Red River

Red River (1948) is Howard Hawks' great cattle-drive Western, free to watch online on iFILM. After the Civil War, rancher Thomas Dunson pushes a vast herd from Texas toward the Missouri railheads.

John Wayne plays Dunson, and the role gave him real shadows. The longer the drive grinds on, the more his iron will curdles into cruelty. His adopted son Matthew Garth — Montgomery Clift in his screen debut — finally pushes back, and the two men set a collision course no trail boss can talk them out of. Walter Brennan's cranky cook Groot, dwindling water, raiders and mutiny ride along with them.

Beneath the dust and longhorns, Hawks built a story about fathers, sons and the cost of being right at any price. The climactic showdown is still picked apart in film classes. Decades on, it sits among the finest Westerns ever shot. Stream Red River (1948) online on iFILM.