Rio Bravo is indubitably the best of Howard Hawks' westerns. It's hard to believe now that it didn't receive the recognition it deserved when it originally came out. But it didn't take too long for audiences and critics to realize they were witnessing a masterpiece in this film, and it got such a cult status that Hawks himself remade it twice later on (as El Dorado and Rio Lobo.) While the Duke gives one of his best performances in westerns as Sheriff John T. Chance, Dean Martin (as Dude) and Walter Brennan (as Stumpy) both steal the scenes as Wayne's sidekicks, one drunk and the other a bumbling one. John Carpenter (Escape from L.A., Ghosts of Mars) sort of remade Rio Bravo as an urban action-thriller called Assault on Precinct 13. Since that film came out shortly before this DVD, it may be a good time to compare the two masterpieces!