Red River written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee, directed by Howard Hawks is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html I try and look at what Red River means now, with MAGA embracing ‘values’ that belong to previous centuries, as in XIX, maybe XIII?

 

Red River written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee, directed by Howard Hawks is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

I try and look at what Red River means now, with MAGA embracing ‘values’ that belong to previous centuries, as in XIX, maybe XIII?

 

 

9 out of 10

 

Red River used to be celebrated as one of the greatest motion pictures, indeed, it still appears on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, but then the narrative might have been awkward for one generation, and now it can gain momentum again, what with MAGA screaming for blood, violence, get the aliens out…

 

Those who lead America now have a vision of history that may be reflected in Red River, for one thing, Native Americans – I think they were Cherokee at some point – were ‘bad, violent’, and America belongs to ‘Americans’, which means WASP, white Anglo-Saxon protestant, or close to that, out with the rest, the MAGA slogan

 

It is hyperbole, but we will see what happens next -John Wayne https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/12/rio-bravo-by-leigh-brackett-one-of.html seems to have been a prophet for the right, a conservative, from what I gather, he supported the campaign against those targeted by McCarthy

In Red River he has the role of Thomas Dunson, who becomes tyrannical with time, we see him in the opening images as he separates from the settlers aiming for California, he takes his companion, Groot, with him, and settles in Texas, where he is challenges by a hired gun, Dunson kills him and then we see this teenager

 

Montgomery Clift has the role of Matt Garth, the one who helped with his cow, sixteen years after they took the land, the farm has the biggest heard in Texas and maybe anywhere, although the owners are broke, they have to get ten thousand cattle to Missouri, where the railway line is, to sell the beef and make money

Incidentally, Dunson has this speech about beef, and the people, and I though about MAGA and their Orange buffoon wondering if Wayne would have been one of the few relevant thespians to be in that camp, alongside Gibson, maybe Eastwood – though the latter has not voiced support for what republicans do these days

 

Montgomery Clift https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-heiress-written-by-ruth-goetz.html was a titan of cinema, Burt Lancaster, another god of the genre, said that he felt his knees getting weak, and Lancaster was the epitome of physical and spiritual strength, evident in The Leopard and other magnum opera

They take the Chisholm trail, and challenges are plenty, they have a stampede, Dunson nearly kills the man who inadvertently provoked it, Matt saved that fellow, the leader becomes increasingly despotic, he wants to hang two men who run away, and this is when the conflict is out in the open, for Matt Garth says no

 

Moreover, the young man takes control of the herd, and he takes it to Abilene, in Kansas, avoiding the apparently calamitous road to Missouri, and Dunson is left behind, nevertheless, he takes some men and he is on the chase, determined to kill the one we could have seen as his adopted son and heir, will they meet?

This is a film about valor, resilience, determination, courage, honor, but some of the character strengths are relative: as mentioned before, what about the land taken from the Native Americans, and the fate of these people, they have been killed, tortured, and we see them in features like Red River depicted as the ‘bad guys’, albeit we have one Native American on the ‘other side’

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’