DVD Review: El Dorado (1968) - Centennial Collection

Written by Fantasma el Rey

El Dorado was directed and produced by legendary director Howard Hawks and stars western great John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. It is one of a just a few oaters that Hawks would work on; three others starred Wayne as well: Red River, Rio Bravo, and Rio Lobo. The two together made some great westerns that rival the work that Wayne did for fellow directing legend John Ford. Now El Dorado has been released in a two-disc edition as part of the Centennial Collection from Paramount.

The story is a fairly simple one. A hired gun rides to town to assist in a war over water rights. While in town he is confronted and given the lowdown by the sheriff, who's an old friend, as to which ranch is “good” and which is “bad.” Now armed with the facts over said “war,” gunman decides to decline the offer made by bad rancher, rides on to leave the job to someone else. Little does he know that he will eventually be involved at a later date and fighting on the other side. That’s the plot in a nut shell. Not too complicated at all.

El Dorado is often seen as a remake of Hawks’ earlier work Rio Bravo, and for good reason. Wayne plays a fast-handed gunslinger of sorts in both films. Mitchum replaces Dean Martin as the drunk sheriff. The young James Caan is the new kid named after a state (Mississippi this time as opposed to Colorado), lending a helping hand. Arthur Hunnicutt is the old-timer along for support and some comic relief, aided in this version by the knife-throwing Caan character. There are also strong Hawksian women that can hold their own alongside such strong men. In El Dorado, we have the older, wise woman, played by Charlene Holt, who knows both sheriff and gunman, and the young, aggressive, slightly tomboy-ish, and highly attractive Michele Carey. Both add wonderfully to the film.

Similarities to Rio Bravo don’t end there as Leigh Brackett, who worked on both films, adapted the screenplay. A sheriff left devastated by a girl loses self in a bottle, an old friend and situation force him to sober up, and a young kid and old coot are aids. This time the band of four fights for the side that is right and wind up doing the majority of dirty work as the “good” rancher is out matched by his foe’s hired gun fighters. More plot matches include the capture and exchange of a man from both sides as the film comes to a climactic bullet-riddled conclusion. Hawks even stole scenes from himself: look at the saloon scene where a recently sober sheriff follows a fleeing suspect by blood trial.

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