Screening Dates
  • June 18, 2023 2:30
  • June 29, 2023 7:00
  • July 1, 2023 7:00
  • July 3, 2023 2:30
New Restoration

“The greatest Western ever made.”

John Carpenter

A sheriff enlists the help of an unlikely set of heroes, including a drunk, a teenager, and an old man with a bum leg, to keep order in a town beset by a corrupt rancher and his men. Rio Bravo warrants its place in the pantheon of Westerns not for its plot but its characters: Quentin Tarantino famously describes it as a great ​“hangout movie,” meaning that its main pleasure is in spending time with John Wayne’s sheriff and his sidekicks. Wayne’s star power forms a new constellation with crooner Dean Martin as an alcoholic deputee out for redemption, teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson as a young gunslinger, and breakout Angie Dickinson as a seductive gambler with dubious morals. Rio Bravo seamlessly blends comedy, romance, action—and even musical interludes—in Howard Hawks’s late-career masterpiece.

“May very well be, along with Hatari!, Howard Hawks’s testament.”

Serge Daney, Visages du cinéma

“If I were asked to choose a film that would justify the existence of Hollywood, I think it would be Rio Bravo.”

Robin Wood
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