Rio Lobo [Blu-ray] [1970] [Region Free]

This 1970 western marked the end of director Howard Hawks carrer. Although this film is not as good as the previous classic Hawks westerns(Red River, Rio Bravo or El Dorado) and this one as a story line similar to Rio Bravo and El Dorado, it is a nice western one of the last made in a classic Hollywood style.
Beguining at the end of the civil war with a fantastic train robbing sequence, Rio Lobo gives Wayne one more chance to display his carisma and blow off the screen the young actors that appear in this picture.
Also with veteran Jack Elam in an amusing role that reprises the Walter Brennan caracther in Rio Bravo.
The dvd presents a nice copy of the film with mono sound and lots of subtitles but being one of Hawks and Waynes westerns and the last film of the director it should have had a documentary. Essential for Wayne/Western/Hawks fans.

Among the great Howard Hawks` westerns, it tends to be Red River, Rio Bravo and El Dorado which are (rightly) lauded, while this final Hawks film is simply overlooked or damned with faint praise. This is a shame as I`ve always loved Rio Lobo, not as some kind of last gasp but as a superb `Civil War western` in its own right.
Wayne is at his most relaxed, in the role of a Yankee colonel in the dying days of the war, who - after the event - befriends two young Confederates guerillas, played well by Jorge Rivera and fresh-faced Chris (son of Robert) Mitchum. The plot has them hook up, against their will, with a feisty, flirty young girl played with an enthusiasm which excuses her gaucheness as an actress, by Jennifer O`Neill. Then they all set off for the terrorised town of Rio Lobo to seek out a traitor from the war, and generally clean up the place. Watching Wayne `clean up the place` is a cathartic delight, let me tell you.
Jack Elam is endlessly watchable as a grizzled old loner - who helps them - with an itchy trigger finger and a taste for whisky.
Hawks was a director who loved to portray a group of disparate people with a shared goal, not always seeing eye to eye but respecting each other`s professionalism or merely accepting each other`s flaws.
This might not be as tightly constructed as Rio Bravo, or as great a film as Red River, but it`s a rare treat all the same. There are some nice gags at the expense of the Duke`s age (he was 63 by now, with only a decade to live with the cancer that ravaged his mighty frame) and he himself gives one of his most genial and avuncular performances, as if he`s watching over the impetuous youngsters in his care. He takes mock-offense at being called `comfortable` by Shasta (the O`Neill character) and the final line of the film revives the joke.
I love Rio Lobo, sometimes more than I love Rio Bravo, which can seem a little too neat and wrapped-up. Hawks - who never received the slightest acknowledgement from the Academy for his consistently brilliant work in several genres - made endlessly enjoyable films, and was quite obviously a wise and good director of actors. You can tell they tended to trust him just by watching the films.
Rio Lobo is the swansong of a uniquely great director. Those who`ve awarded this film a measly two, or even three, stars must be either crazy or - well, let`s leave it at crazy.
The biggest recommendation I can give is that I watch this film regularly, and it never disappoints or seems stale.

Out of Paramount Pictures, Rio Lobo is directed and produced by Howard Hawks (the last film he would direct) and stars John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jeniffer O'Neill, Jack Elam & Christopher Mitchum. It's written by Leigh Brackett & Burton Wohl, musically scored by Jerry Goldsmith and photographed by William H. Clothier on location at Cuernavaca, Mexico & Tuscon, Arizona. It's the third film in a loose trilogy by Hawks & Wayne that follows Rio Bravo (1959) & El Dorado (1966). Plot follows Wayne as Union officer Cord McNally who loses gold shipments (via the railway) to Confederate guerrillas led by Pierre Cordona (Rivero) & Tuscarora Phillips (Mitchum). It's the start of a relationship that will see all parties end up in Rio Lobo, Texas, where a traitor and a despotic sheriff are in their midst.

Rio Lobo is easily the weakest Western that Hawks made with Duke Wayne. He himself would say that he didn't like the film, felt it wasn't any good, while Wayne himself was quoted as saying that he had already made the film twice before. Almost everything about Rio Lobo is tired, from the formula of the story to Wayne sleepwalking thru a role that held no challenge, it's a poor send off for one of America's finest directors. The script is solid enough, with many Hawksian themes evident; and it's nice to see the three lady characters be important to the story, but the cast put around Wayne are poor and out of their depth and this rubs off on the normally professional Wayne who finds he has nothing to act off of.

It's not a total stinker, tho, certainly Clothier's photography and Goldsmith's score are worthy of investing time with, and the lead off sequence involving the train robbery is well put together and stirs the adrenalin. Sadly the film is never able to reach those heights again, with the ending a rather tame affair that doesn't do justice to the bitter revenge tone that Hawks has steered the film towards. Of the sub-standard support cast there's only Jack Elam who is worth watching, be it for comedy value or for just giving it some gusto. All told the film just about comes out as watchable Sunday afternoon fodder. A running theme in the film sees fun poked at the ageing Wayne's expense, one of which involves the word comfortable. That is an apt word to use for Rio Lobo, because director and star are in the comfort zone, comfortably making an unchallenging and old hat movie. 5/10