Assigned Film for 13 June 2008 (FINAL FILM of Semester)

RED RIVER
13 June 2008

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FOR THE FINAL assigned film of the year, we'll study Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), with a focus mainly on the Oscar-nominated editing (Christian Nyby) and especially the music score by Dimitri Tiomkin (surprisingly ignored by the Academy).
    Tiomkin's score is almost continuous and is often dominant in the sound mix, which makes it easy to study. At the same time, it includes several important themes that can be traced throughout the film in different variations (rhythms and orchestrations), including a brief cattle call that opens the film; the Red River ("Settle Down") theme that immediately follows; a buoyant "On To Missouri" theme; Fen's theme; Revenge and Indian motifs; and brief quotations of what I call the "Responsibility" theme, evoking the hero's noble ideals.
    These themes go through many variations. The Red River theme (identified with the quest for civilization, later linked to Tess as a love theme) even goes through a sprightly scherzo-like variation as Tess (Joanne Dru) caresses her lover, Matthew (Montgomery Clift). On the other hand, the buoyant "On To Missouri" theme is more commonly heard in a plodding rhythm scored for low brass in imitation of cattle (thus I also call it the "Cattle Theme").
     Besides these themes composer, Tiomkin also uses American folk and Cowboy songs as underscore, such as "Old Paint" for the Dan Latimer scenes; "Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie" for several burial scenes; and "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" for the first appearance of the Abilene railroad (the folk song is commonly identified with railroads). (Links to these songs are below.)
    Good film composers set subtexts as well as texts. For example, Tiomkin uses "Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie" not only for the burial scenes, but also for a scene where Tiomkin suggests that the men on the arduous cattle trail are fearful about dying. In the same way, Fen's theme appears not only in scenes with Fen early in the film, but in scenes where the memory of Fen is active as a subtext.
    The main theme of the film, the "Red River" theme ("Settle Down"), was later recycled by Tiomkin for his Rio Bravo score (1959), with new lyrics, titled, "My Rifle, Pony, and Me."

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