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A good film will prepare you for what is to come in the first three to five minutes, if you know what to look for. Rio Bravo (1959) does so with body language and motion.
Released in 1959, Rio Bravo garnered director Howard Hawks a Director's Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. What makes this movie's opening sequence stand out is the fact it runs for over four and a half minutes without dialogue and yet the viewers learn all they need to know about the characters. Who Are You?Our first character, Dude (Dean Martin), enters the scene through the back door of a saloon. He appears nervous or desperate. He hesitates at a table where a man downs a shot of whisky and again when a waitress passes with a tray of shot glasses filled with the amber liquid. His body language suggests he craves a drink. Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) pores himself a shot and notices Dude lurking near the bar. He smiles and offers to share with a gesture; Dude nods. We realize Joe is callous when he tosses a coin in a spittoon and laughs. It's obvious he wants Dude to abandon his pride and fish the coin from the vile excrement. Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) enters the scene and kicks the spittoon away from Dude before the drunkard humiliates himself. He exudes authority and strength and we know he is a force to be reckoned. Do We Truly Know the Characters?Keep in mind the characters haven't spoken in the first three minutes and five seconds. In that time, action revealed Dude is a conflicted drunk; Joe isn't nice; Sheriff Chance is a no-nonsense kind of guy. The movie will continue rolling whether we've gleaned this information or not, but are we prepared for what's to come? There's more... Dude takes exception to Chance's interruption, grabs a stick of wood and strikes him over the head. He's stopped before he can deliver the same treatment to Joe; others hold Dude while Joe beats him. A bystander tries to stop Joe and without hesitating, Joe shoots him. It could end there. The Sheriff has been knocked unconscious; the drunk is hurt and the bad guy walks away laughing. We know better. Something else will occur. Joe enters another saloon. A wobbly, bleeding Chance follows moments later, his rifle trained on the killer. The first words are spoken here: "Joe, you're under arrest." One of Joe's goons gets the drop on Chance, but Dude swoops in to rescue him. The sheriff knocks the bad guy out and drags him from the saloon with help from the drunk. What Does It Mean?Within five minutes and twenty-two seconds, we've learned the character of three main characters. It's apparent a bumpy road is before them. Other characters are introduced and play integral roles in the film, but these three set the tone. We are now prepared for Dude's struggle between need for booze and desire to do right. We expect Chance to remain the strong leader no matter the circumstances and we know Joe will continue to cause problems. Their obstacles are still a mystery to be revealed during the rest of the film, but at least we can grasp what kind of people we are investing our time.
The copyright of the article Movies' Best Opening Scenes in Film Westerns is owned by Missy Frye. Permission to republish Movies' Best Opening Scenes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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