KLR Red River

Describing a man or a character as being an “alpha male” usually means he’s important or has authority in some way. Applying that idea to Western films, the alpha male in a film usually “sticks out.” In Red River, the two most dominant male figures are that of Tom Dunson and Matthew Garth. From the very beginning of the film to the very last scene, their dominant personalities radiate off the screen. Despite all of the men in the film being “cowboys,” it is easy to differentiate between the followers and the leaders.
In Sue Matheson’s article The West-Hardboiled, she argues that a cowboy’s “fanatic devotion to duty” makes him the ideal American male. This quality leads him to “ignore his wife, his children, and the law” (889). In Red River, although the men don’t have families, they both at some point encountered a woman he loved. Dunson leaves his woman at the very beginning of the film, saying that there was no stopping him from starting his own cattle ranch. In his final goodbye to his beloved, his girl shows her emotions and even cries. Dunson acts like a man and walks away with no second thoughts. Although Garth takes until the end of the movie to fully be considered an “alpha male,” he ends up falling in love and then leaving her as well, proving he puts his duty of being a man and fulfilling his duty before his own emotions.
Matheson also makes a point about the savage nature of cowboys on Western Territory. Because the American Frontier is a violent place, the story line is “concerned with man’s savage nature rather than mankind’s ability to domesticate nature itself” (891). From the very first time Matthew meets Tom, Matthew is prepared to kill him with his gun. However, being unprepared, Tom snatches the gun from his hand in an instant. When they finally reach Texas (and some opposition to taking the land), Tom simply kills Don Diego’s man. Throughout their journey, anyone who wanted to quit would get shot by Tom. Towards the end, Matthew becomes more open to being more violent by taking over the disciplinary responsibilities. Even at the end of the film, Tom tries to get revenge on Matthew by physically fighting him. The alpha male cowboy anticipates danger before it happens and acts upon that intuition before his opponent does, which marks one of the most dominant characteristics of an alpha male cowboy: facing violence.
In Jane Tompkins’ West of Everything, she dedicates a chapter to Women and the Language of Men. One of her most important ideas is that when a man speaks of his inner feelings, it “jeopardizes his status as potent being, for talk dissipates presence, takes away the mystery of an ineffable self which silence preserves” (60). When Matthew’s girl tries to tell him of the importance of talking in the foggy woods, he shrugs off that idea as if it were ridiculous. When she knows why he’s scared of Dunson, Matthew is surprised that she knows in the first place. But he eventually starts talking to her, letting her know how he loves Dunson.
Throughout the movie, it is evident that there are two dominant cowboys. The constant alpha male is Dunson, the experienced cowboy who knows how to deal with any situation. Throughout this time, Matthew Garth was the one who was learning how to be developed into the superior cowboy, because he does do a couple of things throughout that don’t exactly fit with the “alpha” part. However, by the end of the film, especially when Dunson adds his initial to the brand, it’s clear that he’s learned from the best and can fully be considered the second “alpha male” cowboy in the story of the 1,000 mile cattle drive to Missouri.