DB - Red River

In the 1948 western classic Red River, starring John Wayne, there are two alpha male cowboys instead of the prototypical lone hero of the western genre. The first alpha male cowboy, Thomas Dunson, is introduced in the opening scene. In this very first scene, it is established that he is a crack shot, he is a loner as opposed to a member of a group, he operates on his own set of morals and values as opposed to conforming to social norms, and he has a love interest. The opening scene, in many ways, feels like watching the ending of a different movie, the conclusion of one adventure before moving on to the next. In Dunson’s case, the next adventure was to build himself a cattle ranch in Texas, the biggest in the territory. Dunson had told his love interest to stay with the wagon train, and that at some point he would send for her. However, shortly after embarking on his journey, he discovers that the wagon train has been attacked, and that the love of his life had died. He finds out she is dead when he recovers a piece of jewelry on the body of an Indian he killed, which the Indian had presumably taken from the woman after killing her. Continuing his journey, he happens upon the second alpha male cowboy in the film, Matthew Garth. Garth, at this time a young boy, recounts escaping from the wagon train when the Indians attacked. Dunson essentially adopts Matthew. The film then fasts forward fourteen years in the future, where Matt is now a grown man and Dunson’s ranch is fully established.

Matt, despite seeming in many ways to be an alpha male cowboy at this time, has not quite reached that point. He still takes orders from Dunson, rather than making decisions for himself. Upon leaving with Dunson and the others to begin the cattle drive, Matt slowly comes into his own as a man and an alpha male cowboy who follows a strict duty based code of ethics, while Dunson descends into a sort of moral ambiguity in which he is neither good nor evil, straddling the line between and following a more self serving code of ethics. Matt truly shows himself to be an alpha male cowboy when he seizes control of the cattle drive from Dunson, after determining that Dunson is no longer mentally fit to run it due to stress and exhaustion. Matt’s willingness to ignore Dunson’s authority, to challenge Dunson, shows that he has become an alpha male cowboy. Both men, it is clear, are alpha male cowboys. They both value non-verbal communication, they both are crack shots, they both command respect from those around them, they both do what it takes to get a job done, regardless of danger to themselves.