El Dorado

Big heavyweight movie all round.

Directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne & Robert Mitchum, it's safe to say that El Dorado comes with some pretty tough credentials. Thankfully the expectation that comes with such a teaming is well and truly met. The plot is a familiar one in the context of Wayne & Hawks, if you have seen Rio Bravo? And liked it? The chances are you will like this one too.

Wayne is Cole Thornton, a hired gun who is asked to come on the payroll of El Dorado landowner Bart Jason (Ed Asner), who is involved with a land struggle with the MacDonald family. Cole finds his old friend J.P. Harrah (Mitchum) is sheriff of the town, and J.P. advises his old pal that any involvement with Jason will result in J.P. enfor...

Definitely one of Howard Hawks' better collaborations with John Wayne. A reasonably strong story about a rancher and his family trying to defy an avaricious and violent Ed Asner ("Bart Jason") who is trying to take over everything he can. There are similarities with "Rio Bravo" (1959) but I think here there is more tangible chemistry between Wayne ("Thornton") and Robert Mitchum as the washed-up drunk of a sheriff (JP Harrah"). James Caan brings some cheeky charm to his role as the shotgun-toting and poetry-spouting "Mississippi" and Arthur Hunnicutt takes on the reliable foil role (often played by Walter Brennan) entertainingly as "Bull" - complete with his bullet-dented bugle. As ever with these films, the leading ladies have virtually no...