, it’s probably only going to be one western. There have been hundreds of ’em, and we didn’t have that many on our lists.
KELLY: Maybe there’s not a truly defining Texas western.
BLOOM: Red River is probably as close as you get.
RAPP: I would say Red River.
RAMÍREZ BERG: It’s Hollywood’s version of the founding of King Ranch. And Hollywood’s version of the Chisholm Trail and the first cattle drive. I mean, that’s pretty Texan.
BLOOM: Plus he kills a lot of people.
Read the entire roundtable discussion on the ten greatest Texas films ever.
•••••
And now, the Alamo Drafthouse Presents . . .
The Texas Monthly Rolling Roadshow
Starting June 3, the Alamo Drafthouse and TEXAS MONTHLY will be showing all ten of these films in unique, location-specific settings all over Texas. For more information, please visit texasmonthly.com/texasfilms or drafthouse.com/texasfilms.
