Red River

Red River
An unusual cast choice in the western Red River was underway, rather than one self proclaimed alpha male the writer chose to go with two alpha males fighting to become the only alpha male in the movie. But throughout the movie it is evident that there are two alpha males, Tom Dunson and Matthew Garth. Tom being the father, the superior, the mentor, and Matt being the adopted son, the student, although this makes it easier to outline the righteous alpha male since Tom is the elder, it doesn’t transpire to be so simple. An example of that is the drawing of the gun, even though in the beginning Tom could draw the gun the fastest, Matt learnt the way and drew it even faster. It s almost like a friendly banter, yet it holds so much importance to both the men. They are not striving to do the best, but actually to be the best, which is why so much was at stake for both of them. The older versus the younger generation, while Tom holds the key of knowledge to being an alpha male, Matt holds the determinacy to overtake Tom, thus he takes over the ranch. They both hold the rights to be the alpha male as they both depict a statement in the Matheson perfectly. “The hero’s fanatic devotion to duty- which makes him the ideal American male—leads him to ignore his wife, his children and the law.” In the cases of Tom and Matt, they both ignore the women they love as their duties to the ranch is of more significance, they also embody the statement through the fact that they ignore the “law” in the movie it’s more of a social law, the younger respects the elder and the elder tries to make the younger the best, instead they disregard it and compete with each other.