MP - Red River

In the film, “Red River”, the two characters Tom Dunson and his adopted son Matthew Garth are alpha male cowboys who make a cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. Matthew comes into Tom’s life after Indians raid a train and Tom takes him in. These two men, although both alpha males, are seemingly opposites of one another.
Tom Dunson comes across as being tough and rugged, just like the environment he is placed in. When he finds a place to settle his ranch, he shoots someone just for saying he cannot have the land. Living by the law of the gun, Dunson sees himself as being invincible. Tompkins points out that “The Western doesn’t have anything to do with the West as such. It isn’t about the encounter between civilization and the frontier. It is about men’s fear of losing their mastery, and hence their identity, both of which the Western tirelessly reinvents” (Tompkins 45). Through the film, Dunson most remains silent which is the alpha male’s method of talking – simply not doing it. Dunson seems to live by his own rules, not duty based ethics. Instead of doing things because he needs to or people are depending on him to do so, he does things that he feels is necessary in the moment. Acting on a whim has become life for him in the West since he is the only person he has to depend on. When Matthew comes into the picture, Dunson has almost no idea how to work with or communicate with another individual since everything has to be his way.
The second alpha male in this film is Matthew Garth who is everything that Dunson is not. Garth operates on the duty based ethics system. When he kills, he does it due to another person’s life being in danger. As Matheson points out that, “on the frontier where vices becomes virtues, however, it is not surprising that proponents of a duty-based system often find that their virtues have turned into liabilities” (902). However, Garth also doesn’t communicate effectively just like Dunson. When Garth takes over Dunson’s position with the cattle driving, he truly shows his alpha male cowboy side. He easily is in control and has the respect of others. Arguably, this is because Matthew lives by duty based ethics and the men following him know that in any given circumstance, he would do the correct thing. When Tom turns on Matthew and wants to fight him to the death, Matthew only is willing to go along with it in order to settle things in the way he feels is appropriate based on the situation.
During the entire movie, Tom Dunson and Matthew Garth are at a battle for the top alpha male position but in the end, they end up being two completely different versions of the alpha male. While Tom Dunson lives by his own code, doing what he feels is best for himself, Matthew lives by duty based ethics and shows this when he is only willing to take action towards individuals when he feels it is necessary to save someone else.