Rio Lobo (1970)

I thought Rio Lobo had a good storyline, the action is good as is the acting, all in all a good JW western

i watched this for the first time last night and i thought it was an ok film. to my shame, i don t know a lot about the american civil war, so found it a bit confusing to begin with but once i got into the story i enjoyed it.
i do think though, that it was john wayne that carried the film. the women were annoying, mostly because they seemed to lack credible personalites and they seemed to jump in with their lines before jw had finished his.
thought jack elam was great and their were some great lines in it ...
Cord McNally: Ketcham, we promised you in a trade. But we didn't say what *condition* you'd be in!
Cord McNally: Mr. Phillips; you watch Ketchum while we go inside.
Phillips: Sure thing, Colonel. If you hear a loud noise, it'll be Mr. Ketchum dyin'.
on the whole, i think 7/10 is about right

i d like to add as well, i am so ashamed of my lack of knowledge on the american civil war that i have got some books out of the library on it!!!

Quote from badger

i d like to add as well, i am so ashamed of my lack of knowledge on the american civil war that i have got some books out of the library on it!!!

Badger, no worries. Most young Americans probably have no idea who Winston Churchill was or if the British invasion of the 60's was done with music or guns.

Quote from ShortGrub

Badger, no worries. Most young Americans probably have no idea who Winston Churchill was or if the British invasion of the 60's was done with music or guns.

yeah but all of a sudden its captured my imagination and i want to know more. do you really call the beatles, oasis etc... british invasion music? we just call it brit pop

Quote from badger

yeah but all of a sudden its captured my imagination and i want to know more. do you really call the beatles, oasis etc... british invasion music? we just call it brit pop

Many record, 8track, and cassette sets were labeled British Invasion with artists like the Stones, Beatles, Cream, The Who, etc.. on them.
I remember the people burning records over rock music.

On the Civil War subject, if you have any questions, myself or another here probably can answer them. I have visited all but a few of the major battle sites, and a majority of the minor ones. My book collection is extensive with American and British authors. Brit Col. Henderson's book on Stonewall Jackson is excellent.

The character differences I liked in Rio Lobo. Duke, Elam, and Mitchum are very different in style and screen presence and yet they blended well.

thanks shortgrub
well basically what was the civil war all about? how did it start and why? and where was it mostly fought out? was it geographical or ideological? has it made politics in america the way it is today ie would one side have been republicans and the other democrats?
anything at all really - also which are the best sites to look up
thanks

I know this post is off topic to Rio Lobo the movie, but it is to help Badger understand in context the theme behind the movies beginning.
Your understanding is appreciated.

http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer - Museum of the Confederacy

http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/index.html - Good timeline of events of the Civil War

http://www.nps.gov/history/ - US Park Service which has good history pages.


Just a few sites of many.

thanks shortgrub - i ll have a good look through these this afternoon... and you re right... it is to understand the background to rio lobo

Yup not the best but by far from the worst good sunday afternoon film after a couple of beers at the pub. Cant say fairer than that

I think Rio Lobo was one of the first movies I watched with John Wayne. I still like it but I cannot consider Rio Lobo as a great movie. The shootouts and Jack Elam are fun but the other cast round Duke are faceless. Maybe Duke looks so big in Rio Lobo because the others aren't the best actors and actresses. The ladies of Rio Lobo are like a beautiful decoration. I always appreciated that at the end also Duke gets a girl too.

What I really appreciate about Rio Lobo is the great Music Score from Jerry Goldsmith. Simple but good!

Of course there are better John Wayne Westerns but RIO LOBO is a good and entertaining Western.:teeth_smile:

Found some trivia on IMDB:

• Robert Mitchum declined an offer from Howard Hawks to reprise his El Dorado (1966) role in this film. He told Hawks the script was "an even bigger piece of crap than El Dorado."
• When John Wayne visits Bill Williams in the sheriff's office, there is a wanted poster on the wall for Hondo Lane, the character Wayne played in Hondo (1953).
• John Wayne was seriously ill during filming, and had great difficulty getting on and off his horse.
• Jack Elam, playing the "Old Man", was more than a decade younger than John Wayne.
• During a break in filming Wayne collected his Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969) from Barbra Streisand at The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970) (TV). When he returned, every member of the cast was wearing an eye patch - including his horse!

I wonder which role was Mitchum supposed to play.

JohnChisum: "During a break in filming Wayne collected his Best Actor Oscar for True Grit (1969) from Barbra Streisand at The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970) (TV). When he returned, every member of the cast was wearing an eye patch - including his horse!"

If you like this kind of trivia, you might enjoy this first-hand account by Bob Shelton of how he arranged the eye-patch surprise for JW at Old Tucson. The story occurs near the end of this 7 minute interview with Shelton:
http://homepage.mac.com/jannb8/wayne

Rio Lobo was a sad swan song for Howard Hawks and would have been better not made. A million miles away from Rio Bravo. I wish the Duke had chosen something more in keeping with his age. Same goes for the Undefeated. I wonder what other scripts he was being offered at the time?
Its a convoluted plot with just odd flashes of warmth and redeemed by Jack Elam who never gave a bad performance in his career. Its not one I'll want to add to my collection...

Definitely weak, but Duke and Elam save it. It would have benefited greatly by having another big name in the cast, either in Rivera's part or that of The Sheriff.

Really Duke & Elam were the only reasons to watch this. It's a fun time-killer, and I thought Duke still was fine in the starring role. Any failure of the film was not due to the star(s), but the script.

Again, it would have been great to have Ben Johnson, John Agar, and Chris George along for the ride. Jim Davis and Bill Williams were fine, but should have had bigger parts. Rivero sould have been replaced with anyone from Patrick Wayne to Glenn Campbell (can't believe I said that) and it would have been much better.

didnt like this film the first time i saw it but watched it again last night and really enjoyed it. can t understand why i didnt like it the first time. it has some really funny lines in it.
for example when the dentist givews him a shot and tells him he wouldnt have to do it if he d been a better actor and "if you hear a loud noise it ll just be mr ketchum dying." also, "we promised you in a trade. we didnt say what condition you d be in."
kind of classic john wayne. straight forward and good fun.

i also liked this western,it may not be one of john wayne's best,but it's fun to watch.did'nt like jorge rivero in the part of pierre cordona.he was to weak of an actor to play opposite john wayne.i would liked to see glenn corbett in that part.it does'nt matter if a john wayne film is good or bad i would still have it in my collection.

Quote from JohnChisum

Found some trivia on IMDB:

• Robert Mitchum declined an offer from Howard Hawks to reprise his El Dorado (1966) role in this film. He told Hawks the script was "an even bigger piece of crap than El Dorado."

Regarding the trivia above I believe this to be false as the wording used resembles that of a known troll on IMDB and this should be removed from their site.

One thing you have to keep in mind about IMDb is that the info in the trivia section is frequently false, and almost never fact-checked.

For example - what was the "serious illness" that JW had??Was this tidbit confused with what happened during The Undefeated? He broke 3 ribs after falling from his horse during that shoot (per Andrew McGlaglen), and he had shoulder issues the whole time...

Hawks was VERY bitter near the end of his career, and blaming Duke for the failure of RL was just inexcusable for someone of his stature.

As for having movies in your collection or not, if you're a fan, you take the good with the not so good...how else would know what of the body of work is truly incredible?!