“I found some were faster than me with a short gun.” (Rio Bravo, 1:30:42).
While on the surface, a remark on his shortcomings with a pistol, the quote examines Sherriff Chance’s philosophy on law and order in Rio Bravo. In the traditional Hollywood trope, Chance is horribly outmanned by the lowlifes seeking to overtake the town, left to fend for himself with the “help” of a former master marksman tainted by his own conscience and an old man unable to distinguish between friend and foe. In a parallel to the Alger Hiss case, Chance has to fight a physical and psychological enemy.
Using any minor advantage that he can find with Dude a shell of his former self, shaking uncontrollably at the mere act of spreading tobacco, Chance is forced to take manners into his own hands and predictably to establish a heroic motif, events quickly go awry. While the end result for Chance is predictably celebratory, the process to reach vindication is quite an ordeal. In the Hiss case, Chambers found a modicum of justice by the end of the proceedings, as Hiss served time in prison. But Chambers reveals a striking assessment of the public’s opinion of the criminal mind. Much like in Rio Bravo, as numerous bandits joined the fight against Chance and his men, Chambers offers a damning blow to academia in his thoughts on Hiss’ defendants. “It was the enlightened and the powerful, the clamorous proponents of the open mind and the common man, who snapped their minds shut in a pro-Hiss psychosis.” (Chambers, 701) It was this sense of a pro-Hiss psychosis and a seeming anti-law enforcement sentiment in Rio Bravo that leads to the protagonists’ downfalls. Chance and Chambers are left to fight a physical enemy along with the psychological toll of a public looking to stop them from completing a mission.