Rio Bravo Still Sings

Some Westerns grow in stature, like The Searchers (1956), while others stay comfortably familiar, like The Magnificent Seven (1960).  Some films resonate, others dissipate, but very few sit both inside and outside of era, genre and style like Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959). At first glance, the picture is a relatively modest good guys/bad guys standoff story starring John Wayne as the papa bear audiences knew and loved. But going a little deeper, it becomes clear that Rio Bravo is a movie