Quentin Tarantino Said This 66-Year-Old Western With 96% on Rotten Tomatoes Is 1 of the Greatest Movies Ever Made (& He’s Right)

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Since his 1992 masterpiece Reservoir Dogs made him a household name, Quentin Tarantino has earned a spot as one of Hollywood’s most revered directors. Throughout his career, he has tackled a variety of genres, from war and Western to action and crime. While his fight sequences are treasured by fans, his style ultimately comes down to his ability to help audiences love his characters, something he has praised a classic Western for.

While Hollywood is packed full of creators who love discussing their favorite movies, few bring the passion and knowledge of Quentin Tarantino. An admirer of old-school directors like Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, John Ford, and Stanley Kubrick, he’s proven himself a man of great taste. When it comes to the Western genre in particular, the influence of films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on his approach to storytelling is obvious, and he always credits them where it’s due. However, it’s actually a classic 1959 Western starring John Wayne that the director once considered his all-time favorite movie, and its style and tone helped influence his use of characters.

This Controversial Movie Inspired Howard Hawks' Magnum Opus

Wayne Starred In A Remake Of High Noon

• High Noon was based on the short story «The Tin Star» by John W. Cunningham, published in Collier’s in 1947.

In 1952, Fred Zinnemann directed what would soon become the face of the ’50s revisionist Western in High Noon. The film follows Gary Cooper in the role of Will Kane, the outgoing town marshal of Hadleyville, as he prepares to leave on his honeymoon. When word reaches him that a vile criminal he sent to prison had his sentence commuted and is heading back, he insists on staying. As he tries to rally the townspeople to join him and form a posse to run the outlaw and his gang out of town, he’s left frustrated as they all refuse. With the story told in real time and the clock ticking down, he realizes he’ll be left to stand alone to defend an ungrateful, undeserving town.

Although High Noon is a masterpiece of a film, even being admired by presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, it was controversial when it was released. For John Wayne, the suggestion that a town would be so cowardly as to not help Kane, and even the marshal’s insistence on outside help itself, were deemed «un-American.» After all, the film is widely believed to have been made as a condemnation of Hollywood’s (and wider American society’s) own cowardice and inaction in the face of McCarthyism. Considering how Wayne built his career around the all-American patriotic hero, it’s hardly a surprise that he disagreed with the message behind the story. In response, he teamed up with director Howard Hawks to craft an equally respected piece of cinema in 1959’s Rio Bravo. In the years since its release, it’s earned respect as perhaps the finest film made by either Wayne or Hawks, two men whose careers were full of masterpieces.

Rio Bravo Is A Western Masterpiece

Howard Hawks Created One Of The Greats

Rio Bravo begins when Joe Burdette, son of powerful cattle baron Nathan Burdette, shoots a man in a saloon after a confrontation with the sheriff, Chance, and his alcoholic deputy, Dude. Following the cold-blooded murder, Chance knocks Joe unconscious, hauling him off to jail as he awaits trial. When word reaches Nathan that his son has been locked up, his men soon begin harassing and intimidating Chance and his deputies, even murdering one of his old friends. With just Dude, an older deputy named Stumpy, and a young gunfighter named Colorado, Chance realizes he’ll have to hold off Burdette’s men. To further complicate matters, Dude is barely a day sober, fighting the temptation to stay that way as withdrawal sets in.

As the lawmen prepare for the inevitable, they still go about their lives in town, something complicated by the arrival of Feathers, a widow of a swindler with a price on her head. Despite initially clashing, the pair soon begin to bond as the sheriff finds himself enamored with her assertive personality, a trait Hawks crafted into his famous «Hawksian Woman» archetype. As she earns his respect, he begins to fall for her, but knows he won’t be able to pursue things until he sees the Burdette situation through. Through their time together, she earns her spot as one of the best-written women of the genre.

As Nathan Burdette’s men finally make their move, it leads to an all-out war in the streets of the town, something that tests the mettle of the heroes. The young Colorado is allowed to prove himself a man of courage, while Dude finally overcomes his alcoholism, and Stumpy punches above his weight. Despite the film being a mostly subdued story about characters, the final act delivers some of the best action of the genre, even giving fans some great explosions and gun duels. In every way that it can, the film embodies the best potential of the Old West and delivers the happy, triumphant ending that High Noon refused to.

Quentin Tarantino's Love For Rio Bravo, Explained

It's The Quintessential Hangout Movie

In past interviews, Quentin Tarantino has dubbed Rio Bravo one of his all-time favorite films, even going so far as to joke he used to show it to his dates to test their taste in cinema. In his words, it’s the «ultimate hang-out movie,» something that matches how he sees his own films, such as Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Like Rio Bravo, the director is at his best when he explores character-driven, dialogue-heavy stories that let the audience get to know people like Vincent Vega and Cliff Booth. While he does include plenty of action, as does Rio Bravo, his focus is on getting the audience to fall in love with his characters. Considering that the director himself believes Once Upon A Time In Hollywood to be his magnum opus, it’s safe to say he still believes the hang-out experience is the best kind of movie there is. In the ’59 movie, viewers can’t help but get invested in the characters, hoping Dude overcomes his issues and Chance will ride off with Feathers, and the heroes never disappoint.

In his own words, Tarantino explained, «The thing about Rio Bravo that’s so wonderful… It’s one of the great hangout movies. There’s certain movies that you hang out with the characters so much that they actually become your friends.» He also praised the film for its positive portrayal of masculinity, going so far as to explain that, having grown up without a father, Rio Bravo helped guide him through life, as though Hawks was a surrogate father in a way. This is far from a coincidence as both Hawks and Wayne wanted Chance to be a fix to what they deemed a mistake in Will Kane. Wayne wanted an upstanding lawman who took matters into his own hands, asserting responsibility rather than looking for help the way Gary Cooper’s hero did. Whether fans prefer Hawks’ film or Zinnemann’s will ultimately come down to preference, but Tarantino’s view of Rio Bravo’s exceptional use of characters is spot-on, and he’s been channeling it in his own films since the ’90s.

Rio Bravo is also a film that embraces the archetypes of its genre, whether that’s Wayne’s courageous lawman, Angie Dickinson embodying the «Hawksian Woman,» or John Russell as the imposing Wild West bad guy. This also mirrors how Tarantino writes and crafts his stories, creating characters who personify core aspects of their genre. As he’s stated several times, he believes in genre-first storytelling, something clear in films like Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds, and Kill Bill. In Hawks’ Rio Bravo, audiences were given something of a quintessential Western character story, one that places the focus on the best, most interesting types of people one could encounter in the West. Where many movies alternate between conflict and drama, Rio Bravo almost feels made to give fans a character journey, one whose action is incidental to their friendships and stories.

Tarantino Isn't The Only Howard Hawks Admirer

It Has Near-Universal Love From Western Fans

While Quentin Tarantino is among the biggest public admirers of Hawks’ Rio Bravo, he’s far from alone when it comes to Hollywood filmmakers. Cinema is full of homages to the iconic Western, with John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 practically standing as one big love letter to it. That movie focuses on a police station surrounded by a ruthless, cult-like gang, forcing the skeleton crew of cops to team up with the prisoners and make a stand. In effect, it takes the basic formula behind Wayne’s film and turns it into a borderline psychological thriller.

In 2013, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a modern, action-driven swipe of Rio Bravo in The Last Stand. There, he’s cast in the role of sheriff of a small Arizona town being used by a criminal to drive across a bridge into Mexico. With the criminal less than a day away, he deputizes some old friends and makes a stand in the middle of town, leading to an epic gun battle. Considering how simple and easy the formula behind Hawks’ movie is, it’s unlikely Hollywood or audiences will ever tire of the «heroic lawman makes a stand» trope, something Rio Bravo perfected.