Professionalism and Solidarity Among Colleagues
The protagonists of Howard Hawks's films are often portrayed as professionals who take pride in their work. They may be pilots, captains, journalists, gunfighters, or scientists, but they share a sense of responsibility and pride that drives them to perform their duties even under difficult conditions. Only Angels Have Wings shows the professional resolve of pilots risking their lives to carry mail, while in Rio Bravo a sheriff stubbornly refuses help because he must fulfill his own duty.
Hawks himself said that he liked the professionalism of people who did their jobs properly, and this is reflected in his work. Such characters give audiences exhilaration and confidence and provide the story with a firm core. Friendship and solidarity are equally important themes. Rather than a lone hero struggling unaided, his films often show a small team cooperating to confront adversity.
Functional groups appear across genres: the aircrew in Ceiling Zero, the sheriff's team in Rio Bravo, and the scientists in The Thing from Another World. Members exchange jokes and sometimes clash, but a firm trust binds them when it matters. Hawks's portrayal of a capable group is among his finest achievements, creating a comfort that makes viewers want to join the circle.
These themes of professionalism and solidarity remain largely constant throughout his career, though their expression changes. Early films sometimes show the tragic side of dying for one's professional mission. The young Hawks treated a hero's death dramatically, while his middle and later work emphasizes survival and the relationships that follow. Red River ends in reconciliation after a duel is avoided, while Rio Bravo lets every principal team member survive and connects its ending to hope for the future.
Relationships Between Men and Women and the Innovative “Hawksian Woman”
Relationships between men and women are another major theme. Hawks is especially known for intelligent, independent women, inspiring the term “Hawksian woman.” Hildy in His Girl Friday, Slim in To Have and Have Not, and Susan in Bringing Up Baby all possess presence and initiative equal to the male protagonist.
They are articulate and brave, flexible enough to use their appeal in pursuit of work or a goal. Interestingly, the men in Hawks's films treat such women as equal partners. The male protagonist may initially be pushed around by or resist a woman, but they gradually recognize each other and ultimately form a strong partnership. This can be seen as Hawks's ideal relationship: equality built on mutual respect and stimulation.
His women also reflect the limitations of their historical context. His films generally place one woman within a male society and, apart from exceptions such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, rarely show interaction among women. Though the Hawksian woman appears equal to men, she is generally attracted to the male protagonist and chooses a life with him at the end.
From another perspective, however, few Hollywood directors of the period portrayed strong women so appealingly, and that pioneering quality deserves recognition. Examples of their inspiration include François Truffaut's male-female trio in Jules and Jim, while more recently Greta Gerwig has also spoken about the influence of Hawks's films.
Humor and an Anti-Authoritarian Spirit
A spirit of humor always runs through Hawks's films. Even in serious war pictures, it appears in banter and practical jokes between characters. Hawks liked laughter and said he enjoyed films that made people laugh. Scenes in which companions laugh off a grave situation and thereby show courage frequently appear in his work.
In Hatari!, for example, men engaged in the dangerous work of capturing wild animals call one another by nicknames and trade jokes. The attitude is stylish and optimistic rather than self-sacrificing heroism. Hawks's humor is not absurd slapstick so much as humanity emerging from the appeal of his characters, consistent with his dislike of solemnity and pretension.
His characters frequently tease authoritarian or pretentious figures. His Girl Friday satirizes politicians and police, while Monkey Business treats self-important scientists comically. By laughing away hypocrisy and affectation, Hawks gave audiences catharsis. This anti-authoritarian attitude also helps keep his work fresh.
Across his life, Hawks did not significantly change his basic values. He consistently believed in human bonds, professional integrity, and the value of humor. Yet he could flexibly adjust settings and approaches to the atmosphere of an era. During wartime he addressed patriotic subjects, but even there his real theme was human relationships. After the war, while other directors moved toward social issues and psychological drama, Hawks remained committed to human drama within entertainment.
Profound Influence on Film History and Its Continuation Today
Through his films, Hawks profoundly influenced later directors and film culture as a whole. During his career, he did not receive the spectacular acclaim given to his contemporary Alfred Hitchcock. Yet in the late 1950s, French New Wave critics—including the young Godard and Truffaut, who would become directors—championed him enthusiastically and established a critical axis known as “Hitchcocko-Hawksianism.”
For them, Hawks embodied the essence of American cinema; Godard even called him the greatest of all American artists. As this assessment traveled back across the Atlantic, Hawks was reevaluated in the United States. Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema (1968) ranked him among the leading auteurs alongside Hitchcock and Ford.
His direct influence on other directors is equally clear. John Carpenter openly described Assault on Precinct 13 as an homage to Rio Bravo, adapting the defense of an isolated police station against attackers to a modern setting. Martin Scorsese's vivid portrayal of bonds among criminals in Goodfellas carries the dynamism of a Hawksian ensemble.
Robert Altman used intentionally overlapping dialogue in M*A*S*H and Nashville and said the technique was influenced by Hawks. Quentin Tarantino reportedly watches Hawks repeatedly when writing dialogue and calls Rio Bravo his film school. The light verbal exchanges and skilled genre mixtures that recur in Tarantino's work indeed bear Hawks's shadow.
Hawks's influence exists beyond remakes and quotations; it has entered filmmakers' creative DNA. Stories about colorful teams cooperating on a mission are common in contemporary action blockbusters and often belong to the lineage of the Hawksian team spirit. Television series have also inherited the ensemble format he pioneered. The convictions underlying his filmmaking—to trust one's colleagues, do one's best at a task, retain humor without pretension, and give audiences pleasure—remain a model for filmmakers today.
