Part 1 – The first thing we learn in this scene is that a lot of time has passed since Dunson spoke about making his ranch. Almost fifteen years have passed. Here we are again looking at the same three people, but they have aged. The young boy Matt, who was only fourteen years old when we met him, has become a full-grown man (now played by Montgomery Clift in his first starring role). Groot and Dunson have also obviously aged as well, which we can see from their grey hair. From studying both the film and the story the film is based on, I feel fairly confident that I can tell you how old each character is supposed to be at this point in the film. Groot (being played by the 54-year-old actor Walter Brennan) would be sixty-eight years old, Dunson (played by the 41-year-old actor John Wayne) would be fifty-four and Matt (played by the 28-year-old Montgomery Clift) would be his own age of twenty-eight. So the actors Walter Brennan and John Wayne are both playing characters about fifteen years older than their actual ages. This, by the way, is exactly the opposite of what Wayne had done in Stagecoach when he played the part of the eighteen-year-old Ringo Kid when he was actually thirty one years old. I think it is much to John Wayne’s credit that he handles both parts beautifully in these films. Remember that John Ford actually said “I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act”. Well, he’ll have to act if he is going to keep up with his co-star, Montgomery Clift. Clift as Matt is playing a man of his own age, but he will have plenty of other challenges in the role of Matthew Garth.

Part 2 – In 1851 Tom is wearing a white hat while in 1866 he is wearing a black hat. Does that mean something in this film? It certainly meant something in both Cimarron and Stagecoach in which the good guys wore the white hats and the bad guys wore the black hats. But does it mean something in Red River where the same character changes from wearing a white hat to wearing a black hat? What do you think Howard Hawkes was doing?

Cherry and Matt have a shooting contest in which each one realizes just how good the other is. They have earned each other’s respect. Cherry remarks, “That puts two of us at the head of the list” but Matt tells Cherry he’d better add Dunson because he is Matt’s teacher. Both young men certainly talk tough and seem really cool, but the only thing we have seen either of them shoot is tin cans. On the other hand, we have seen the seven graves of the men Dunson has killed.

The shooting contest between Matt and Cherry is another instance of foreshadowing. In case we missed the point, Groot tells us, “those two are going to tangle for sure and it won’t be pretty when they do”. Will these two end up like Musashi and Kojiro?

The night before the cattle drive starts the cowboys relax by playing music or cards. There is fight when one man says something about another man’s hat, (because it isn’t really a western style hat…but the man gives a western style punch when his hat is insulted. Remember how sensitive westerners are about their hats!). Groot bets his false teeth in a poker game and loses them to the Indian cowboy named Quo. Just as the bracelet is something serious for us to keep our eyes on, the false teeth are a comical one. Matt gave the teeth to Groot, but Groot loses them to Quo who proudly announces that he will now call himself “Two Jaw Quo”. This is a comical counterpoint to Tom giving his bracelet to his girlfriend who is murdered by the Comanche warrior who steals the bracelet.

The scene becomes serious when Dunson enters and tells the men about the challenges and dangers of the cattle drive and says he won’t force anyone to go, but if they do agree to go they will have to commit to the whole trip. He then asks each man to sign a contract. This is the second time in the film that written contracts are mentioned. Years before Dunson told the Wagon Master of his wagon train that he had not signed a contract to go to California and that if he had done so he would honor it.

Something I want you to pay attention to throughout the film is how many times matters of law are raised. It is also curious how much emphasis the story places on the importance of written contracts in a world where most men could not read or write (Groot marks an X for his name on the contract).

Since most westerners had limited education the most powerful commitment they could make was “giving their word” and “shaking on it” (shaking hands). To “give your word” was to make a promise and for a westerner “keeping his word” was a duty bound to his honor. A man who “broke his word” lost all honor in the eyes of his fellows and in the West, as in feudal Japan, honor was the most important thing a man or woman had. But Dunson wants more than their word, he wants his cowboys to sign a written contract. Yet, how could he enforce such a contract when there is probably no courthouse or even a lawman within three days ride of his ranch? Moreover, on the trail itself they would be weeks away from any towns or courthouses or lawmen. But Tom makes it clear how seriously he takes the contract. He considers it to be a legally binding document. Yet, I will remind you that this is the man who was rustling his neighbor’s cattle earlier the very same day! This is also the man who killed the Mexican guard who claimed to be protecting the legal rights of his employer. Do you see the contradictions in Thomas Dunson’s character? If you don’t know what a “contradiction” is look up the meaning of the word before you screen the next excerpt.

Finally, the cattle drive begins at dawn with Dunson and Matt looking out over their vast herd and the men who will help them drive their cattle a thousand miles to the North. “Take them to Missouri, Matt”, says Dunson, and Matt gives a cowboy yell of “yeehaw”, which all the other cowboys answers, each with their own unique and wonderful cowboy yell. It’s one of the most thrilling moments in the film and it really makes my blood boil. Contrast how John Ford used his closeups with how Hawkes uses these. Ford almost always shows us a closeup of someone who isn’t moving or speaking, Ford used closeups as portraits to reveal what sort of person he or she was, good or bad, selfish or kind, intelligent or stupid. Howard Hawkes’ closeups are not telling us anything about what these men are like inside. Hawkes is showing us that even though the men are beginning a long and dangerous journey they are cowboys who yell with the kind of joy soldiers yell with before a battle in which they know they might be killed. “Yeehaw” is an affirmation of life itself even in the face of death. Doesn’t that remind you just a little bit of “Banzai!”