I think I was all of about ten years old the last time I saw El Dorado. All I remember is that it didn’t make much of an impact on me. I think the same thing happened with the critics when it was originally released, too. Fortunately, after having watched it again after all these years, I can proudly say that the 
hand of time has been quite kind to Howard Hawks’ western. In fact, El Dorado might be better now than it was 43 years ago.
Legendary gunslinger Cole Thornton (John Wayne) is back in the town of El Dorado, called in by shady rancher Bart Jason (Ed Asner) to settle a few things with the McDonald family. Thornton’s old friend, sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum) stops to pay his old buddy a visit, informing him that the whole arrangement isn’t kosher, and that it would inevitably pit them against each other. Wisely, Thornton passes the job, but still manages to receive a crippling, wounded by a headstrong member of the 
McDonald family (played the beautiful Michele Carey) in the process.
Some months later, Thornton meets up with a young greenhorn called Mississippi (James Caan) who is out to settle a debt with a scar-faced scoundrel by the name of McLeod. Smoothing things out as best he can before the shit really hits the fan, Thornton learns that McLeod has filled the post he himself left behind. Worse still, our aging hero discovers that his old pal Harrah has since become an inveterate alcoholic, and that he would be no match against McLeod and his men. And so, Thornton and 
Mississippi head back to El Dorado to sober Harrah up (leading to one of the funniest moments in film) and to take on the bad guys. Arthur Hunnicutt turns in a memorable performance as Harrah’s ornery horn-tooting deputy Bull and Charlene Holt is on hand as the platonic love interest for both of the old cowboys.
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