El Dorado Summary
Director: Howard Hawks
Genres: Western
Rating:
Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio_Bravo, Howard_Hawks more or less remade the picture twice in the 1960s. The first of these rehashes was El Dorado, with Rio_Bravo star John_Wayne back for more. Wayne plays a gunfighter who rides into El Dorado to link up with his old pal, sheriff Robert_Mitchum ("It's the big one with the big two!" declared the film's advertisements). Wayne has turned down a job with evil land baron Ed_Asner, who'd hoped to drive a family off the land that he needed for its water. That family, headed by R.G. Armstrong, is convinced that Wayne is working with Asner; when Armstrong's son Johnny_Crawford dies, Wayne is held responsible, earning him a bullet in the spine from Crawford's sister Michele_Carey. A year passes: Wayne returns to El Dorado, in the company of his new saddle pal James_Caan. They find that Asner is still up to his old tricks, and that Mitchum has descended into alcoholism. Several plot twists and power shifts ensue, leading to the slam-bang climax, with the partially paralyzed Wayne, the newly crippled Mitchum (on crutches), and the concussion-suffering Caan battling together to stave off Asner's minions. The final long-shot, of Wayne and Mitchum limping off together arm-in-arm, is one of the most enduring images in the entire Hawks canon. If they loved it twice they'll love it thrice: in 1969, John_Wayne and Howard_Hawks teamed up for a third Rio_Bravo derivation, Rio_Lobo--which, like the first two films, was scripted by Leigh_Brackett. Incidentally, that's famed artist Olaf_Weighorst (whose paintings appear in the title sequence) in a cameo as the gunsmith. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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