Editing Red River (1948 film) (section)

==Production==
[[File:Montgomery Clift during filming Red River.jpg|thumb|Montgomery Clift between filming.]]
''Red River'' was filmed in 1946, [[copyright]]ed in 1947, but not released until September 30, 1948. Footage from ''Red River'' was later incorporated into the opening montage of Wayne's last film, ''[[The Shootist]]'', to illustrate the backstory of Wayne's character. The film was nominated for [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]] ([[Christian Nyby]]) and [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Writing, Motion Picture Story]] ([[Borden Chase]]). [[John Ford]], who worked with Wayne on many films such as ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'', ''[[The Searchers]]'' and ''[[The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance]]'', was so impressed with Wayne's performance that he is reported to have said: "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16633/red-river#articles-reviews?articleId=158107|title=Pop Culture 101; Red River|work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|last=Nixon|first=Rob|access-date=October 7, 2022}}</ref>

Hawks felt Dru's final speech after Dunson and Matt fight didn't work, wishing his original choice to play Tess [[Margaret Sheridan (actress)|Margaret Sheridan]] had been available. He felt Sheridan could have done a far better job of delivering the lines than Dru did.<ref name=":3">''1972 audio interview to Howard Hawks by Peter Bogdanovich. The Criterion Collection (2014 release)''</ref>{{Verify source|date=September 2024}}

The film was shot in black and white rather than color, because director Howard Hawks found [[Technicolor]] technology to be too "garish" for the realistic style desired.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/27/red-river-hawks-philip-french |title=Red River |first=Philip |last=French |date=October 27, 2013 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]  |issn=0261-3077 |eissn=1756-3224 |access-date=January 29, 2021}}</ref> But as with many remembrances of Hawks, he has also said the exact opposite to Peter Bogdanovich, to whom he claimed that he wished he had shot the picture in color, especially the sequence involving driving the cattle across the Red River. Had he done so, he thought it would have made a lot more money.<ref name=":3" />{{Verify source|date=September 2024}} [[Second unit director]] [[Arthur Rosson]] was given credit in the opening title crawl as co-director. He shot parts of the cattle drive and some action sequences.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16633/red-river#articles-reviews?articleId=158108|title=Trivia & Fun Facts About Red River|work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|last=Nixon|first=Rob|access-date=October 7, 2022}}</ref> The film's ending differed from that of the original story. In Chase's original ''Saturday Evening Post'' story, published in 1946 as "Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail", Valance shoots Dunson dead in Abilene and Matt takes his body back to Texas to be buried on the ranch.

=== Alternate versions ===
During the production and while the film was still being shot, Hawks was not satisfied with the editing and asked Christian Nyby to take over cutting duties. Nyby worked for about a year on the project. After production, the pre-release version was 133 minutes and included book-style transitions. This version was briefly available for television in the 1970s, but was believed to be lost. It was rediscovered after a long search as a [[Cinémathèque Française]] 35&nbsp;mm print, and released by [[the Criterion Collection]].<ref name=":2">''Red River'' commemorative booklet, 2014, p. 27. Included as part of the Criterion Edition release.</ref>

Before the film could be released, Howard Hughes sued Hawks, claiming that the climactic scene between Dunson and Matt was too similar to the film ''[[The Outlaw]]'' (1943), which both Hawks and Hughes had worked on.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=O'Brien|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey O'Brien|date=May 27, 2014|title=Red River: The Longest Drive|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3176-red-river-the-longest-drive|access-date=2021-12-20|website=The Criterion Collection|language=en}}</ref> Hughes prepared a new 127-minute cut, which replaced the book inserts with spoken [[narration]] by Walter Brennan.<ref name=":0" /> Nyby salvaged the film by editing in some reaction shots, which resulted in the original theatrical version.<ref name=":0" /> This version was lost, and the 133-minute pre-release version was seen on television broadcasts and home video releases. The original theatrical cut was reassembled by [[Janus Films]] (in co-operation with UA parent company MGM) for their Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD release on May 27, 2014.<ref name=":2" />

Film historian [[Peter Bogdanovich]] interviewed Hawks in 1972, and he was led to believe that the narrated theatrical version was the director's preferred cut.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Schlesinger|first=Michael|title=Red River|url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/red%20_river.pdf|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Library of Congress}}</ref> This view was upheld by [[Geoffrey O'Brien]] in his 2014 essay for the Criterion release.<ref name=":1"/> Contrarily, some, including film historian [[Gerald Mast]], argue that Hawks preferred the 133-minute version.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mast|first=Gerald|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8114578|title=Howard Hawks, Storyteller|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1982|isbn=0-19-503091-5|location=New York|language=en|oclc=8114578}}</ref> Mast points out that this is told from an objective [[Third-person narrative|third-person point of view]], while the shorter cut has Brennan's character narrating scenes he could not have witnessed.<ref name=":0"/> Filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger, in his essay on the film for the [[Library of Congress]]' [[National Film Registry]], argues that when Bogdanovich interviewed Hawks, the director "was 76 and in declining health", when he was prone to telling [[tall tale]]s. Schlesinger also points out that Hughes's shortened version was prepared for overseas distribution because it is easier to replace narration than printed text.<ref name=":0" />