Rio Bravo

[captainsolo]

Give me the old snapper DVD anyday. It may be a bit of an older master and a bit washed out but at least it's not trying way too hard to look more vintage filmlike in terms of color. I have the BD reissue with the audio upgrade and it's merely bumping up the codec specs. It was a nice touch but like the upgrade on the Casablanca reissue doesn't do much if the source is filtered, EQd, de-hissed and the like.
I wish there had been a letterbox LD for RB but all we got was a 1.33 analog audio LD. I'm pretty sure the snapper case DVD master was originally intended for a final LD like The Cowboys got.

The remastering on RB seems to be from around the same 2006-2007 time of HD transition which also includes The Searchers and The Wild Bunch which both are in dire need of brand new from the ground up transfers.

I still hate that this enjoyable movie was cooked up as Hawks and Wayne's "response" to High Noon. RB is a movie pure and simple reveling in its unreality whereas High Noon is not just an intended parallel to the dark days of the blacklist but painfully aware of how an individual would be forced to go it alone in the face of overwhelming odds-and facing certain death for doing so. RB is a fun night at the movies and enjoys being a traditional Western-but one closeup of Coop's face in High Noon obliterates it.