A Woman's Corn

"Red River" is clearly one of the finest westerns that Hollywood ever filmed (top 10 on most of the critics' lists); John Wayne at his finest, Montgomery Clift in his screen debut, the inimitable Walter Brennan as the sidekick, the obligatory hottie in Joanne Dru, the skillful direction of Howard Hawkes, etc.. But, damn/I'm sorry, I STILL have a whole hell of a lot of problems with the ending. The fact that Joanne Dru can simply have a hissy-fit and that that alone would be sufficient for John Wayne and Montgomery Clift to realize that they really weren't all that mad at each other after all (and, please, keep in mind here that the Duke Wayne character was tantamount to a vicious cattle-driving Captain Bly) is really, REALLY, a major stretch, I'm thinking. I'm sorry here, folks, but the Dukester really needed to take a bullet in this one.