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El Dorado, like Howard
Hawks’ earlier film Rio Bravo, dwells heavily upon an enthralling
camaraderie between three heroes who lightheartedly brave a serious
predicament, and along with several supporting players form a family-like
bond that helps prevail over antagonism. To take comparisons a step
further, Ricky Nelson plays a character named Colorado, while James
Caan plays the equivalent character, named Mississippi. The similarities
don’t stop there, especially with several other roles being
almost exactly duplicated by different actors (perhaps not surprising
since writer Leigh Brackett penned both screenplays and many consider
it to be a loose remake). But like most of John Wayne’s films,
his stalwart stagger, confident mannerisms and humorously biting
dialogue never tires. Add to that the only teaming of Wayne and
unforgettable actor Robert Mitchum and El Dorado becomes a western
well worth visiting.
Cole Thornton (John Wayne) strolls into town to take a job with
Bart Jason (Edward Asner) until he’s confronted by longtime
friend J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum), who is now the sheriff of
El Dorado. When Cole learns that his talents with a gun are meant
to stop J.P., he rides to Jason’s ranch to personally turn
down the man who has been plotting to swindle neighboring family
the MacDonald’s out of their land. |
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Months pass and Cole
finds himself in a saloon in Sonora and helping a young man named
Alan Bourdillion Traherne (James Caan), dubbed Mississippi for short,
who is on a mission of revenge. Cole discovers that one of the most
notorious gunfighters, Nelse McLeod (Christopher George), has been
hired to dispose of J.P., now a broken-down drunk after having irreparable
woman troubles. Cole once again journeys back to El Dorado, this
time with the help of Mississippi, to stop Bart Jason and his men
and to sober up the sheriff.
El Dorado doesn’t stray too far from standard John Wayne western formula (and at the time a Hawksian template), using rather silly schemes and none-too-serious plans to thwart the very serious villains. A theme song sung by George Alexander permeates the film based on Harry Brown’s novel “The Stars and Their Courses,” and the heroes take quite a beating without ever taking a breather. This film in particular has more violence than previous Wayne films, especially when Mississippi unleashes his destructive miniature shotgun. El Dorado excels at character development, taking its time fleshing out every single role so that each action and line of dialogue is fully supported. While even the minor characters get plenty of screentime, occasionally the film loses sight of all gravity, falling back on odd bits of humor (including some completely unnecessary racism), parody and playful verbal battles, dragging out the time between more suspenseful shootouts. Wayne’s name and lighting fast gunslinger capabilities always precede him, gutsy taunts continually escape his weathered face (“they don’t look tough enough to me to stomp a stringy jackrabbit,” Cole scoffs at Jason’s hired guns), everyone has nifty nicknames (Bull, Mississippi, The Swede) and the villains are above typical lifeless cardboard cutouts (George is especially calm and menacing, while Asner is underhanded and overconfident). It isn’t the best of Hawks’ westerns, but missing the teaming of The Duke and the unflinching, uncaring Mitchum would be too much of a shame. - Mike Massie
The El Dorado two-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English, French and Spanish Mono and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Bonus material includes: Disc One |
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