Rio Bravo - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rio Bravo



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
John Wayne westerns hold a special place in my heart despite the western phase of Hollywood sort of fading off into the sunset. They were the films that I would watch with my grandfather as a child. The movies that he loved and held dear to his heart, and like every young kid, I watched them too in order to get closer to him. After he died a few years back they’ve sort of become almost MORE special than when I was a kid. A reminder of the great times I had with the craggy old guy, watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies into the night until my mother pretty much forced me to go. I guess you could say that “they don’t make em like they used to”, and very few westerns can rise to the quality that is 1959’s Rio Bravo, and that’s not just my nostalgia talking.

Sheriff John Chance (John Wayne) has a bit of a problem. He’s finally got the brother of a local crooked rancher for murder, and he’s got no one to back him up. You see, said rancher has dozens of professional killers for hire, and getting the murderer to trial means getting passed those dozens of men who are just waiting for the sheriff to come out and eat him alive. About the only help he does have is from a drunken ex deputing named Dude (Dean Martin) and a cackling old gimp named Stumpy (Walter Brennan). Meaning their luck is about to run out.

Matters are further muddled when a stage coach comes to town with some oddball passengers, leaving Chance having to take care of a lovely young card shark named Feathers (Angie Dickinson), and keep the locals from getting shot by the hoards of mercenaries that are coming their way. Simple, seen a million times in films like 3:10 to Yuma, but Rio Bravo is anything but plagiarized or “boring”.

What makes Rio Bravo special is the fact that legendary director Howard Hawk’s film is just so well done with both casting and story that it rises above the rote narrative. A “last stand with nothing to lose” story of a sheriff taking a stand is nothing new, but for some reason the various flavored characters just work together so impeccably well. John Wayne is John Wayne. Nothing will ever change that, and nothing will ever make his hammy William Shatner esque acting any better than it is. However, the man was charisma incarnate, able to draw audiences to theaters like no one else. And both Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin are on point for this film. Little Ricky is just a wet behind the ears singer trying to make a name for himself in film here, but he does solidly as the baby faced gunslinger who has nothing to prove. That being said, the film is completely stolen by Dean Martin. Martin is best known for his slick backed hair and Rat Pack ensemble cast films, but his absolutely acts his heart out here as a drunken deputy looking for redemption. He’s nuanced, likable, and genuinely hard to tell that it’s Dean Martin as the over the top swagger and accent that he normally sports is subdued and focused.

Howard Hawks almost never disappoints (unless you count the movie before this one, Land of the Pharoahs), as he’s delivered hit after hit after hit for multiple decades. Films like Sgt. York, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blones and a half dozen other John Wayne films. But he completely outdoes himself here, taking a tired and well worn western cliché and breathing new life into it via subtle and nuanced characters, while never deviating from the tried and true tropes that make films like Rio Bravo or 3:10 to Yuma so much pulp popcorn fun.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

The 2007 Warner Brothers Blu-ray was pretty solid for the time, but like many other films that were released in that era of the format war, it was put on a 25 gb disc to accommodate HD-DVD’s limited 30 gig max capacity. Not to mention the fact that mastering processes have only gotten better and better over the last 16 years. Supposedly the film has been restored (according to the press release) and a new 4K master struck which nets us a fairly large jump in picture quality. It could simply be that it was taken from the negative once more and put on 4K as both the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD disc sport very similarly color timed looks, as well as featuring masters that are clear of debris of dirt. But to be fair, that is nothing but a guess as we don’t have any concrete yes or no information to go on.

That being said, this new 4K disc looks superb in 2160p. Colors are warm and brown/red looking (as is typical of the time period) and black levels deep and inky. The Fine detailing on faces and background looks fantastic, especially since the natural film grain seems to be unmolested. Now, the reason I’m giving it a 4/5 instead of a 4.5/5 is simply because there are a few scenes that look a bit rough around the edges. The first one jumps out at your around the 5 minute and 15 second mark, just as we switch camera angels from Chance knocking out our infamous prisoner. It looks as if a lower quality source was used, or the camera negative had some resolution issues from the source. That low resolution looking issue crops up 2-3 times more throughout the film, and while not a big deal as most of the film looks great, keeps it from being truly exemplary.









Audio:

I don’t have the 2015 re-released Blu-ray on me, but from what I’ve gathered it seems that the 2.0 Mono track in DTS-HD MA is either identical to that 2015 re-release, or else so similar that no one would be able to tell the difference. The mix is distinctly free of auditory problems, with no hisses, crackles, or other age related abnormalities that tend to crop up in these older films. Dialog is split evenly between the mains, ambient music is just fine (and of course both Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson get a few minutes to break out into song and utilize those dulcet tones both of them are renowned for), and what little bass we have adds to the gunfights and action scenes.







Extras:

• Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel

Final Score: ​

As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of Rio Bravo. It’s one of those movies that just never gets old no matter how many times you watch it. It’s got what you want for a pulpy western, but is also more finely tuned for someone looking to take a more serious gaze upon the genre. Warner has had the same video transfer out for the better part of the Hi-Def format days (although it was silently re-released in 2015 with a lossless audio mix, which is replicated here instead of the 2.0 dolby digital lossy track from the original release) and the upgrade to 4K is amazing. My only gripe here is that Warner is now following Paramount’s footsteps in leaving out the Blu-ray disc and not making it a combo pack. In and of itself, that isn’t a deal breaker, but Warner has been leaving the extras on the Blu-ray disc, so that means we only get a single commentary track on the 4K disc. But don’t let that stop you from grabbing this great looking and sounding upgrade to one of the best westerns of the era.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Written by: Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett, B.H. McCampbell
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin) 1.0 DD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Dutch, Spanish (Latin America), Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: NR
Runtime: 141 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 1st, 2023

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[JStewart]

Tempting…