Red River MR

At the beginning of Red River, there are not two alpha male cowboys; there is one alpha male cowboy and quasi alpha male cowboy. However, through the progression of the film Matt Garth becomes an alpha male cowboy by the end of the cattle drive. After the fourteen years that pass at the beginning of the film, we still cannot truly call him a real alpha male cowboy. He may have the skills of an alpha male cowboy, like a quick gun, but as Cherry Valance points out, unlike Tom Dunson, Matt is “soft.” This, according to Matheson and Tompkins cannot be the case. According to Matheson, an alpha male cowboy must have no qualms about doing what he feels needs to be done. Tom displays that he will do what needs to be done when he, along with Cherry and Matt, kills three men who simply want to leave the cattle drive. This had nothing to do with Matt though, who later responds that he probably should not have helped Tom. As Nadine Groot points out, “You were wrong Mr. Dunson.”

Although Matt is not an alpha male cowboy at the beginning of the film, he first displays the seeds of becoming one when he first meets Tom and points a gun at him. We do not see this again, however, until he mutinies against Tom and takes over the cattle drive. He does not do this for personal gain. He does it to save the lives of two men in the short term and everyone on the drive in the long term. If the cattle drive tries to cross into Missouri, they will almost certainly all by killed by bandits just over the border. Instead, Matt directs the drive toward Abilene, Kansas where he hopes to find a market for the herd. He still is not truly an alpha male cowboy yet, however, because he is still scared out of his mind of facing off with Tom when he comes back to kill Matt. The point at which he becomes an alpha male cowboy is when the faceoff with Tom finally comes. He does not draw his gun. He simply stands there while Tom outlines his body with lead, barely missing each time. He is fearless, because he knows that Tom will not kill him even though everyone says he will. For the last fourteen years, Tom taught him everything he knew and he could feel that that bond would not be broken. This is why he made sure that they used non-lethal force while fighting Tom. The alpha male cowboy knows what needs to be done and by not killing Tom or getting himself killed, Matt did what needed to be done. Not only did Tom teach Matt how to be a cowboy, he taught him how to be alpha male.