I never really warmed up to this movie. I have stated before elsewhere that it was a shame that this was the final Howard Hawks movie, because everyone, including Wayne, seems to be just going through the motions. In particular I singled out Jennifer O'Neill. She may have been better in other movies (I actually can't recall any other movie except "Scanners" which I watched because I love movies of Philip K. Dick's work). But here I thought she was pretty bad. I'm on record as saying she could have been replaced by a mannequin and no one would have noticed the difference.
I'm not entirely down on Christopher Mitchum, but he wasn't the equal to his daddy, that's for sure. Jorge Rivera was pretty good, but, really, a Mexican officer in the Confederate army? Maybe I just don't know my history, but it doesn't seem likely. Maybe a private...