Andrew Goodman "Red River"

Red River, a 1948 Western film chronicling a one thousand mile cattle drive from Texas to Missouri (and ultimately to Kansas) in 1865 contains two alpha male cowboys. These two alpha male cowboys are Tom Dunson (John Wayne), a self-made cattle baron, and Matthew “Matt” Garth (Montgomery Clift), Dunson’s adopted son. Tom Dunson is an alpha male cowboy in the traditional sense of the phrase: in the West, “[o]nly the fittest, the strongest, and the most ruthless survive” (Matheson 891). As the film opens in 1851, Dunson, after (predictably) abandoning the woman who loves him, travels to Texas with his partner, Groot. They soon determine that the wagon train carrying Dunson’s love has been attacked by Indians, leaving only one survivor: the young Matt Garth. Soon after they find suitable land upon which to develop a cattle operation, Dunson, Groot, and Matt are confronted by two men who tell them that the land belongs to another man. Dunson quickly kills one of the men as he “draw[s] a gun faster than anyone else” (Matheson 891). Thus, Dunson is a traditional alpha male cowboy as “[i]n the West, a man ‘who settles his own problems’ is indeed the sum of his actions” (Matheson 897).
Matt Garth, shown briefly as a young orphan and mainly as a Civil War veteran in his mid twenties, is an alpha male cowboy as he is raised by Dunson to “draw a gun faster than anyone else” (Matheson 891). Thus, in many ways, Matt is very similar to Dunson. However, at the same time, some of his actions differ notably from those of Dunson. According to Jane Tompkins, “[i]n Westerns, facing death and doing something with your life become one and the same thing” (31). In embarking on the cattle drive, both Matt and Dunson follow this requirement of the alpha male cowboy. They risk their lives by traveling through “Indian country” in order to find a market for more than nine thousand head of cattle. Additionally, both Matt and Tom are shown to “distrust language” (Tompkins 49) as they abandon women who love them rather than speak with them. According to Tompkins, in Westerns “words…cannot express the truth about things” (53). The alpha male cowboy simply does not “speak of his inner feelings [as this] not only admits parity with the person he is talking to, but it jeopardizes his status as [a] potent being, for talk dissipates presence, [and] takes away the mystery of an ineffable self which silence preserves” (Tompkins 60).
Matt only kills when either his life or the life of another is being threatened. He does not kill for payback or for revenge. Thus, he refuses to allow Dunson to hang the men who desert the cattle drive, takes the cattle from Dunson, and heads for Kansas (rather than Missouri) even as Dunson promises to kill him. Additionally, although Matt abandons Tess Millay after saving her during the Indian raid, he speaks with her in detail about the cattle drive. Thus, although he clearly distrusts language, Matt is capable of expressing himself after much prodding, while Dunson is incapable of such an action. Finally, as the film concludes, Dunson reaches Kansas after Matt sells the cattle. Apparently, he has come to kill Matt and the two begin to fight. Tess Millay scolds them for failing to admit that they love one another and would never hurt each other. This is an important aspect of the alpha male cowboy that they share as, according to Tompkins, “‘not talking is a demonstration of masculine control over emotion’” (56). Dunson and Matt, although notably different in some regards, are both alpha male cowboys as they are expert marksmen, they face death, and they are shown to distrust language.