Lieutenant Colonel York commands a post in the southwest following the Civil War and learns that his son whom he has not seen in 15 years has been expelled from West Point for not making grades. Later that day he finds him to be a new enlistment in his unit, with his mother in tow trying to buy him out of enlistment. Refusing to sign the release papers, York begins to mend old wounds, treating his son as any other soldier and romancing his estranged wife. Soon though, the Apache tribe becomes a threat and the young man is called to the task to prove himself to his mother, his father, and his army. Following "Fort Apache" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". "Rio Grande" is the final film in John Ford and John Wayne's Cavalry Trilogy. It is a beautiful film, reverting to black and white after the technicolor "Ribbon", and wonderfully captures Ford's beloved Monument Valley as well as the delicate human features not often seen in Westerns. Wayne is great and reprises his role from Apache, playing the gentler and more reserved character than we're used to. Maureen O'Hara is equally fine as his wife and Ford regular Victor McLaglen is back again amusingly playing his drunken Irish hulk. The movie also has some memorable music played by the group Sons of the Pioneers. The ending of the film, where the division must rescue a group of children kidnapped by Indians, is cliched and unsatisfying. Still, "Rio Grande" is an atypical Western and fine conclusion to a stellar trilogy by two of the cinema's greats.

A marksman and his friend ride into Dodge City to enter a Wyatt Earp hosted shooting contest where the grand prize is a 1973 Winchester rifle, a "1 in a 1000" gun that is so perfect that the manufacturer won't even sell it. While in town, the man runs into the outlaw who killed his mentor and when he beats him in the shooting contest, the fiend jumps him and leaves town with the Winchester. As the marksman hunts his enemy, the rifle makes a journey of its own as it changes hands across the old west. Anthony Mann's Winchester '73 is a fast paced Western with an interesting original concept in the story of both the journey of the hero and his weapon. Jimmy Stewart gives his usual commanding performance in the lead and Shelley Winters contributes a fine performance as well as a young singer who keeps crossing paths with Stewart during the course of his journey. Also, the way the story is structured allows for some nice characterizations. I felt the mountain ridge shootout at the end was anticlimactic, but all and all this is a brisk and enjoyable Western.