Rio Grande (1950)

BACKGROUND

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If there is one film that Ford made with the hope of proving his loyalty to the HUAC committee once and for all it is Rio Grande. As a veteran of the intelligence community, this was the film that he hoped would establish his “cover” and provide him with a suitable identity with which to survive the fifties while operating behind enemy lines.

 

Yet while executing this deceptively simple assignment for the most conservative studio in Hollywood, Ford managed to produce what the most quintessential cavalry film of all time. Much like Wee Willie Winkie, the film marries earthy realism with a romanticized aesthetic that emulates a child like imagination bringing a dime store novel to life. Both films transform hackneyed imperialist propaganda into a new Fordian mythology that cryptically questions everything.

PLOT SUMMARY

A cavalry Colonel facing troop shortages finds out that his son has flunked out of West Point, enlisted in the regular army and has been assigned to his own regiment.