A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
The movie is simultaneously an apogee of the classic Western style, with its principled violence in defense of just law, and an eccentrically hyperbolic work of modernism, which yokes both bumptious erotic comedy and soul-searing rawness to the mission.
– Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
23 Apr 2013
fresh:
To watch Rio Bravo is to see a master craftsman at work. The film is seamless. There is not a shot that is wrong. It is uncommonly absorbing, and the 141-minute running time flows past like running water.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Apr 2013
fresh:
Rio Bravo is a big, brawling western.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
13 May 2008
fresh:
Howard Hawks's finest western (1959), and perhaps his finest film.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
13 May 2008
fresh:
Despite its slickness, virility, occasional humor and, if it may be repeated, authentic professional approach, it is well-made but awfully familiar fare.