Red River Message Board
Zeke Steiner posts a message on 11/10/2005 1:05:09 PM
Hawks believes that only through the disciplined acceptance of personal responsibility can we find the freedom to love and keep the world from going mad. Montgomery Clift finally convinces John Wayne of that fact at the end of Red River. Zeke Steiner
Ezekiel Steiner posts a message on 11/10/2005 1:01:04 PM
Hawks keeps his lens at eye-level – the angle from which we ordinarily see things. Unlike Orson Welles, there are very few crane shots from above or low-angle shots from below, no trick camera shots through the scenery or from a character's peculiar point of view. When there is an unusually dramatic shot – the spectacular panorama of the cattle drive at dawn in Red River or the view from the wagons of the river crossing later in the film – it is to evoke the intensity of a particularly dramatic moment. Similarly, there are no flashbacks in Hawks' films. He wants to keep the action moving forward at all times, absorbing the viewer into the natural flow of events without confusion or distraction. Ezekiel Steiner
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the posters.
