John Ford's Rio Grande: Momism, the Cold War, and the American Frontier

Abstract

Undoubtedly, John Ford's Rio Grande can be regarded as a prime example of the so-called Cold War Western. Released in November 1950, the film was read by many film critics as the director's right-wing statement on the Korea crisis. Sharing this view, my analysis will show to what a high degree Rio Grande supported the conservative gender politics of American postwar society, which, as Elaine Tyler May and others persuasively argue, fought communism not· only in remote parts of the world but also and especially in the family, with women, and mothers in particular, blamed for involuntarily supporting the 'red' infiltration.