Red River.- Filmsite

Filmsite es una web de cine escrita y editada por Tim Dirks. Es bastante completa y se centra sobre todo en lo que llama 100 Greatest Films of the 20th Century. No podían faltar las películas de Montgomery Clift. Por orden cronológico iré haciendo una recopilación.

(English text)

RED RIVER (1948)

A lone, wounded rider (William Self), a wrangler half-dead from starvation and a throat wound from an attempted hanging, appears on horseback. He ominously tells the men of how he rode as "point" man for two thousand head of cattle owned by "old man Carver." When their herd crossed "the big Red," they were jumped by about a hundred men - border bandits who stampeded the cattle and picked off the men one by one: "We didn't have a chance, not a chance." He suggests that they take an alternate safer route, going north at the Red River toward Abilene, Kansas where the railroad had been extended (the same trail and market railhead that Cherry had already eluded to).

Three of the men (mostly anonymous individuals until this juncture in the film), including Naylor (Glenn Strange) and Fernandez (Paul Fierro), openly challenge Dunson in a showdown, because they are convinced they should drive the herd to Kansas instead of Missouri. They threaten to leave the drive: "We started a drive we'll never finish." Dunson reminds them that leaving would violate the honorable commitment that they made when they signed on to finish the drive ("You agreed to finish this drive. I'm gonna hold you to it"). When they are poised to draw their guns against Dunson, Matt, Cherry, and Groot side with their unarmed leader. Groot tosses a loaded-cocked rifle to Dunson, and both Matt and Cherry draw their blazing guns. After the cold-blooded execution of the three "quitters," Dunson turns and defiantly asks the rest of the men:

All right. Anybody else? Say it now, 'cause I don't want ever to hear it again. I don't like quitters, especially when they're not good enough to finish what they start. Now go on! Speak up! Say it and you can join your friends here...

He announces that he will "read over 'em in the morning." After the tyrannical assertion of power, Simms (Hank Worden) speaks about Dunson's violent practices:

Plantin' and readin', plantin' and readin'. Fill a man full of lead and stick him in the ground and then read words at him. Why, when you killed a man, why try to read the Lord in as a partner on the job?

Although Matt assisted in the killing, he questions his father's judgment and dictatorial rule and declares his behavior "wrong" - progressively distancing himself from Dunson's moral values:

Matt: You didn't have to do that back there

Dunson: You joined in

Matt: Yeah, and I thought you were wrong

Dunson: Well then why didn't ya...

Matt: Don't try and tell me what to think. I'll take your orders about work, but not about what to think.

Dunson: You think I'm to blame for that?

Matt: Just as sure as you're sittin' there

Dunson: And so?

Matt: So I'll take your orders.

Como puede verse, se va desglosando la sinopsis del filme y aparecen multiud de dioálogos, sobre todo entre Dunson (Wayne) y Matt (Clift). Ocupa 2 páginas así que es mejor verlo directamente en la página. Y la única foto, es curiosamente un póster italiano.