就像电影的开场，一系列令人错愕的情节展开，不免使人挠头，于是才有了一个莫名其妙的译名吗……

rio bravo 在墨西哥人使用的西班牙语意里，指的是一条河的名字，这条河恰好不那么著名却也不容无视，因为美国人也为之命名，在英语里它叫做格兰德河，或者，更正式的名字应该是北布拉沃河。

布拉沃河，或者格兰德河，全长3034公里，是美国排名第五的大河，它的下游有两千公里左右是作为美国和墨西哥的界河存在的。此水发源于科罗拉多州，至墨西哥湾入海，流域面积57万平方公里。

本片用西班牙名称这个界河属性鲜明的词为名，延申的含义至少有一部分是指出本片发生在一个偏僻孤凉的边境地带，法律和秩序若隐若现的晦暗之处吧。

于是，在一个这样面目不清之地，寥落几人结构了这个故事……

观影过程或者会浮想联翩到些许与七武士，古龙……

不敢再瞧不起好莱坞大师们的片子，这是一部如此迷人和多情的西部片。故事其实比较简单，一开场便抓住了谋杀犯乔，之后便是等待联邦法官的到来和与乔的哥哥伯戴的角力与最后的一场决战。（但情节的高潮并非本片的重点）。看完后不由得佩服这些类型片大师，几个感受和思考。1.约翰 韦恩这个演员真是有十足的魅力，同时又十分内敛和收放自如。当然，还是有点直男癌。片中在夜晚，把女主抱上楼梯的镜头狗粮溢出了屏幕。2.如果把全片与中国的武侠片做一个比较，就好比正派男主抓了反派大boss的弟弟，然后不断有江湖同道的骚扰，直到引出决战。但打斗抑或枪战场面实在不是全片的重点，重点是它描绘出了一幅细腻而广阔的美国西部风情画，着眼和立足于人的情感世界。比如在第一次科罗拉多与女主救了警长时的台词，It doesn't make any sense.3.是会想到《新龙门客栈》中“客栈”这样一个空间的设定，恰恰因为这样一个空间把这些从不知何处漂流的人聚在一起而丰富了情感表达，有人的地方就有江湖。4.片中四人牢房的演奏歌曲非常优美，能够看到其中传承的关系，老一代的牛仔警长即将逝去，科罗拉多刚刚出现。很好听的音乐。5.台词和对白简单、通俗，在传递人物动机之外，又不失幽默。（有些矫情）。

Allegedly, Howard Hawks’ jaunty response to the daunting self-centeredness and pessimism permeated in Fred Zinnemann’s revisionist Western classic HIGH NOON (1952), RIO BRAVO reunites Hawks with marquee star John Wayne, over a decade after their last enterprise RED RIVER (1948), the whole enchilada entirely takes place in the titular Texan town and Wayne plays sheriff John T. Chance, who gallantly takes a local murderer Joe Burdette (Akins) into custody, then stoutheartedly awaits the ominously forthcoming jailbreaking attempt from the gangs of the latter’s bigwig rancher brother Nathan (Russell), a situation not dissimilar from the nettle Gary Cooper’s small-town marshal Will Kane has to grasp in HIGH NOON. However, even John T. has only an alcoholic deputy Dude (Martin) and a gammy jailer named Stumpy (Brennan) on his side, he doesn’t care about soliciting extraneous aid which Kane arduously seeks out, on the contrary, he doesn’t want to involve any other innocent people in this bloodshed business, one might be lead to believe that he has an ace up his sleeve, if either sheer potluck (a wagon of dynamite nearby) or the ineptitude of their enemies (who have the wiles and cruelty to pick off a loudmouth to set an example, Western veteran Ward Bond is his final screen role, but awfully reverent towards the men with a badge) counts for one. Dovetailing the story into a facile David and Goliath story, RIO BRAVO perversely doesn’t comply to the genre’s modus operandi such as the dreadful tension building or gunslingers’ trigger-happy swagger, instead it sinks its teeth into substantially individuating its dramatis personae - Dean Martin amazingly retains a natural semblance of a soak’s delirium tremens with astounding diligence, and Walter Brennan’s garrulous duffer is the top-line comic relief who also high-spiritedly defies ableism - as well as confecting a delectable cradle-snatching romance (reeking of conservative gender politics notwithstanding) in pairing Wayne with Angie Dickinson’s feather-headed minx Feathers, a bunco artist with an unspecified past. Wayne, self-conscious of their yawning, quarter-of-a-century age difference, philosophically relinquishes his trademark macho bravado and inhabits a more personable persona (the reluctant sheriff wooed by a luscious woman who wants to be tamed) that may earn him new admirers from a different block, and leaves a hot and bothered Dickinson to do the heavy lifting of lacing their current plight with rumbling mischief and levity. Introducing the 18-year-old heartthrob and Elvis Presley-rivaling Ricky Nelson as a quick-on-the-draw sapling named Colorado, and allotting decent screen-time for him and Martin to bathe audience with dulcet balm, RIO BRAVO proves itself to be a fiendishly smart crowd-pleaser, a Technicolored oater of gratifying alacrity and amusementfrom Hawks, the genre-hopping Hollywood maven sprightly riding on one of his better days. referential entries: Hawks’ RED RIVER (1948, 7.4/10); Fred Zinnemann’s HIGH NOON (1952, 8.0/10); John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS (1956, 8.1/10).