'Rio Bravo' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Just posted Peter's review of the classic western, 'Rio Bravo.' He says Warner has put together a fine retrospective Blu-ray release for this John Wayne/Howard Hawks favorite, with an impressive transfer and excellent supplementary material. This restoration may not be quite up to the caliber of 'The Searchers,' but it is certainly a more-than-respectable effort befitting a legend of Wayne's stature.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/riobravo.html

[Kid Banana]

Just took delivery of this today and it looks OK but not as good as The Searchers. Nice to see a VC-1 encode averaging over 20mbs, ths is definitely about as good as Rio Bravo will ever look.

Supplements are good on the disc too.

[CHITTY B]

A few years ago a now defunct publication published a review of "The Battle of Britain" to which my responce was hang the reviewer for not watching or listening to that disc. I am a little older now and not so quick to hang a reviewer for not knowing what he is writting about. Peter your review demonstrates that your review was written while you were sniffing old copies of the Berkely Barb, Dean Martin was the sheriff not John Wayne. It was in "El Dorado" that the Duke wanted to play the drunk sheriff and didn't....

[HectorB]

"But even if 'Rio Bravo' is not absolute perfection, it is still a fine-looking vintage catalog title, and one that arguably looks far better than it has any right to."

It really bothers me when reviewers say this type of stuff...why doesn't Rio Bravo have the right to look great? This statement doesn't make sense...just my two cents.

[ZebraMajor]

Originally Posted by HectorB

"But even if 'Rio Bravo' is not absolute perfection, it is still a fine-looking vintage catalog title, and one that arguably looks far better than it has any right to."

It really bothers me when reviewers say this type of stuff...why doesn't Rio Bravo have the right to look great? This statement doesn't make sense...just my two cents.

It comes across as a rather backhanded compliment but I think it was in reference to the films age ("five decades old") and not intended as a slight. From the review:

"...the 1959 Western 'Rio Bravo,' which restored his tarnished reputation in one fell swoop, and is still considered by many to be the greatest picture he ever made."

and

"It is also, without a doubt, one of the best pictures in the John Wayne oeuvre, second only perhaps to 'The Searchers,' 'True Grit' and 'Stagecoach.'"

That's not faint praise (although Rio Bravo can't be "second" if it's behind three other movies, LOL). Not to puts words in Peter's mouth, but perhaps the following is more what he meant to say:

"But even if 'Rio Bravo' is not absolute perfection, it is still a fine-looking vintage catalog title, and one that arguably looks far better in HD than we have any right to expect, given it's age."

[HectorB]

Thanks for clearing it up a little ...I think I was too focused in on that comment alone...now to finding more deals...and did I mention that I love this site?

[dommie]

I have The Searchers and Rio Bravo. Both are excellent PQ with The Searchers one of the best looking I have ever seen. I'd really like to see some more of the Wayne films released in HD, especially She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Hondo, and The Quiet Man.

[SPick17]

The Searchers has got to be the current yard stick by which vintage westerns on BluRay must be measured. With this in mind, and the fact that The Searchers is two years younger than Rio Bravo, i have to say I'm a bit disappointed with Rio Bravos transfer. I didn't find it that far away from my upscaled DVD version, but maybe I've been spoiled by the quality of The Searchers and am now expecting too much.