222: Rio Grande

This is very much a second tier John Ford film. Even the director had no desire to make another Western but was pushed into by the studio in order so that he could go on the make The Quiet Man.

Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (John Wayne) leads a cavalry regiment on the border between Texas and Mexico. His son Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr.) arrives as a new soldier under his command and is followed by his mother and Kirby's estranged wife Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara) who wants Jeff released from the army. He also has to deal with Apaches attacking the fort and when they kidnap some children he rides across the border to rescue them.

The script was based on a short story and you can kind of tell that because there's no really enough plot to extend it to a full on feature. Much of the first half of the film is relationship-based as Kirby reunites with his estranged wife and the conflict between them as she demands Jeff be released from the army. This stuff had the potential to have some emotion but I found it to be akin to a dull soap opera, albeit a well performed one. 

The second half of the film is much more action based as Kirby fights the Apaches. The action scenes are quite impressive for the way they wrangle large numbers of horses and do some impressive stunt work with them but for the most part it felt like mindless shooting. The climax here felt comparable to the worst modern blockbusters with boring CGI spectacle- here it's boring gunfighting spectacle. 

John Ford's Westerns were often more nuanced when it came to portraying the conflict between the White gunslingers and the Native Americans but this one has a very clear depiction of good and evil. The real event the story is based on could have created an interesting story- in actual fact it was the 4th Cavalry Regiment who crossed the border into Mexico to fight Kickapoo people and kidnapped some of their women and children to use hostage. Flipping it round the other way is hugely problematic. Screenwriter James Kevin McGuinness had previously been a story editor at MGM and either resigned or was fired due to his extremely conservative views. The script was actually toned down as the Production Code Administration asked for lines to be cut because they were "blatantly racist". It's a far cry from John Ford's other Westerns. 

I think this is well performed and as ever with Ford well directed by it's script is problematic and also just dull.