西部片是美國獨特的文化，像我們的武俠電影一樣。即使不喜歡看西部電影，大概也都曾經看過。 1959年的“赤膽屠龍 Rio Bravo”堪稱西部片的經典，大牌雲集，有談到西部電影少不了的John Wayne（1907-1979）和Dean Marin（1917-1995），Ricky Nelson（1940-1986），以及長腿美女Angie Dickinson（1931-）。雖然以現代“人心不古”的角度看，這電影節奏不快，故事也無懸疑。但不光有槍戰，其對白風趣，還有動聽的音樂，集娛樂之大成。

片裡 “壞人”仍是一堆“壞人”，“好人”這一方，有硬漢警長（John Wayne），酒鬼副警長（Dean Martin），年輕貌美，愛上警長的賭徒（Angie Dickinson），年輕藝高膽大，名為“科羅拉多Colorado”的快槍手（Ricky Nelson），以及瘸腿，喋喋不休的老副警長，等人。“烏合之眾”終能打敗大牧場主人和其打死不完的手下搶手，大快人心。

Dean Martin和Ricky Nelson皆為名歌星，當然也要唱幾曲。不過主題曲“My Rifle, My Pony and Me”卻是在“警察局”裡唱的，不是牧人騎馬在夕陽下，缺少一點“詩意”。

“赤膽屠龍”紅花綠葉相印，其中比較不為人注意的是那位演瘸腿副警長的Walter Brennan（1989-1974）。此君來頭不小，曾拿過三座奧斯卡最佳男配角，迄今仍是個記錄。他擅演各種不同的角色，有如千面人。像在這片裡的副警長就和他在“約克軍曹Sergeant  York”裡的牧師兼雜貨店主全然不同，不仔細看幾乎不知道是同一人。

Rio Bravo is a 1959 American Western film, directed by Howard Hawks. The script was written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on a short story by B.H. McCampbell. The movie stars John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson, with Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. In the town of Rio Bravo, Texas, sheriff’s deputy Dude (Dean Martin), who has acquired the contemptuous nickname “Borrachón”, enters a saloon to get a drink. Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), brother of rancher Nathan Burdette, tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon at Dude’s feet. As Dude reaches for the spittoon, Presidio County, Texas Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) appears and kicks the spittoon away, looking at Dude with pity. Dude whacks Chance with a piece of wood, knocking the sheriff out cold. With two men holding Dude upright, Joe begins punching him, then shoots and kills an unarmed bystander who tries to intervene. Joe leaves the saloon and heads to his brother’s saloon, where a bloody Chance arrests Joe for the murder of the bystander. When another patron draws his gun on Chance, causing a stalemate, Dude shoots the gun out of the patron’s hand, Chance slugs Joe with his rifle, and the sheriff and his deputy drag Joe off to jail. While the funeral for the unarmed man is being held, Chance’s friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) and his supply train stop in town, with a young gunslinger, Colorado Ryan (Rick Nelson), riding guard. Wheeler informs Chance that Nathan Burdette’s men stopped him outside of the town, meaning that the town is “bottled up” to prevent Chance from getting Joe to Presidio or any assistance in. Inside the jail, Stumpy (Walter Brennan), Chance’s other deputy, keeps watch over the jail and Joe. Chance takes a delivered package to the proprietor of the hotel, Carlos Robante (red lingerie for his wife, Consuela (Estelita Rodriguez). A mysterious woman, Feathers (Angie Dickinson), arrives for a night. She arrived on a stage coach whose wheel has broken (possibly by Burdette’s men), which delays its departure. Dude and Chance patrol the town, when Carlos stops the sheriff, saying Wheeler was talking too much about Chance needing help. Chance implores Wheeler to stop, as it will draw attention from the wrong people. Wheeler and Chance also discuss Dude; about three years earlier Dude was a top-notch gunman until he “met a girl on the stage” who was no good and they left together. Six months later Dude came back without her, drunk (hence his nickname, “Borrachón”, “big drunk”), but Dude has stopped drinking due to the crisis. Wheeler suggests that Colorado could be of assistance but Colorado politely declines, saying he wants to “mind his own business.” Feathers leaves a poker game a winner, Chance follows her up to her room and confronts her as a card cheat, with his evidence four missing aces from the deck of cards being used in the game, and a handbill indicating she was wanted for card cheating. Feathers confesses she is the girl in the poster but denies cheating, and challenges Chance to search her for the missing cards. Colorado arrives saying another participant in the game is the real cheater and plans to confront him with Chance’s acquiescence. Colorado is proven right, and the real card cheat is sent out on the next stage. Chance admits he was wrong but refuses to apologize. As Wheeler is walking back to the hotel, he is shot dead by a Burdette man hiding in the stable. Colorado offers to help but is angrily turned away by Chance who says “you had a chance to get in this and you didn’t want it.” Chance and Dude flush out the shooter, who escapes into Nathan’s saloon. Dude believes the man had muddy boots, but everyone in the bar has clean boots. To suggest Dude is a drunk who needs a drink, one patron throws a silver dollar into a spittoon. Dude notices blood dripping into a drink on the bar and takes one shot into the loft, killing Wheeler’s murderer. Dude then gets retribution on the patron who threw the dollar coin in the spittoon by making him go get it. Chance goes back to the hotel to sleep, and unbeknownst to him, Feathers stands guard at the door to keep him safe, then returns to her room when he awakens. Chance asks Feathers why she did that but she does not say. Chance insists that she should leave on the stage coach. Nathan (John Russell) later arrives in town with his men, intent on seeing his brother Joe. Dude is standing guard and confiscating all guns before entering town, and Nathan agrees to turn in their guns until they leave. Nathan sees Joe, and after a few angry words between the land baron and Chance, is told in no uncertain terms if he attempts to overrun the jail his brother would be “accidentally” shot before they reached him. Nathan then leaves to visit his saloon, instructing the band there to play the Deguello (the “cut-throat” song) non-stop. Carlos says Feathers will not get on the stage coach, and when Chance goes to see her she tells the sheriff that she does not want to leave, then gives Chance a kiss. After Colorado visits the jail to tell Chance the meaning of the song Nathan is playing, Chance gives Dude his guns back (the ones he had before he left town, sold by Dude but bought by Chance) as well as some clothes he left behind. Dude changes clothes and gets a shave, then returns to the jail while Chance and Feathers get better acquainted. Suddenly a shot rings out and Chance races to the jail, only to find Stumpy had shot at a shadow (Dude) in front of the jail. Dude and Stumpy exchange angry words, then Chance tells Dude they’ve been “pampering him too much” and to get some sleep. The next morning, while Dude is standing guard at the town entryway, four Burdette men attack him from behind and tie him up in a stable. Approaching Chance on the street in front of the hotel with a fake injury, they draw guns and corner him (Chance’s rifle is out of reach), and demand that he release Joe. Inside the hotel, acting on Colorado’s instructions, Feathers throws a flowerpot through a window a moment after Colorado steps out on the porch, distracting the Burdette men. Colorado throws Chance’s rifle to him and the two men shoot the four Burdette hands. Chance races down the street, finds Dude tied up in the stable and frees him. Dude, frustrated by his performance and recovering from his extended drunkenness, resigns as deputy. Colorado agrees to join Chance as deputy and then Dude reconsiders quitting after hearing the Deguello song, reminding him why he was there. The group decides to hole up in the jail, as it will take several more days for the United States Marshal to arrive to take Joe to Presidio. Dude and Chance go to the hotel to round up additional supplies, but Carlos and Consuela are captured by Burdette men, and trick Chance into charging down the stairs, falling over a trip-wire. Dude and Feathers also are captured. Chance is given a choice–take the men to the jail to let Joe out, or the men will arrange a trade with Stumpy for Dude and Chance. Dude implores Chance to let Joe out, saying that Stumpy has no food or water to hold out very long. Chance agrees, and three men go to the jail. Dude’s story was a ruse, as Colorado is with Stumpy and the three of them shoot the three Burdette men. The remaining Burdette men at the hotel take Dude and offer to trade him for Joe. Chance agrees, and the trade is made at a warehouse. But Dude bum-rushes Joe and they scuffle while a gunfight erupts. Dude knocks Joe out and Stumpy (who followed them over after being told to stay behind) finds some dynamite in one of Wheeler’s wagons, and throws it at the building Burdette’s men are in. The exploding dynamite in front of the building causes Burdette to surrender. With the Burdette men in jail, Chance goes to see Feathers who is wearing black tights to work at the hotel. Chance threatens to arrest Feathers, saying that only he should see her in those tights. Feathers takes this as an admission that Chance loves her, and they kiss.

Exteriors for the film were shot at Old Tucson Studios, just outside Tucson, Arizona. Rio Bravo is generally regarded as one of Hawks’ best, and is notable for its scarcity of close-up shots. Only four appear in Rio Bravo. In the opening scene, wherein Joe shoots an unarmed man: Joe’s revolver is shown in close-up, when he rolls a cigarette, when Dude pours a shot of whiskey back into the bottle; and a close-up of a beer glass where a drop of blood falls in, alerting Dude to a gunman in the bar waiting above him in ambush. The long opening scene has no dialogue. The film received favorable reviews, and was successful, taking in over US$5.5 million.

The musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. His score includes the hauntingly ominous “El Degüello” theme, which is heard several times. The Colorado character identifies the tune as “The Cutthroat Song”. He relates that the song was played on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Texans holed up in the Alamo, to signify that no quarter would be given to them. The tune was used in the following year, over the opening credits of Wayne’s film, The Alamo. Composer Ennio Morricone recalled that director Sergio Leone asked him to write “Dimitri Tiomkin music” for A Fistful of Dollars. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin’s “Deguella” (the Italian title of Rio Bravo was Un dollaro d’onore, “A Dollar of Honor”).

Because the film starred a crooner, Martin, and a teen idol, Nelson, Hawks included three songs in the soundtrack. Before the big showdown, in the jail house, Martin sings “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me” (which contained new lyrics to a Tiomkin tune that appeared in Red River) accompanied by Nelson, after which Nelson sings a brief version of “Get Along Home, Cindy”, accompanied by Martin and Brennan. Over the closing credits, Martin, backed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, sings a specially composed song, “Rio Bravo.” Nelson later paid homage to both the film and his character, Colorado, by including the song “Restless Kid” on his 1959 LP, Ricky Sings Again.

A brief clip from Rio Bravo was among the archive footage later incorporated into the opening sequence of Wayne’s last film, The Shootist, to illustrate the backstory of Wayne’s character. The film was made as a response to High Noon, which is sometimes thought to be an allegory for blacklisting in Hollywood, as well as a critique of McCarthyism. Wayne would later call High Noon “un-American” and say he did not regret helping run the writer, Carl Foreman, out of the country.[5] Wayne teamed up with director Howard Hawks to tell the story his way. In Rio Bravo, Chance is surrounded by allies—a deputy recovering from alcoholism (Dude), a young gunfighter (Colorado), an old man (Stumpy), a Mexican innkeeper (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez), his wife (Estelita Rodriguez), and an attractive young woman (Feathers)—and repeatedly turns down aid from anyone he doesn’t think is capable of helping him, though in the final shootout they come to help him anyway. “Who’ll turn up next?” Wayne asks amid the gunfire, to which Colorado replies: “Maybe the girl with another flower pot.” The 2002 Sight & Sound poll of film critics and directors did not place Rio Bravo in its top ten, but it did find it to be the best film directed by Howard Hawks, with 7 votes,[6] surpassing seven of his other films, including His Girl Friday (5 votes), Red River , To Have and Have Not , and Bringing Up Baby . In the same poll, Rio Bravo placed ahead of High Noon, a film to which it has been compared. High Noon received 1 vote.

In August 1976, Leslie Halliwell described the film as a “[c]heerfully overlong and slow-moving western [… but …] [a]ll very watchable for those with time to spare”, giving it ** (2 stars out of 4), a rare high rating. Howard Hawks went on to make two loose variations of Rio Bravo, on both occasions under a different title. Both of these remakes were directed by Hawks, both starred John Wayne and in each case, the script was written by Leigh Brackett. All involve lawmen working against an entrenched criminal element, partially by “holing up” in their jailhouse.

The first remake, El Dorado, was released in 1966. In this film, Robert Mitchum played the Dean Martin role, Arthur Hunnicutt the Walter Brennan character and James Caan the Ricky Nelson role. Hawks again named the Nelson/Caan character after a state (in this case, Mississippi) and in a wry, humorous twist on the original film, Hawks made him inept with firearms, but skilled with a knife. The second remake, Rio Lobo, was made in 1970 with a plot much further off the original mold, starting with the absence of a lawman-turned-drunkard character. This began with a Confederate train robbery of a Union gold shipment during the American Civil War, then moved to a post-war Texas county thoroughly controlled by a rich, arrogant rancher. The heroes, with the exception of an old man similar to Brennan’s and Hunnicutt’s characters in the previous pictures (Jack Elam here), were complete outsiders. Along with Wayne and Elam, this movie starred Mexican film star Jorge Rivero (as Frenchie), Christopher Mitchum (Robert Mitchum’s son) and Jennifer O’Neill. L’homme à l’étoile d’argent (The Man with the Silver Star), a 1969 comic from the French comic series Lt. Blueberry was directly inspired by Rio Bravo. The plot is virtually the same. Blueberry plays the role of sheriff John T. Chance; McClure, a whiskey-adoring old man, combines the roles of Dude and Stumpy; Dusty plays the role of Colorado; Miss March, the teacher, plays the role of a less morally challenged Feathers; and instead of the Burdettes, here we have the Bass brothers. John Carpenter’s 1976 film Assault on Precinct 13, though not a remake of Rio Bravo, was inspired by the film. Carpenter borrowed some elements from the earlier film’s plot but set it in 1970s Los Angeles. He also paid homage to the original film by using the pseudonym “John T. Chance,” the name of Wayne’s character, for his editing credit. This film was also remade in 2005 by Jean-Francois Richet, starring Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, and Ja Rule, moving the film’s setting to Detroit. Ghosts of Mars, a 2001 film also by Carpenter, retains many of the elements that were developed in Rio Bravo and Assault on Precinct 13 but takes place in a science fiction setting. The Nest a 2002 film by Florent Emilio Siri, starred Samy Naceri, Benoît Magimel, Nadia Farès, Pascal Greggory, and Sami Bouajila.

By Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson (Cindy Cindy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLjdunYTBQ

Lyrics