DG "Red River"

In the film "Red River", the two main characters Tom Dunson and Matthew Garth are in constant struggle for male dominance. Dunson, played by John Wayne, is a tough cowboy who is the leader of the cattle drive. He is a complete alpha male cowboy in all senses of the phrase. He takes "nothing from nobody" - as is seen when he just takes acres of land from a mexican man who owns it - and only plays by his rules. AS Tompkins writes in her book about the cowboy being macho, "Drawing on Octavio Paz's definition of the macho as 'a hermetic being, closed up in himself" (56). This exactly what Dunson represents. Throughout the cattle drive he takes no advice from any of his subordinates, including Garth, into consideration. He keeps all of his thoughts and the burden of the huge task of the drive to Missouri to himself. This causes him to be a tough guy or "macho man". Dunson also displays his male dominance by always being true to his word and ruthless in his actions. In Matheson's "The West-Hardboiled", she writes, "In the West, a man 'who settles his own problems' is indeed the sum of his actions" (897). In the beginning of the movie, Dunson asks the men who participate in the cattle drive to sign a contract, and that once they do, they can never go back on the agreement. Throughout the movie, the men who try to abandon the drive are punished accordingly by Dunson (which means being shot or whipped). Through the sum of his actions and being true to his word, Dunson exerts himself as an alpha male cowboy.
Although Matthew Garth is in many ways a drastically different man then Dunson, he is stil an alpha male cowboy in the movie as well. But, he is in a different, neo-cowboy kind of way. Garth is always being called soft by Dunson for the way he stands up for the men Dunson tries to punish during the movie. Although Dunson might think this, Garth is not soft, but is rather living on a set of principles that are beyond Dunson's understanding. ALthough Matheson describes that in "Wayne's West virtue ethics is inverted so that "character traits generally considered elsewhere to be vices become virtues" (900), some of Aristotle's original virtues can be used by a cowboy to make him a dominant figure. This is exactly what Garth does during the movie by showing compassion and treating the men under him with respect. This is proved to work in the film because during the cattle drive, all of the men who started out working for Dunson trying to make it to Missouri desert him and follow Garth to Abilene. Red River reveals a transition from Dunson's old alpha male cowboy ways to Garth's new way of becoming the dominant male. As Matheson states, "characters achieve their full human potential, living what may be considered a hardboiled,existential version of the good life, a life that in its completeness is both admirable and desirable to others" (900). Garth exemplifies this by being the usual tough, rugged cowboy whose actions show his character, but also by being an understanding man who's way of life is desirable by others. Garth's male dominance is then solidified at the very end of the movie when Dunson passes the torch to him finally gives his approval for Garth to become the owner of the cattle ranch. This, therefore makes him an alpha male cowboy as well.